1:mod:`sgmllib` --- Simple SGML parser 2===================================== 3 4.. module:: sgmllib 5 :synopsis: Only as much of an SGML parser as needed to parse HTML. 6 :deprecated: 7 8.. deprecated:: 2.6 9 The :mod:`sgmllib` module has been removed in Python 3. 10 11.. index:: single: SGML 12 13This module defines a class :class:`SGMLParser` which serves as the basis for 14parsing text files formatted in SGML (Standard Generalized Mark-up Language). 15In fact, it does not provide a full SGML parser --- it only parses SGML insofar 16as it is used by HTML, and the module only exists as a base for the 17:mod:`htmllib` module. Another HTML parser which supports XHTML and offers a 18somewhat different interface is available in the :mod:`HTMLParser` module. 19 20 21.. class:: SGMLParser() 22 23 The :class:`SGMLParser` class is instantiated without arguments. The parser is 24 hardcoded to recognize the following constructs: 25 26 * Opening and closing tags of the form ``<tag attr="value" ...>`` and 27 ``</tag>``, respectively. 28 29 * Numeric character references of the form ``&#name;``. 30 31 * Entity references of the form ``&name;``. 32 33 * SGML comments of the form ``<!--text-->``. Note that spaces, tabs, and 34 newlines are allowed between the trailing ``>`` and the immediately preceding 35 ``--``. 36 37A single exception is defined as well: 38 39 40.. exception:: SGMLParseError 41 42 Exception raised by the :class:`SGMLParser` class when it encounters an error 43 while parsing. 44 45 .. versionadded:: 2.1 46 47:class:`SGMLParser` instances have the following methods: 48 49 50.. method:: SGMLParser.reset() 51 52 Reset the instance. Loses all unprocessed data. This is called implicitly at 53 instantiation time. 54 55 56.. method:: SGMLParser.setnomoretags() 57 58 Stop processing tags. Treat all following input as literal input (CDATA). 59 (This is only provided so the HTML tag ``<PLAINTEXT>`` can be implemented.) 60 61 62.. method:: SGMLParser.setliteral() 63 64 Enter literal mode (CDATA mode). 65 66 67.. method:: SGMLParser.feed(data) 68 69 Feed some text to the parser. It is processed insofar as it consists of 70 complete elements; incomplete data is buffered until more data is fed or 71 :meth:`close` is called. 72 73 74.. method:: SGMLParser.close() 75 76 Force processing of all buffered data as if it were followed by an end-of-file 77 mark. This method may be redefined by a derived class to define additional 78 processing at the end of the input, but the redefined version should always call 79 :meth:`close`. 80 81 82.. method:: SGMLParser.get_starttag_text() 83 84 Return the text of the most recently opened start tag. This should not normally 85 be needed for structured processing, but may be useful in dealing with HTML "as 86 deployed" or for re-generating input with minimal changes (whitespace between 87 attributes can be preserved, etc.). 88 89 90.. method:: SGMLParser.handle_starttag(tag, method, attributes) 91 92 This method is called to handle start tags for which either a :meth:`start_tag` 93 or :meth:`do_tag` method has been defined. The *tag* argument is the name of 94 the tag converted to lower case, and the *method* argument is the bound method 95 which should be used to support semantic interpretation of the start tag. The 96 *attributes* argument is a list of ``(name, value)`` pairs containing the 97 attributes found inside the tag's ``<>`` brackets. 98 99 The *name* has been translated to lower case. Double quotes and backslashes in 100 the *value* have been interpreted, as well as known character references and 101 known entity references terminated by a semicolon (normally, entity references 102 can be terminated by any non-alphanumerical character, but this would break the 103 very common case of ``<A HREF="url?spam=1&eggs=2">`` when ``eggs`` is a valid 104 entity name). 105 106 For instance, for the tag ``<A HREF="http://www.cwi.nl/">``, this method would 107 be called as ``unknown_starttag('a', [('href', 'http://www.cwi.nl/')])``. The 108 base implementation simply calls *method* with *attributes* as the only 109 argument. 110 111 .. versionadded:: 2.5 112 Handling of entity and character references within attribute values. 113 114 115.. method:: SGMLParser.handle_endtag(tag, method) 116 117 This method is called to handle endtags for which an :meth:`end_tag` method has 118 been defined. The *tag* argument is the name of the tag converted to lower 119 case, and the *method* argument is the bound method which should be used to 120 support semantic interpretation of the end tag. If no :meth:`end_tag` method is 121 defined for the closing element, this handler is not called. The base 122 implementation simply calls *method*. 123 124 125.. method:: SGMLParser.handle_data(data) 126 127 This method is called to process arbitrary data. It is intended to be 128 overridden by a derived class; the base class implementation does nothing. 129 130 131.. method:: SGMLParser.handle_charref(ref) 132 133 This method is called to process a character reference of the form ``&#ref;``. 134 The base implementation uses :meth:`convert_charref` to convert the reference to 135 a string. If that method returns a string, it is passed to :meth:`handle_data`, 136 otherwise ``unknown_charref(ref)`` is called to handle the error. 137 138 .. versionchanged:: 2.5 139 Use :meth:`convert_charref` instead of hard-coding the conversion. 140 141 142.. method:: SGMLParser.convert_charref(ref) 143 144 Convert a character reference to a string, or ``None``. *ref* is the reference 145 passed in as a string. In the base implementation, *ref* must be a decimal 146 number in the range 0--255. It converts the code point found using the 147 :meth:`convert_codepoint` method. If *ref* is invalid or out of range, this 148 method returns ``None``. This method is called by the default 149 :meth:`handle_charref` implementation and by the attribute value parser. 150 151 .. versionadded:: 2.5 152 153 154.. method:: SGMLParser.convert_codepoint(codepoint) 155 156 Convert a code point to a :class:`str` value. Encodings can be handled here if 157 appropriate, though the rest of :mod:`sgmllib` is oblivious on this matter. 158 159 .. versionadded:: 2.5 160 161 162.. method:: SGMLParser.handle_entityref(ref) 163 164 This method is called to process a general entity reference of the form 165 ``&ref;`` where *ref* is a general entity reference. It converts *ref* by 166 passing it to :meth:`convert_entityref`. If a translation is returned, it calls 167 the method :meth:`handle_data` with the translation; otherwise, it calls the 168 method ``unknown_entityref(ref)``. The default :attr:`entitydefs` defines 169 translations for ``&``, ``&apos``, ``>``, ``<``, and ``"``. 170 171 .. versionchanged:: 2.5 172 Use :meth:`convert_entityref` instead of hard-coding the conversion. 173 174 175.. method:: SGMLParser.convert_entityref(ref) 176 177 Convert a named entity reference to a :class:`str` value, or ``None``. The 178 resulting value will not be parsed. *ref* will be only the name of the entity. 179 The default implementation looks for *ref* in the instance (or class) variable 180 :attr:`entitydefs` which should be a mapping from entity names to corresponding 181 translations. If no translation is available for *ref*, this method returns 182 ``None``. This method is called by the default :meth:`handle_entityref` 183 implementation and by the attribute value parser. 184 185 .. versionadded:: 2.5 186 187 188.. method:: SGMLParser.handle_comment(comment) 189 190 This method is called when a comment is encountered. The *comment* argument is 191 a string containing the text between the ``<!--`` and ``-->`` delimiters, but 192 not the delimiters themselves. For example, the comment ``<!--text-->`` will 193 cause this method to be called with the argument ``'text'``. The default method 194 does nothing. 195 196 197.. method:: SGMLParser.handle_decl(data) 198 199 Method called when an SGML declaration is read by the parser. In practice, the 200 ``DOCTYPE`` declaration is the only thing observed in HTML, but the parser does 201 not discriminate among different (or broken) declarations. Internal subsets in 202 a ``DOCTYPE`` declaration are not supported. The *data* parameter will be the 203 entire contents of the declaration inside the ``<!``...\ ``>`` markup. The 204 default implementation does nothing. 205 206 207.. method:: SGMLParser.report_unbalanced(tag) 208 209 This method is called when an end tag is found which does not correspond to any 210 open element. 211 212 213.. method:: SGMLParser.unknown_starttag(tag, attributes) 214 215 This method is called to process an unknown start tag. It is intended to be 216 overridden by a derived class; the base class implementation does nothing. 217 218 219.. method:: SGMLParser.unknown_endtag(tag) 220 221 This method is called to process an unknown end tag. It is intended to be 222 overridden by a derived class; the base class implementation does nothing. 223 224 225.. method:: SGMLParser.unknown_charref(ref) 226 227 This method is called to process unresolvable numeric character references. 228 Refer to :meth:`handle_charref` to determine what is handled by default. It is 229 intended to be overridden by a derived class; the base class implementation does 230 nothing. 231 232 233.. method:: SGMLParser.unknown_entityref(ref) 234 235 This method is called to process an unknown entity reference. It is intended to 236 be overridden by a derived class; the base class implementation does nothing. 237 238Apart from overriding or extending the methods listed above, derived classes may 239also define methods of the following form to define processing of specific tags. 240Tag names in the input stream are case independent; the *tag* occurring in 241method names must be in lower case: 242 243 244.. method:: SGMLParser.start_tag(attributes) 245 :noindex: 246 247 This method is called to process an opening tag *tag*. It has preference over 248 :meth:`do_tag`. The *attributes* argument has the same meaning as described for 249 :meth:`handle_starttag` above. 250 251 252.. method:: SGMLParser.do_tag(attributes) 253 :noindex: 254 255 This method is called to process an opening tag *tag* for which no 256 :meth:`start_tag` method is defined. The *attributes* argument has the same 257 meaning as described for :meth:`handle_starttag` above. 258 259 260.. method:: SGMLParser.end_tag() 261 :noindex: 262 263 This method is called to process a closing tag *tag*. 264 265Note that the parser maintains a stack of open elements for which no end tag has 266been found yet. Only tags processed by :meth:`start_tag` are pushed on this 267stack. Definition of an :meth:`end_tag` method is optional for these tags. For 268tags processed by :meth:`do_tag` or by :meth:`unknown_tag`, no :meth:`end_tag` 269method must be defined; if defined, it will not be used. If both 270:meth:`start_tag` and :meth:`do_tag` methods exist for a tag, the 271:meth:`start_tag` method takes precedence. 272 273