Parse HTML with Swiftsoup (Swift)?

Question

I'm trying to parse some websites with Swiftsoup, let's say one of the websites is from Medium. How can I extract the body of the website and load the body to another UIViewController like what Instapaper does?

Here is the code I use to extract the title:

import SwiftSoup

class WebViewController: UIViewController, UIWebViewDelegate {

...

override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        let url = URL(string: "https://medium.com/@timjwise/stop-lying-to-yourself-when-you-snub-panhandlers-its-not-for-their-own-good-199d0aa7a513")
        let request = URLRequest(url: url!)
        webView.loadRequest(request)

        guard let myURL = url else {
        print("Error: \(String(describing: url)) doesn't seem to be a valid URL")
            return
        }
        let html = try! String(contentsOf: myURL, encoding: .utf8)

        do {
            let doc: Document = try SwiftSoup.parseBodyFragment(html)
            let headerTitle = try doc.title()
            print("Header title: \(headerTitle)")
        } catch Exception.Error(let type, let message) {
            print("Message: \(message)")
        } catch {
            print("error")
        }

}

}

But I got no luck to extract the body of the website or any other websites, any way to get it work? CSS or JavaScript (I know nothing about CSS or Javascript)?

Scinfu · Answer 1 · 2018-03-07T12:03:34.467

3

Use function body https://github.com/scinfu/SwiftSoup#parsing-a-body-fragment Try this:

let html = try! String(contentsOf: myURL, encoding: .utf8)

    do {
        let doc: Document = try SwiftSoup.parseBodyFragment(html)
        let headerTitle = try doc.title()

        // my body
        let body = doc.body()
        // elements to remove, in this case images
        let undesiredElements: Elements? = try body?.select("img[src]")
        //remove
        undesiredElements?.remove()


        print("Header title: \(headerTitle)")
    } catch Exception.Error(let type, let message) {
        print("Message: \(message)")
    } catch {
        print("error")
    }

edited Mar 07 '18 at 12:03

answered Mar 07 '18 at 09:22

Scinfu

1,081
13
18

Thanks, @Scinfu. Yes, I did checked the document before asking for help. Maybe I didn't put it clearly enough. What I want to do is to extract the body without unnecessary elements. To extract body like the document (or what you posted), will have some unnecessary elements. I want it to be like what Instapaper or Pocket does. – Vincent Mar 07 '18 at 09:43
you have to manipulate the document and extract what you need. use css selector to find undesired elements doc.select("img[src$=.png]") and remore it with .remove() – Scinfu Mar 07 '18 at 11:54

Parse HTML with Swiftsoup (Swift)?

1 Answers1