# Htmltools incorrectly parsing HTML containing server-side ta

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/htmltools-incorrectly-parsing-html-containing-server-side-ta/99662>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 24, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/htmltools-incorrectly-parsing-html-containing-server-side-ta/99662 "2006-07-24T19:17:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/htmltools-incorrectly-parsing-html-containing-server-side-ta/99662/1 "2006-07-24T19:17:04Z")

</div>

I’m using HTML Tools 1.09 to parse HTML that contains tags that are to  
be processed by the web server. For example, here’s an image tag:

![this is a
seperator]()

The \<$DCGallery$\> will be replaced by some text when returned to the  
browser by the web server.

What I’m noticing is that HTMLTools doesn’t handle tags that contain an  
such an embedded tag. It seems to make an attempt at correcting what  
it sees as invalid HTML. So the above tag, after going through the  
parser and having a new class added, using:

element.add\_attribute(‘class’, ’ wide\_content’)

results in the following tag:

![]()\<$DCGallery$\>Separators/gtabseps.gif" alt=“this is  
a seperator”\>

The image tag is closed after the new class attribute and the  
server-side tag is duplicated and contains the alt attribute from the  
original image tag. Has anyone encountered such behavior?

I know that HTML Tools probably wasn’t built to handle HTML with  
embedded server-side tags, but for this project I need to process HTML  
before being served up by the web server. Shouldn’t HTML Tools ignore  
tags found within the quotes of the src attribute’s value? Is there an  
option or patch that might get HTML Tools to ignore tags found within  
the values of tag attributes?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/htmltools-incorrectly-parsing-html-containing-server-side-ta/99662/2 "2006-07-24T23:22:35Z")

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removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:

> I’m using HTML Tools 1.09 to parse HTML that contains tags that are to  
> be processed by the web server. For example, here’s an image tag:
> 
> ![this is a
> seperator]()

Is this valid html? From another thread:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/htmltools-incorrectly-parsing-html-containing-server-side-ta/99662/3 "2006-07-25T02:50:34Z")

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On 7/25/06, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I’m using HTML Tools 1.09 to parse HTML that contains tags that are to  
> be processed by the web server. For example, here’s an image tag:
> 
> ![this is a seperator]()

I’m not familiar with HTML Tools but it’s probably not reasonable to  
expect  
a html tool to parse bad html like that.

My lazy-arse solution would probably be to replace server tags  
\<$([^\>])$\>  
with something insanely unlikely, like {{{{{$1}}}}}. Then do whatever  
you  
want with HTML Tools, then once you’re done replace the {{{{{ }}}}} with  
angle brackets again.

Assuming curly brackets are ok with HTML Tools 🙂

;Daniel

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/htmltools-incorrectly-parsing-html-containing-server-side-ta/99662/4 "2006-07-25T03:30:54Z")

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William J. wrote:

> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:
> 
> > I’m using HTML Tools 1.09 to parse HTML that contains tags that are to  
> > be processed by the web server. For example, here’s an image tag:
> > 
> > ![this is a
> > seperator]()
> 
> Is this valid html?

Thank you for this information. I did a bit more research and now  
believe that this is not valid HTML. Read on…

> >

Unfortunately, escaping is not an option since the HTML files that are  
being parsed are being output from another closed system.

The question is: can HTML Tools be told to ignore “\<” and “\>” inside of  
attribute values? Or is there another HTML parser for Ruby that would  
handle this?

Alternatively, is there some method for finding these characters within  
attribute values and escaping them before parsing by Ruby and then  
un-escaping them after parsing (so that the server can perform the  
required processing of these PHP-like tags).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/htmltools-incorrectly-parsing-html-containing-server-side-ta/99662/5 "2006-07-25T06:07:29Z")

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sutch wrote:

> Thank you for this information. I did a bit more research and now
> 
> > > $ echo ‘’ | xmllint -  
> > > Alternatively, is there some method for finding these characters within  
> > > attribute values and escaping them before parsing by Ruby and then  
> > > un-escaping them after parsing (so that the server can perform the  
> > > required processing of these PHP-like tags).

Perhaps this will work.

str = \<\<HERE

 ![this is a separator]()HERE
# We will split the html string into an array of strings.

# Each member of the array will be an html comment, an

# html tag, or plain text.

re = %r{ ( |  
\< (?:  
[^\<\>"] +  
|  
" (?: \. | [^\"]+ ) \* "  
) \*  
\>  
) }xm

str.split( re ).each { |x|  
if “\<” == x[0,1] && “\<!” != x[0,2]  
# Since \> is o.k., change only \<.  
x[1…-2] = x[1…-2].gsub( /\</, “\<” )  
end

print x  
}