# Markaby -\> Nokogiri Issue

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/markaby-nokogiri-issue/157526>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 12, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/markaby-nokogiri-issue/157526 "2009-01-12T18:14:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcsnide](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@tcsnide](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tcsnide)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/markaby-nokogiri-issue/157526/1 "2009-01-12T18:14:40Z")

</div>

I was using:

```
Markaby::Builder.new(&block)

```

And it was working fine except it wouldn’t let me use non-standard  
attributes on an img tag, which blows. I couldn’t find any way to  
deactivate this strictness, so I decided to try Nokogiri instead:

```
    Nokogiri::HTML::Builder.new(&block)

```

Unfortunately this doesn’t work at all, b/c it turns out Nokogiri does  
not seem to be using #instance\_eval on the block. Without doing so I  
don’t see how it can be at all useful. For example in my case I have  
method called #body:

```
def body(&block)
    Nokogiri::HTML::Builder.new do
      body(&block)
    end
end

```

By not using instance\_eval Nokogiri doesn’t recognize ‘body’ as a tag,  
but tries to call the method again, resulting in an infinite loop. So  
I think this is a bug in Nokogiri’s builder.

In the mean time, can anyone offer a work around? Or is there a way to  
turn off “strict-mode” for Markaby.

Thanks,  
T.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcsnide](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@tcsnide](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tcsnide)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/markaby-nokogiri-issue/157526/2 "2009-01-13T02:28:11Z")

</div>

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 02:13:13AM +0900, Trans wrote:

> Unfortunately this doesn’t work at all, b/c it turns out Nokogiri does  
> not seem to be using #instance\_eval on the block. Without doing so I  
> don’t see how it can be at all useful. For example in my case I have  
> method called #body:
> 
> ```
> def body(&block)
> Nokogiri::HTML::Builder.new do
> body(&block)
> end
> end
> 
> ```

It does use instance\_eval, but it also checks the context in which it  
was instantiated to see if it responds to that method before creating a  
new node. That way your builder can have access to methods outside of  
the builder.

> By not using instance\_eval Nokogiri doesn’t recognize ‘body’ as a tag,  
> but tries to call the method again, resulting in an infinite loop. So  
> I think this is a bug in Nokogiri’s builder.

No. This was a requested feature. I gladly accept patches though! 🙂

> In the mean time, can anyone offer a work around? Or is there a way to  
> turn off “strict-mode” for Markaby.

You should be able to do this:

def body(&block)  
Nokogiri::HTML::Builder.new do  
insert(Nokogiri::XML::Node.new(‘body’, @doc), &block)  
end  
end

Hope that helps!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcsnide](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@tcsnide](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tcsnide)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/markaby-nokogiri-issue/157526/3 "2009-01-13T03:17:20Z")

</div>

On Jan 12, 8:27 pm, Aaron P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> It does use instance\_eval, but it also checks the context in which it  
> was instantiated to see if it responds to that method before creating a  
> new node. That way your builder can have access to methods outside of  
> the builder.
> 
> > By not using instance\_eval Nokogiri doesn’t recognize ‘body’ as a tag,  
> > but tries to call the method again, resulting in an infinite loop. So  
> > I think this is a bug in Nokogiri’s builder.
> 
> No. This was a requested feature. I gladly accept patches though! 🙂

Ah, I see. I’m used to Markaby --when I needed to access an outside  
method I first assign it to a local variable, then use the local var  
in the block. I can see the advantage of accessing methods directly,  
but it’s also one of those things that can be a little worrisome b/c  
if I add a method to the same scope, for instance say I add a ‘def pre  
()’ or include a module, I may inadvertently cause unexpected markup.  
That seems to me a bit too fragile. If you agree, I am willing to take  
a look at making a patch.

> > In the mean time, can anyone offer a work around? Or is there a way to  
> > turn off “strict-mode” for Markaby.
> 
> You should be able to do this:
> 
> def body(&block)  
> Nokogiri::HTML::Builder.new do  
> insert(Nokogiri::XML::Node.new(‘body’, @doc), &block)  
> end  
> end

Thanks! Looks like that’ll go it.

T.