# Re: pretty-print and cleanse RHTML?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-pretty-print-and-cleanse-rhtml/110044>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 22, 2007, 12:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-pretty-print-and-cleanse-rhtml/110044 "2007-07-22T00:58:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Phlip](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Phlip](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Phlip)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2007, 12:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-pretty-print-and-cleanse-rhtml/110044/1 "2007-07-22T00:58:00Z")

</div>

> Suppose someone gave us fresh HTML to import as eRB (.rhtml). Such as from  
> an obsolete PHP project. We ought to upgrade, cleanse, and pretty-print  
> that HTML like this…
> 
> tidy -i -asxhtml old.html \> new.rhtml

Below my sig is a program to temporarily replace \<% and %\>  
with and run Tidy. Save it as ‘tidyErb.rb’, and use this  
usage line:

usage: ruby tidyErb.rb \<filename.rhtml\> \>output.rhtml

‘filename.rhtml’ and ‘output.rhtml’ may not be the same file. The  
program  
wastes a file called ‘scratch.html’, with no attempt to avoid any source  
files with the same name…

As a convenience, the program reports diagnostics to STDERR. Obey them  
(per  
assert\_tidy), to improve your programs!

Note that Tidy treats as flow-tags not block-tags. (My  
verbiage.  
 _is a flow-tag, and_

 _is the cannonical block-tag. Tidy  
line-wraps  
the former.)_

 

_Searching for \<% and moving them to their correct indentation (such as  
for  
\<% end %\>) is a small price to pay for clean HTML!_

 

_Oh, also, review my gsubs to see if they match what Tidy did to your  
RHTML’s  
comments, and \<%%\> nested inside attributes. If I return to this  
project, I  
will just upgrade Tidy…_

 

_–  
Phlip  
[http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510657/](http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596510657/)  
“Test Driven Ajax (on Rails)”  
assert\_xpath, assert\_javascript, & assert\_ajax_

 

_if ARGV.size != 1 or !File.exist?(filename = ARGV.first)  
puts ‘usage: ruby tidyErb.rb \<filename.rhtml\> \>output.rhtml’  
exit  
end_

 

_rhtml = File.read(filename)  
escaped = rhtml.gsub(‘\<%’, ‘’)  
File.open(‘scratch.html’, ‘w’){|f| f.write(escaped) }  
system(‘tidy -i -asxhtml -m scratch.html’)  
html = File.read(‘scratch.html’)  
File.unlink(‘scratch.html’)  
html.gsub!(‘\<!–’, ‘\<!–’) # undo Tidy’s CGI-nanny escapes  
html.gsub!(‘–\>’, ‘–\>’)  
html.gsub!(‘%3C!–%’, ‘\<!–%’)  
html.gsub!(‘%20’, ’ ‘) # TODO nest this gsub?  
html.gsub!(’%–%3E’, ‘%–\>’)  
rhtml = html.gsub(‘%–\>’, ‘%\>’).gsub(‘\<!–%’, ‘\<%’)_

 

_puts rhtml_