HTML::SimpleLinkExtor - Extract links from HTML

	use HTML::SimpleLinkExtor;

	my $extor = HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->new();
	$extor->parse_file($filename);
	#--or--
	$extor->parse($html);

	$extor->parse_file($other_file); # get more links

	$extor->clear_links; # reset the link list

	#extract all of the links
	@all_links   = $extor->links;

	#extract the img links
	@img_srcs    = $extor->img;

	#extract the frame links
	@frame_srcs  = $extor->frame;

	#extract the hrefs
	@area_hrefs  = $extor->area;
	@a_hrefs     = $extor->a;
	@base_hrefs  = $extor->base;
	@hrefs       = $extor->href;

	#extract the body background link
	@body_bg     = $extor->body;
	@background  = $extor->background;

	@links       = $extor->scheme( 'http' );

This is a simple HTML link extractor designed for the person who does not want to deal with the intricacies of HTML::Parser or the de-referencing needed to get links out of HTML::LinkExtor.

You can extract all the links or some of the links (based on the HTML tag name or attribute name). If a <BASE HREF> tag is found, all of the relative URLs will be resolved according to that reference.

This module is simply a subclass around HTML::LinkExtor, so it can only parse what that module can handle. Invalid HTML or XHTML may cause problems.

If you parse multiple files, the link list grows and contains the aggregate list of links for all of the files parsed. If you want to reset the link list between files, use the clear_links method.

$extor = HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->new()

Create the link extractor object.

$extor = HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->new('') =item $extor = HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->new($base)

Create the link extractor object and resolve the relative URLs accoridng to the supplied base URL. The supplied base URL overrides any other base URL found in the HTML.

Create the link extractor object and do not resolve relative links.

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->ua;

Returns the internal user agent, an LWP::UserAgent object.

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->add_tags( TAG [, TAG ] )

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor keeps an internal list of HTML tags (such as 'a' and 'img') that have URLs as values. If you run into another tag that this module doesn't handle, please send it to me and I'll add it. Until then you can add that tag to the internal list. This affects the entire class, including previously created objects.

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->add_attributes( ATTR [, ATTR] )

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor keeps an internal list of HTML tag attributes (such as 'href' and 'src') that have URLs as values. If you run into another attribute that this module doesn't handle, please send it to me and I'll add it. Until then you can add that attribute to the internal list. This affects the entire class, including previously created objects.

can()

A smarter can that can tell which attributes are also methods.

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->remove_tags( TAG [, TAG ] )

Take tags out of the internal list that HTML::SimpleLinkExtor uses to extract URLs. This affects the entire class, including previously created objects.

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->remove_attributes( ATTR [, ATTR] )

Takes attributes out of the internal list that HTML::SimpleLinkExtor uses to extract URLs. This affects the entire class, including previously created objects.

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->attribute_list

Returns a list of the attributes HTML::SimpleLinkExtor pays attention to.

HTML::SimpleLinkExtor->tag_list

Returns a list of the tags HTML::SimpleLinkExtor pays attention to.

$extor->parse_file( $filename )

Parse the file for links. Inherited from HTML::Parser.

$extor->parse_url( $url [, $ua] )

Fetch URL and parse its content for links.

$extor->parse( $data )

Parse the HTML in $data. Inherited from HTML::Parser.

$extor->clear_links

Clear the link list. This way, you can use the same parser for another file.

$extor->links

Return a list of the links.

$extor->img

Return a list of the links from all the SRC attributes of the IMG.

$extor->frame

Return a list of all the links from all the SRC attributes of the FRAME.

$extor->iframe

Return a list of all the links from all the SRC attributes of the IFRAME.

$extor->frames

Returns the combined list from frame and iframe.

$extor->src

Return a list of the links from all the SRC attributes of any tag.

$extor->a

Return a list of the links from all the HREF attributes of the A tags.

$extor->area

Return a list of the links from all the HREF attributes of the AREA tags.

$extor->base

Return a list of the links from all the HREF attributes of the BASE tags. There should only be one.

$extor->href

Return a list of the links from all the HREF attributes of any tag.

$extor->body, $extor->background

Return the link from the BODY tag's BACKGROUND attribute.

$extor->script

Return the link from the SCRIPT tag's SRC attribute

$extor->schemes( SCHEME, [ SCHEME, ... ] )

Return the links that use any of SCHEME. These must be absolute URLs (which might include those converted to absolute URLs by specifying a base). SCHEME is case-insensitive. You can specify more than one scheme.

In list context it returns the links. In scalar context it returns the count of the matching links.

$extor->absolute_links

Returns the absolute URLs (which might include those converted to absolute URLs by specifying a base).

In list context it returns the links. In scalar context it returns the count of the matching links.

$extor->relative_links

Returns the relatives URLs (which might exclude those converted to absolute URLs by specifying a base or having a base in the document).

In list context it returns the links. In scalar context it returns the count of the matching links.

This module doesn't handle all of the HTML tags that might have links. If someone wants those, I'll add them, or you can edit %AUTO_METHODS in the source.

Will Crain who identified a problem with IMG links that had a USEMAP attribute.

This source is part of a SourceForge project which always has the latest sources in SVN, as well as all of the previous releases.

	http://sourceforge.net/projects/brian-d-foy/

If, for some reason, I disappear from the world, one of the other members of the project can shepherd this module appropriately.

brian d foy, <bdfoy@cpan.org>

Copyright (c) 2004-2007 brian d foy. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.