How to parse HTML on iPhone using TouchXML or other libraries?

I have a dirty HTML code that is loaded from a foreign server (so I can't make a json file or clean the html code). My HTML's structure is like:

<!-- SOME DIRTY HTML, CSS, JS, AND OTHER STUFF -->

<div class="pic"> ... </div>

<div class="pic" id="pic311809">

<input type="hidden" class="pic_id" name="pic_id" value="311809" />

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<div style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 9px;">
                                        <a href="pic/show_series/1">FFFUUU (rageman)</a>
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<h1 class="picture">Kochana babcia</h1>

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    Wrzucone 15 października 2010 o 16:03       przez <a href="/user/Astraly">Astraly</a>
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<div class="pic_image">
                <a href="http://komixxy.pl/311809/Kochana-babcia"><img src="http://staticrps.komixxy.pl/uimages/201010/1287151388_by_Astraly_500.jpg" class="pic" alt="Kochana babcia - Wnusiu, a ty jeszcze nie w szkole? Dziś mamy na 10 babciu Co ty tam majaczysz? Jesteś na wagarach!? już ja to powiem twojej mamie! Ale babciu.... Przynosisz nam wstyd! Myślisz, że nie wiem o tej ostatniej niedzieli, w której nie byłeś u komunii? ZAMKNIJ SIĘ KU**A!!!! .... Nie musisz tak krzyczeć! Powiem twojej mamie z jakim tonem odnosisz się do mnie! " /></a>          </div><!-- .pic_image -->

                <div class="source">Źródło: Kto mieszka z babcią, ten wie jak to jest ;)</div>

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</div><!-- .pic -->

<div class="pic"> ... </div>

<div class="pic"> ... </div>

<div class="pic"> ... </div>

I want to select all <div class="pic" id="*"> by using xPath //div[@class='pic'][@id].

Here are two libraries that I used:

- Hpple
- TouchXML

As for Hpple -> it's great but I can't select innerHTML of an emelent. As for TouchXML, I use it for parsing XML and it's great. But it doesn't manage to parse dirty HTML - I get dozens of errors.

Is there a way to parse this HTML in iOS5 using TouchXML? It can be a different library, but I prefer that one.

I heard something about CTidy.h and I did as instructed but nothing's changed...

Solution

libxml has a module designed exactly for this problem :)

http://xmlsoft.org/html/libxml-HTMLparser.html

It works exactly the same as libxml normally works i.e. to parse an NSData object containing dirty html:

#include <libxml/htmlparser.h>

htmlDocPtr doc; /* the resulting document tree */
doc = htmlReadMemory([data bytes], [data length], "noname.xml", NULL, HTML_PARSE_RECOVER | HTML_PARSE_NOWARNING | HTML_PARSE_NOERROR);
if (NULL == doc)
    return nil;

... parse DOM here ...

xmlFreeDoc(doc);

compared to the libxml example from their website :

xmlDocPtr doc; /* the resulting document tree */
doc = xmlReadMemory(content, length, "noname.xml", NULL, 0);
if (NULL == doc)
    return nil;

... parse DOM here ...

xmlFreeDoc(doc);

PS Don't forget to include libxml2.dylib into your project as a framework in the 'link binary with libraries' project build phase