Ubuntu Manpage: HTML::FormatExternal - HTML to text formatting using external programs

Provided by: libhtml-formatexternal-perl_26-6_all

NAME

       HTML::FormatExternal - HTML to text formatting using external programs

DESCRIPTION

       This is a collection of formatter modules which turn HTML into plain text by dumping it
       through the respective external programs.

           HTML::FormatText::Elinks
           HTML::FormatText::Html2text
           HTML::FormatText::Links
           HTML::FormatText::Lynx
           HTML::FormatText::Netrik
           HTML::FormatText::Vilistextum
           HTML::FormatText::W3m
           HTML::FormatText::Zen

       The module interfaces are compatible with "HTML::Formatter" modules such as
       "HTML::FormatText", but the external programs do all the work.

       Common formatting options are used where possible, such as "leftmargin" and "rightmargin".
       So just by switching the class you can use a different program (or the plain
       "HTML::FormatText") according to personal preference, or strengths and weaknesses, or what
       you've got.

       There's nothing particularly difficult about piping through these programs, but a unified
       interface hides details like how to set margins and how to force input or output charsets.

FUNCTIONS

       Each of the classes above provide the following functions.  The "XXX" in the class names
       here is a placeholder for any of "Elinks", "Lynx", etc as above.

       See examples/demo.pl in the HTML-FormatExternal sources for a complete sample program.

   Formatter Compatible Functions
       "$text = HTML::FormatText::XXX->format_file ($filename, key=>value,...)"
       "$text = HTML::FormatText::XXX->format_string ($html_string, key=>value,...)"
           Run the formatter program over a file or string with the given options and return the
           formatted result as a string.  See "OPTIONS" below for possible key/value options.
           For example,

               $text = HTML::FormatText::Lynx->format_file ('/my/file.html');

               $text = HTML::FormatText::W3m->format_string
                 ('<html><body> <p> Hello world! </p </body></html>');

           "format_file()" ensures any $filename is interpreted as a filename (by escaping as
           necessary against however the programs interpret command line arguments).

       "$formatter = HTML::FormatText::XXX->new (key=>value, ...)"
           Create a formatter object with the given options.  In the current implementation an
           object doesn't do much more than remember the options for future use.

               $formatter = HTML::FormatText::Elinks->new(rightmargin => 60);

       "$text = $formatter->format ($tree_or_string)"
           Run the $formatter program on a "HTML::TreeBuilder" tree or a string, using the
           options in $formatter, and return the result as a string.

           A TreeBuilder argument (ie. a "HTML::Element") is accepted for compatibility with
           "HTML::Formatter".  The tree is simply turned into a string with "$tree->as_HTML" to
           pass to the program, so if you've got a string already then give that instead of a
           tree.

           "HTML::Element" itself has a "format()" method (see "format" in HTML::Element) which
           runs a given $formatter.  A "HTML::FormatExternal" object can be used for $formatter.

               $text = $tree->format($formatter);

               # which dispatches to
               $text = $formatter->format($tree);

   Extra Functions
       The following are extra methods not available in the plain "HTML::FormatText".

       "HTML::FormatText::XXX->program_version ()"
       "HTML::FormatText::XXX->program_full_version ()"
       "$formatter->program_version ()"
       "$formatter->program_full_version ()"
           Return the version number of the formatter program as reported by its "--version" or
           similar option.  If the formatter program is not available then return "undef".

           "program_version()" is the bare version number, perhaps with "beta" or similar
           indication.  "program_full_version()" is the entire version output, which may include
           build options, copyright notice, etc.

               $str = HTML::FormatText::Lynx->program_version();
               # eg. "2.8.7dev.10"

               $str = HTML::FormatText::W3m->program_full_version();
               # eg. "w3m version w3m/0.5.2, options lang=en,m17n,image,..."

           The version number of the respective Perl module itself is available in the usual way
           (see "VERSION" in UNIVERSAL).

               $modulever = HTML::FormatText::Netrik->VERSION;
               $modulever = $formatter->VERSION

CHARSETS

File or byte string input is by default interpreted by the programs in their usual ways.
This should mean HTML Latin-1 but user configurations might override that and some
programs recognise a "<meta>" charset declaration or a Unicode BOM. The "input_charset"
option below can force the input charset.

Perl wide-character input string is encoded and passed to the program in whatever way it
best understands. Usually this is UTF-8 but in some cases it is entitized instead. The
"input_charset" option can force the input charset to use if for some reason UTF-8 is not
best.

The output string is either bytes or wide chars. By default output is the same as input,
so wide char string input gives wide output and byte input string or file input gives byte
output. The "output_wide" option can force the output type (and is the way to get wide
chars back from "format_file()").

Byte output is whatever the program produces. Its default might be the locale charset or
other user configuration which suits direct display to the user's terminal. The
"output_charset" option can force the output to be certain or to be ready for further
processing.

Wide char output is done by choosing the best output charset the program can do and
decoding its output. Usually this means UTF-8 but some of the programs may only have
less. The "output_charset" option can force the charset used and decoded. If it's
something less than UTF-8 then some programs might for example give ASCII art
approximations of otherwise unrepresentable characters.

Byte input is usual for HTML downloaded from a HTTP server or from a MIME email and the
headers have the "input_charset" which applies. Byte output is good to go straight out to
a tty or back to more MIME etc. The input and output charsets could differ if a server
gives something other than what you want for final output.

Wide chars are most convenient for crunching text within Perl. The default wide input
giving wide output is designed to be transparent for this.

For reference, if a "HTML::Element" tree contains wide char strings then its usual
"as_HTML()" method, which is used by "format()" above, produces wide char HTML so the
formatters here give wide char text. Actually "as_HTML()" produces all ASCII because its
default behaviour is to entitize anything "unsafe", but it's still a wide char string so
the formatted output text is wide.

OPTIONS

The following options can be given to the constructor or to the formatting methods. The
defaults are whatever the respective programs do. The programs generally read their
config files when dumping so the defaults and formatting details may follow the user's
personal preferences. Usually this is a good thing.

"leftmargin => INTEGER"
"rightmargin => INTEGER"
The column numbers for the left and right hand ends of the text. "leftmargin" 0 means
no padding on the left. "rightmargin" is the text width, so for instance 60 would
mean the longest line is 60 characters (inclusive of any "leftmargin"). These options
are compatible with "HTML::FormatText".

"rightmargin" is not necessarily a hard limit. Some of the programs will exceed it in
a HTML literal "<pre>", or a run of "&nbsp;" or similar.

"input_charset => STRING"
Force the HTML input to be interpreted as bytes of the given charset, irrespective of
locale, user configuration, "<meta>" in the HTML, etc.

"output_charset => STRING"
Force the text output to be encoded as the given charset. The default varies among
the programs, but usually defaults to the locale.

"output_wide => 0,1,"as_input""
Select output string as wide characters rather than bytes. The default is "as_input"
which means a wide char input string results in a wide char output string and a byte
input or file input is byte output. See "CHARSETS" above for how wide characters
work.

Bytes or wide chars output can be forced by 0 or 1 respectively. For example to get
wide char output when formatting a file,

$wide_char_text = HTML::FormatText::W3m->format_file
('/my/file.html', output_wide => 1);

"base => STRING"
Set the base URL for any relative links within the HTML (similar to
"HTML::FormatText::WithLinks"). Usually this should be the location the HTML was
downloaded from.

If the document contains its own "<base>" setting then currently the document takes
precedence. Only Lynx and Elinks display absolutized link targets and the option has
no effect on the other programs.

TAINT MODE

       The formatter modules can be used under "perl -T" taint mode.  They run external programs
       so it's necessary to untaint $ENV{PATH} in the usual way per "Cleaning Up Your Path" in
       perlsec.

       The formatted text strings returned are always tainted, on the basis that they use or
       include data from outside the Perl program.  The "program_version()" and
       "program_full_version()" strings are tainted too.

BUGS

       "leftmargin" is implemented by adding spaces to the program output.  For byte output it
       this is ASCII spaces and that will be badly wrong for unusual output like UTF-16 which is
       not a byte superset of ASCII.  For wide char output the margin is applied after decoding
       to wide chars so is correct.  It'd be better to ask the programs to do the margin but
       their options for that are poor.

       There's nothing done with errors or warning messages from the programs.  Generally they
       make a best effort on doubtful HTML, but fatal errors like bad options or missing
       libraries ought to be somehow trapped.

OTHER POSSIBILITIES

       "elinks" (from Aug 2008 onwards) and "netrik" can produce ANSI escapes for colours,
       underline, etc, and "html2text" and "lynx" can produce tty style backspace overstriking.
       This might be good for text destined for a tty or further crunching.  Perhaps an "ansi" or
       "tty" option could enable this, where possible, but for now it's deliberately turned off
       in those programs to keep the default as plain text.

HOME PAGE

       <http://user42.tuxfamily.org/html-formatexternal/index.html>

LICENSE

       Copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 Kevin Ryde

       HTML-FormatExternal is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
       terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
       either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

       HTML-FormatExternal is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
       WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
       PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with HTML-
       FormatExternal.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.