html5 compatible parser?

[jmesserly]

I was comparing different node.js parsers for a different project, and studied the various implementations.

Based on my experience implementing an html5 parser (via porting html5lib), and looking at the Blink HTML parser, I have doubts that htmlparser2 actually follows the spec. Some of the issues on that repo seem to confirm this. Perhaps we should consider something like https://github.com/inikulin/parse5. The speed is comparable, and the code structure is what I would expect for an HTML parser (matches the specification) and they use the (very extensive!) html5lib test suite https://github.com/inikulin/parse5/tree/master/test/data

[nevir]

https://github.com/karlwestin/node-gumbo-parser as an alternative too (but requires native bindings)

[dfreedm]

Yeah, htmlparser2 is pretty clearly not spec compliant, just rather fast, and cheerio is built on-top of it.

That said, if the parse5 htmlparser2 adapter is good enough, I should just be able to do an in-place switch.

I'm going to devote a bit of time to that, as it would solve some of the thornier problems I'm having with cheerio and htmlparser2.

[inikulin]

Hi, guys. parse5 dev here. There is a cheerio fork that uses parse5 as underlying parser: whacko. This should work as a simple drop-in replacement for cheerio. Please, let me know if you need any farther assistance on this.

[dfreedm]

Hi @inikulin . My only concern with whacko is that it is a fork from an older version. There were some significant api changes between 0.13 and 0.17 with regards to looping mechanics, and I don't want to change them again if possible.

[inikulin]

@azakus Ok, I see. I'll try to find spare time to sync whacko with upstream within this/next week.

[inikulin]

@azakus latest upstream changes were applied to whacko. Updated version (17.0.1) is available via npm.

[dfreedm]

Thanks!

[inikulin]

@azakus You are welcome