[RESOLVED] Extract Link URL based on Description Text

DaleRobbins

I'm attempting to search a web page for a text link with a specific text description and pull the link URL. In other words, I'm going out to a web page such as http://www.victorious.org/links/, and want to find the linked text "Federal Bureau of Investigation" (found the page I'm searching) and return the URL for that specific link. I also need for it to ignore linked images, etc.

I could use any help you could provide. Thanks!

Below ismy starter script.

<?

  $url = "http://www.victorious.org/links/";
  $input = @file_get_contents($url) or die("Could not access file: $url");
  $regexp = "<a\s[^>]*href=(\"??)([^\" >]*?)\\1[^>]*>(.*)<\/a>";
  if(preg_match_all("/$regexp/siU", $input, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER)) {
    foreach($matches as $match) {
      # $match[2] = link address
      # $match[3] = link text

    echo "<a href=$match[2]>$match[3]</a><br>\n";
}

  }


  ?>

NogDog

A different approach:

<?php
$string = "Federal Bureau of Investigation";
$url = "http://www.victorious.org/links/";
$dom = new DOMDocument();
@$dom->loadHTMLFile($url) or die("Could not access file: $url");
$links = $dom->getElementsByTagName('a');
$result = '';
foreach($links as $link) {
   if(trim($link->textContent) == $string) {
      if($link->hasAttribute('href')) {
         $result = $link->getAttribute('href');
      }
      break;
   }
}
echo "<p>$result</p>";

DaleRobbins

Wow, you're a genius! Thank you so much.

DaleRobbins

The script works great on that link and some others, but it doesn't seem to work for a few other links, such as this one on the same page "Guide to Early Church Documents". I looked at the source code of the page and it appears that the link text is not on he same line and has extra spaces. So how would I ignore extra spaces or new lines that might exist in a link description?

Also, if I wanted to return the URL for perhaps three links from the same page, what would be the best way ti implement that?

Thanks so much. You're a brilliant programmer!

NogDog

<?php
$url = "http://www.victorious.org/links/";
$dom = new DOMDocument();
@$dom->loadHTMLFile($url) or die("Could not access file: $url");
$links = $dom->getElementsByTagName('a');
$strings = array(
   "Federal Bureau of Investigation",
   "Guide to Early Church Documents",
   "Freedom from Offenses"
);
echo "<ul>\n";
foreach ($links as $link) {
   $text = preg_replace('#\s+#', ' ', trim($link->textContent));
   if(in_array($text, $strings)) {
      if($link->hasAttribute('href')) {
         echo "<li><a href='" . $link->getAttribute('href') . "'>$text</a></li>\n";
      }
   }
}
echo "</ul>\n";

DaleRobbins

Thanks again, friend. You have been most generous with both your time and your skill!

DaleRobbins

I have one last question. I'm going to need to pull each URL into an individual variable. Is there a way I can use this method... and pull the URL and Description from the array, each into separate variables?

Thanks Again for everything.