Remove Empty Tags on page

**David** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

"David" <none@none.comw rote in message
news:HeA_j.8105 $9H6.7786@trndd c04...

Hi All,
>
I am working on a script that is theoreticaly simple but I can not get it
to work completely. I am dealing with a page spit out by .NET that leaves
empty tags in the markup. I need a javascript solution to go behind and do
a clean up after the page loads.
David

For any that look at the page you will see the script is only looping
through a certain set of tags...

var tagArray = ["em", "span", "p", "a", "li", "ul"];

Using all tags.. el=document.get ElementsByTagNa me("*") would be the
preferred method but I found myself needing several loops and several
node.parentNode .removeChild()' s and it still didn't work correctly.

David

**Doug Miller** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

In article <HeA_j.8105$9H6 .7786@trnddc04> , "David" <none@none.comw rote:

>Hi All,
>
>I am working on a script that is theoreticaly simple but I can not get it to
>work completely. I am dealing with a page spit out by .NET that leaves empty
>tags in the markup. I need a javascript solution to go behind and do a clean
>up after the page loads.
>
>The .NET will leave behind any combination of nested tags. Here is an
>example below. Even though the <spantags are not empty, as they contain
><emtags they also need to be removed.
>
>



>
>
>Here is a simple test page of what I have done so far. It does remove some
>of the tags but always leaves behind some empty tags...
>http://mysite.verizon.net/res8xvny/removeTags.html
>
>Any ideas of the best way to approach this?

Any reason you can't just use the search-and-replace function in your favorite
text editor? If you have shell access to a Unix machine, this is pretty
trivial.

**David** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

"Doug Miller" <spambait@milma c.comwrote in message
news:Z%A_j.2849 $Q57.1079@nlpi0 65.nbdc.sbc.com ...

In article <HeA_j.8105$9H6 .7786@trnddc04> , "David" <none@none.comw rote:

>>Hi All,
>>
>>I am working on a script that is theoreticaly simple but I can not get it
>>to
>>work completely. I am dealing with a page spit out by .NET that leaves
>>empty
>>tags in the markup. I need a javascript solution to go behind and do a
>>clean
>>up after the page loads.
>>
>>The .NET will leave behind any combination of nested tags. Here is an
>>example below. Even though the <spantags are not empty, as they contain
>><emtags they also need to be removed.
>>
>>
> 
> 
> 
>>
>>
>>Here is a simple test page of what I have done so far. It does remove some
>>of the tags but always leaves behind some empty tags...
>>http://mysite.verizon.net/res8xvny/removeTags.html
>>
>>Any ideas of the best way to approach this?

>
Any reason you can't just use the search-and-replace function in your
favorite
text editor? If you have shell access to a Unix machine, this is pretty
trivial.

Yes, the reason is because the .NET is rendering this HTML live. This has to
be done to the actual rendered page on the fly, after it has been loaded.

David

**Doug Miller** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

In article <75B_j.10498$3j .2456@trnddc05> , "David" <none@none.comw rote:

>
>"Doug Miller" <spambait@milma c.comwrote in message
>news:Z%A_j.284 9$Q57.1079@nlpi 065.nbdc.sbc.co m...

>In article <HeA_j.8105$9H6 .7786@trnddc04> , "David" <none@none.comw rote:

>>>Hi All,
>>>
>>>I am working on a script that is theoreticaly simple but I can not get it
>>>to
>>>work completely. I am dealing with a page spit out by .NET that leaves
>>>empty
>>>tags in the markup. I need a javascript solution to go behind and do a
>>>clean
>>>up after the page loads.
>>>
>>>The .NET will leave behind any combination of nested tags. Here is an
>>>example below. Even though the <spantags are not empty, as they contain
>>><emtags they also need to be removed.
>>>
>>>
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>>
>>>
>>>Here is a simple test page of what I have done so far. It does remove some
>>>of the tags but always leaves behind some empty tags...
>>>http://mysite.verizon.net/res8xvny/removeTags.html
>>>
>>>Any ideas of the best way to approach this?

>>
>Any reason you can't just use the search-and-replace function in your
>favorite
>text editor? If you have shell access to a Unix machine, this is pretty
>trivial.

>
>Yes, the reason is because the .NET is rendering this HTML live. This has to
>be done to the actual rendered page on the fly, after it has been loaded.

Well, you could still do it with a Unix shell script... might be easier.

**RobG** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

On May 27, 12:58 am, "David" <n...@none.comw rote:

Hi All,
>
I am working on a script that is theoreticaly simple but I can not get it to
work completely. I am dealing with a page spit out by .NET that leaves empty
tags in the markup. I need a javascript solution to go behind and do a clean
up after the page loads.
>
The .NET will leave behind any combination of nested tags. Here is an
example below. Even though the <spantags are not empty, as they contain
<emtags they also need to be removed.
>





>
Here is a simple test page of what I have done so far. It does remove some
of the tags but always leaves behind some empty tags...http://mysite.verizon.net/res8xvny/removeTags.html

Have you considered going down the DOM and remove any in-line element
whose textContent or innerText is empty? That way you don't have to
go down nested empty nodes, they will be removed as soon as you reach
the highest ancestor.

function getText(el)
{
if (typeof el == 'string') el = document.getEle mentById(el);

// Try DOM 3 textContent property first
if (typeof el.textContent == 'string') {return el.textContent; }

// Try MS innerText property
if (typeof el.innerText == 'string') {return el.innerText;}
return rec(el);

// Recurse over child nodes
function rec(el) {
var n, x = el.childNodes;
var txt = [];
for (var i=0, len=x.length; i<len; ++i){
n = x[i];

// Use TEXT_NODE and ELEMENT_NODE as apparently IE 8 will
// "not support enumeration of nodeType constant values"
// G. Talbert clj
if (n.TEXT_NODE == n.nodeType) {
txt.push(n.data );
} else if (n.ELEMENT_NODE == n.nodeType) {
txt.push(rec(n) );
}
}
return txt.join('').re place(/\s+/g,' ');
}
}

function removeEmptyNode s() {
var node, nodes = document.getEle mentsByTagName( '*');

// These nodes are allowed to be empty
var allowedEmpty = 'base basefont body br col hr html image '
+ 'input isindex link meta param title';
var re;

// Collection is live, so as remove nodes, length gets shorter
for (var i=0; i<nodes.length ; i++) {
node = nodes[i];
re = new RegExp('\\b'+no de.tagName+'\\b ','i');

// Only removes nodes where textContent is '', but could extend
// to remove any node where textContent is matches \s*
if (!re.test(allow edEmpty) && getText(node) == '') {
node.parentNode .removeChild(no de);

// i node removed, so backup
--i;
}
}
}

--
Rob

**Bjoern Hoehrmann** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

* RobG wrote in comp.lang.javas cript:

>Have you considered going down the DOM and remove any in-line element
>whose textContent or innerText is empty? That way you don't have to
>go down nested empty nodes, they will be removed as soon as you reach
>the highest ancestor.

But then you'll remove e.g. <img/>.
--
Björn Höhrmann · mailto:bjoern@h oehrmann.de · http://bjoern.hoehrmann.de
Weinh. Str. 22 · Telefon: +49(0)621/4309674 · http://www.bjoernsworld.de
68309 Mannheim · PGP Pub. KeyID: 0xA4357E78 · http://www.websitedev.de/

**David** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

"RobG" <rgqld@iinet.ne t.auwrote in message
news:2aa46234-e9c1-44db-ad98-dd458da7776b@y2 2g2000prd.googl egroups.com...

Have you considered going down the DOM and remove any in-line element
whose textContent or innerText is empty? That way you don't have to
go down nested empty nodes, they will be removed as soon as you reach
the highest ancestor.
>
function getText(el)
{
if (typeof el == 'string') el = document.getEle mentById(el);
>
// Try DOM 3 textContent property first
if (typeof el.textContent == 'string') {return el.textContent; }
>
// Try MS innerText property
if (typeof el.innerText == 'string') {return el.innerText;}
return rec(el);
>
// Recurse over child nodes
function rec(el) {
var n, x = el.childNodes;
var txt = [];
for (var i=0, len=x.length; i<len; ++i){
n = x[i];
>
// Use TEXT_NODE and ELEMENT_NODE as apparently IE 8 will
// "not support enumeration of nodeType constant values"
// G. Talbert clj
if (n.TEXT_NODE == n.nodeType) {
txt.push(n.data );
} else if (n.ELEMENT_NODE == n.nodeType) {
txt.push(rec(n) );
}
}
return txt.join('').re place(/\s+/g,' ');
}
}
>
>
function removeEmptyNode s() {
var node, nodes = document.getEle mentsByTagName( '*');
>
// These nodes are allowed to be empty
var allowedEmpty = 'base basefont body br col hr html image '
+ 'input isindex link meta param title';
var re;
>
// Collection is live, so as remove nodes, length gets shorter
for (var i=0; i<nodes.length ; i++) {
node = nodes[i];
re = new RegExp('\\b'+no de.tagName+'\\b ','i');
>
// Only removes nodes where textContent is '', but could extend
// to remove any node where textContent is matches \s*
if (!re.test(allow edEmpty) && getText(node) == '') {
node.parentNode .removeChild(no de);
>
// i node removed, so backup
--i;
}
}
}
>
>
>
--
Rob

I tried it and it does work, but it leaves in the </pin the page in
this scenario...







David

**RobG** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

On May 27, 10:00 am, Bjoern Hoehrmann <bjo...@hoehrma nn.dewrote:

* RobG wrote in comp.lang.javas cript:
>

Have you considered going down the DOM and remove any in-line element
whose textContent or innerText is empty? That way you don't have to
go down nested empty nodes, they will be removed as soon as you reach
the highest ancestor.

>
But then you'll remove e.g. <img/>.

Ooops. That can be fixed by going over the child nodes to see if any
contain "allowed to be empty" nodes - and hence losing its appeal. I
think Lasse's recursive DOM walk is best, as it also allows empty
#text nodes to be removed along the way.

FWIW, here's the fixed function (also removes nodes where the content
is only whitespace):

function removeEmptyNode s() {
var node, nodes = document.getEle mentsByTagName( '*');
var kids, skip = false;
var allowedEmpty = 'base basefont body br col hr html img '
+ 'input isindex link meta param title';
var re0 = /^\s*$/;
var re1, re2;

for (var i=0; i<nodes.length ; i++) {
node = nodes[i];
re1 = new RegExp('\\b'+no de.tagName+'\\b ','i');

if (!re1.test(allo wedEmpty) && re0.test(getTex t(node))) {
kids = node.getElement sByTagName('*') ;

for (var j=0, jlen=kids.lengt h; j<jlen; j++) {
re2 = new RegExp('\\b'+ki ds[j].tagName+'\\b', 'i');

if (re2.test(allow edEmpty)) {
skip = true;
break;
}
}

if (!skip) {
node.parentNode .removeChild(no de);
--i;
}
skip = false;
}
}
}

--
Rob

**David** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

"RobG" <rgqld@iinet.ne t.auwrote in message
news:07a93d93-7c01-4eea-b230-5e89f302f5b2@d1 9g2000prm.googl egroups.com...

On May 27, 10:00 am, Bjoern Hoehrmann <bjo...@hoehrma nn.dewrote:

>* RobG wrote in comp.lang.javas cript:
>>

>Have you considered going down the DOM and remove any in-line element
>whose textContent or innerText is empty? That way you don't have to
>go down nested empty nodes, they will be removed as soon as you reach
>the highest ancestor.

>>
>But then you'll remove e.g. <img/>.

>
Ooops. That can be fixed by going over the child nodes to see if any
contain "allowed to be empty" nodes - and hence losing its appeal. I
think Lasse's recursive DOM walk is best, as it also allows empty
#text nodes to be removed along the way.
>
FWIW, here's the fixed function (also removes nodes where the content
is only whitespace):
>
function removeEmptyNode s() {
var node, nodes = document.getEle mentsByTagName( '*');
var kids, skip = false;
var allowedEmpty = 'base basefont body br col hr html img '
+ 'input isindex link meta param title';
var re0 = /^\s*$/;
var re1, re2;
>
for (var i=0; i<nodes.length ; i++) {
node = nodes[i];
re1 = new RegExp('\\b'+no de.tagName+'\\b ','i');
>
if (!re1.test(allo wedEmpty) && re0.test(getTex t(node))) {
kids = node.getElement sByTagName('*') ;
>
for (var j=0, jlen=kids.lengt h; j<jlen; j++) {
re2 = new RegExp('\\b'+ki ds[j].tagName+'\\b', 'i');
>
if (re2.test(allow edEmpty)) {
skip = true;
break;
}
}
>
if (!skip) {
node.parentNode .removeChild(no de);
--i;
}
skip = false;
}
}
}
>
>
--
Rob

Yep, that works as well. I really appreciate your help on this.

David

**Henry** · Jun 27 '08, 07:12 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

On May 26, 3:58 pm, David wrote:

I am working on a script that is theoreticaly simple but I
can not get it to work completely. I am dealing with a page
spit out by .NET that leaves empty tags in the markup.

No matter how bad .NET may be it is not so bad that it would be
randomly inserting mark-up into its output. If there are empty
elements in the mark-up then it is almost certain that they are there
because .NET had been instructed to put them there. So the obvious
solution is fix the server side code so that it does not output
anything but what you want it to output (i.e. take control of what you
are doing).

I need a javascript solution to go behind and do a clean
up after the page loads.

That would be the worst possible approach to the problem.

**David** · Jun 27 '08, 07:13 PM

Re: Remove Empty Tags on page

"Henry" <rcornford@rain drop.co.ukwrote in message
news:3c52a157-b5f0-4af3-927c-6e026cd055b0@56 g2000hsm.google groups.com...

On May 26, 3:58 pm, David wrote:

>I am working on a script that is theoreticaly simple but I
>can not get it to work completely. I am dealing with a page
>spit out by .NET that leaves empty tags in the markup.

>
No matter how bad .NET may be it is not so bad that it would be
randomly inserting mark-up into its output. If there are empty
elements in the mark-up then it is almost certain that they are there
because .NET had been instructed to put them there. So the obvious
solution is fix the server side code so that it does not output
anything but what you want it to output (i.e. take control of what you
are doing).
>

>I need a javascript solution to go behind and do a clean
>up after the page loads.

>
That would be the worst possible approach to the problem.

Henry,

Completely agree with you, absolutely, and I told our developers and powers
to be just this but I do not make the decisions and have to deal with them.

David

Remove Empty Tags on page

Remove Empty Tags on page

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