I can't think of an elegant solution. But, what would be the best way to process an HTML file, modify it and save it back using a script on the mand line? I want to basically run this script, proving the HTML file as an argument, add a data-test=<randomID> into every <div> element, and save it back into the file. I was thinking I could write a JavaScript script to execute with node but am not sure how I would get the contents of the provided file, or what to store the content as. Thanks for any pointers.

I can't think of an elegant solution. But, what would be the best way to process an HTML file, modify it and save it back using a script on the mand line? I want to basically run this script, proving the HTML file as an argument, add a data-test=<randomID> into every <div> element, and save it back into the file. I was thinking I could write a JavaScript script to execute with node but am not sure how I would get the contents of the provided file, or what to store the content as. Thanks for any pointers.

• javascript
• html
• node.js
• html-parsing

• Do you mean using node.js to host a page that would act as the editor for you to edit other html files? – user1600124 Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 8:15
• 1 @user1600124, no, I just want a quick mand line script that, given an HTML file, will modify it. This is all done locally, hosting the file is not a requirement. – mart1n Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 8:16
• so.. each <div.... ></div> => <div data-test="someid"...></div>? – user1600124 Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 8:17
• 2 That... is a bit difficult... Maybe check out jsdom.... But installing jsdom was a bit hassle for me... And I haven't got it to work yet.. – user1600124 Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 8:56
• 1 @user1600124, thanks for the tip. That's what I was looking for. Check my answer for the solution ;-) – mart1n Commented Sep 6, 2013 at 9:27

1 Answer 1

Solved with jsdom (thanks for the tip, user1600124):

var jsdom = require("jsdom"),
    fs = require('fs');

if (process.argv.length < 3) {
  console.log('Usage: node ' + process.argv[1] + ' FILENAME');
  process.exit(1);
}

var file = process.argv[2];
fs.readFile(file, 'utf8', function(err, data) {
    if (err) throw err;

    jsdom.env(
        data,
        ["http://code.jquery./jquery.js"],
        function (errors, window) {
            var $ = window.jQuery;

            $("p, li").each(function(){
                $(this).attr("data-test", "test");
            });
            $(".jsdom").remove();
            console.log( window.document.doctype + window.document.innerHTML );
            var output = window.document.doctype + window.document.innerHTML;

            fs.writeFile(file, output, function(err) {
                if (err) throw err;
                console.log('It\'s saved!');
            });
     });
});