HTML::HeadParser - Parse <HEAD> section of a HTML document

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- METHODS
- EXAMPLE
- SEE ALSO
- COPYRIGHT

# NAME

HTML::HeadParser - Parse <HEAD> section of a HTML document

# SYNOPSIS

     require HTML::HeadParser;
     $p = HTML::HeadParser->new;
     $p->parse($text) and  print "not finished";

     $p->header('Title')          # to access <title>....</title>
     $p->header('Content-Base')   # to access <base href="http://...">
     $p->header('Foo')            # to access <meta http-equiv="Foo" content="...">

# DESCRIPTION

The `HTML::HeadParser` is a specialized (and lightweight) `HTML::Parser` that will only parse the <HEAD>...</HEAD> section of an HTML document. The `parse()` method will return a FALSE value as soon as some <BODY> element or body text are found, and should not be called again after this.

Note that the `HTML::HeadParser` might get confused if raw undecoded UTF-8 is passed to the `parse()` method. Make sure the strings are properly decoded before passing them on.

The `HTML::HeadParser` keeps a reference to a header object, and the parser will update this header object as the various elements of the <HEAD> section of the HTML document are recognized. The following header fields are affected:

Content-Base:
  The Content-Base header is initialized from the <base href=``...''> element.

Title:
  The Title header is initialized from the <title>...</title> element.

Isindex:
  The Isindex header will be added if there is a <isindex> element in the <head>. The header value is initialized from the prompt attribute if it is present. If no prompt attribute is given it will have '?' as the value.

X-Meta-Foo:
  All <meta> elements will initialize headers with the prefix ```X-Meta-`'' on the name. If the <meta> element contains a `http-equiv` attribute, then it will be honored as the header name.

# METHODS

The following methods (in addition to those provided by the superclass) are available:

$hp = HTML::HeadParser->new
$hp = HTML::HeadParser->new( $header )
  The object constructor. The optional $header argument should be a reference to an object that implement the `header()` and `push_header()` methods as defined by the `HTTP::Headers` class. Normally it will be of some class that isa or delegates to the `HTTP::Headers` class.

  If no $header is given `HTML::HeadParser` will create an `HTTP::Header` object by itself (initially empty).

$hp->header;
  Returns a reference to the header object.

$hp->header( $key )
  Returns a header value. It is just a shorter way to write `$hp->header->header($key)`.

# EXAMPLE

     $h = HTTP::Headers->new;
     $p = HTML::HeadParser->new($h);
     $p->parse(<<EOT);
     <title>Stupid example</title>
     <base href="http://www.linpro.no/lwp/">
     Normal text starts here.
     EOT
     undef $p;
     print $h->title;   # should print "Stupid example"

# SEE ALSO

the HTML::Parser manpage, the HTTP::Headers manpage

The `HTTP::Headers` class is distributed as part of the libwww-perl package. If you don't have that distribution installed you need to provide the $header argument to the `HTML::HeadParser` constructor with your own object that implements the documented protocol.

# COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1996-2001 Gisle Aas. All rights reserved.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

HTML::HeadParser - Parse <HEAD> section of a HTML document