Simple HTML Parser issue - php

Question

Hi so I'm trying to parse the ratemyprofessor website for professor name and comments and convert each div into plaintext. Here is the div class structure that I'm working with.
<div id="ratingTable">
<div class="ratingTableHeader"></div>
<div class="entry odd"><a name="18947089"></a>
<div class="date">
8/24/11 // the date which I want to parse
</div><div class="class"><p>
ENGL2323 // the class which I want to parse
</p></div><div class="rating"></div><div class="comment" style="width:350px;">
<!-- comment section -->
<p class="commentText"> // this is what I want to parse as plaintext for each entry
I have had Altimont for 4 classes. He is absolutely one of my favorite professors at St. Ed's. He's generous with his time, extremely knowledgeable, and such an all around great guy to know. Having class with him he would always have insightful comments on what we were reading, and he speaks with a lot of passion about literature. Just the best!
</p><div class="flagsIcons"></div></div>
<!-- closes comment -->
</div>
<!-- closes even or odd -->
<div class="entry even"></div> // these divs are the entries for each professor
<!-- closes even or odd -->
<div class="entry odd"></div>
<!-- closes even or odd -->
</div>
<!-- closes rating table -->
So every entry is encapsulated under this "ratingtable" div and each entry is either "entry odd" or "entry even" div.
Here is my attempt so far but it just produces a huge garbled array with a lot of garbage.
<?php
header('Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8'); // this just makes sure encoding is right
include('simple_html_dom.php'); // the parser library
$html = file_get_html('http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/SelectTeacher.jsp?sid=834'); // the url for the teacher rating profile
//first attempt, rendered nothing though
foreach($html->find("div[class=commentText]") as $content){
echo $content.'<hr />';
}
foreach($html->find("div[class=commentText]") as $content){
$content = <div class="commentText"> // first_child() should be the <p>
echo $content->first_child().'<hr />';
//Get the <p>'s following the <div class="commentText">
$next = $content->next_sibling();
while ($next->tag == 'p') {
echo $next.'<hr />';
$next = $next->next_sibling();
}
}
?>

Answer 1

Confusing HTML... Could you try and see if this works?
foreach (DOM($html, '//div[#class="commentText"]//div[contains(#class,"entry")]') as $comment)
{
echo strval($comment);
}
Oh, and yeah - I don't like simple_html_dom, use this instead:
function DOM($html, $xpath = null, $key = null, $default = false)
{
if (is_string($html) === true)
{
$dom = new \DOMDocument();
if (libxml_use_internal_errors(true) === true)
{
libxml_clear_errors();
}
if (#$dom->loadHTML(mb_convert_encoding($html, 'HTML-ENTITIES', 'UTF-8')) === true)
{
return DOM(simplexml_import_dom($dom), $xpath, $key, $default);
}
}
else if (is_object($html) === true)
{
if (isset($xpath) === true)
{
$html = $html->xpath($xpath);
}
if (isset($key) === true)
{
if (is_array($key) !== true)
{
$key = explode('.', $key);
}
foreach ((array) $key as $value)
{
$html = (is_object($html) === true) ? get_object_vars($html) : $html;
if ((is_array($html) !== true) || (array_key_exists($value, $html) !== true))
{
return $default;
}
$html = $html[$value];
}
}
return $html;
}
return false;
}

Answer 2

If you still want to use simple_html_dom.. see below code for the mistakes in your code:
<?php
header('Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8'); // this just makes sure encoding is right
include('simple_html_dom.php'); // the parser library
// you were trying to parse the wrong link.. your previous link did not have <div> tag with commentText class .. I chose a random link.. choose link for whichever professor you like or grab the links of professor from previous page store it in an array and loopr through them to get comments
$html = file_get_html('http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1398302'); // the url for the teacher rating profile
//first attempt, rendered nothing though
//your div tag has class "comment" not "commentText"
foreach($html->find("div[class=comment]") as $content){
echo $content.'<hr />';
}
foreach($html->find("div[class=comment]") as $content){
// I am not sure what you are trying to do here but watever it is it's wrong
//$content = <div class='commentText'>"; // first_child() should be the <p>
//echo $content->first_child().'<hr />';
//correct way to do it
echo $html->firstChild();// ->first_child().'<hr />';
//this whole code does not make any sense since you are already retrieving the comments from the above code.. but if you still want to use it .. I can figure out what to do
//Get the <p>'s following the <div class="commentText">
// $next = $html->firstChild()->next_sibling();
// while ($next->tag == 'p') {
// echo $next.'<hr />';
// $next = $next->next_sibling();
// }
}
?>
Output
Comment
Dr.Alexander was the best. I would recommend him for American Experience or any class he teaches really. He is an amazing professor and one of the nicest most kind hearted people i've ever met.
Report this rating
Professor Alexander is SO great. I would recommend him to everyone for american experience. He has a huge heart and he's really interested in getting to know his students as actual people. The class isn't difficult and is super interesting. He's amazing.
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Dins