\
**Category:** Dev/API Corner\
**Tags:** scanner-agent-dev\
**Created:** [September 18, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413 "2010-09-18T19:47:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@ptath](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ptath)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413/1 "2010-09-18T19:47:53Z")
noob questions
Finished [this](http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/18002-plugin-for-non-imdb-site/), and now trying to parse html page for metadata.
This ((http://www.kinopoisk.ru/level/1/film/251733/) for example) works good
```auto
kinopoiskHtml = HTML.ElementFromURL(kinopoiskUrl)
metadata.summary = str(kinopoiskHtml.xpath("//span[@class='_reachbanner_']")[0].text)
metadata.tagline = str(kinopoiskHtml.xpath("//td[@style='color: #555']")[0].text)
```
But I'm completely noob with other cases, especially when regex needed. Cannot find good examples how to parse something like this:
```auto
| год | 2009 |
| жанр | фантастика, боевик, драма, приключения, ... |
```
Year is inside \*\* tag and is a part of \*href\* parameter. Please help me with xpath.
---
**Author:**  [@sander1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sander1)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413/2 "2010-09-18T19:59:01Z")
Hi! You probably don’t need regex in this case (pfew ;)). Using the [_contains_ function](http://www.w3schools.com/Xpath/xpath_functions.asp) with your xpath can help you find the right a tag, like so:
```auto
kinopoiskHtml = HTML.ElementFromURL(kinopoiskUrl)
...
...
year = int(kinopoiskHtml.xpath('//a[contains(@href, "year")]')[0].text)
```
This searches for the string "year" inside all href attributes of a tags.
---
**Author:**  [@ptath](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ptath)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413/3 "2010-09-18T20:05:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Hi! You probably don't need regex in this case (pfew ;)). Using the [\*contains\* function](http://www.w3schools.com/Xpath/xpath\_functions.asp) with your xpath can help you find the right a tag, like so:
>
> ```auto
>
> kinopoiskHtml = HTML.ElementFromURL(kinopoiskUrl)
> ...
> ...
> year = int(kinopoiskHtml.xpath('//a[contains(@href, "year")]')[0].text)
>
> ```
>
>
> This searches for the string "year" inside all href attributes of a tags.
Oh thank you, it works =)
Any hint how to deal with lists (genres, actors etc like in html code above)?
---
**Author:**  [@sander1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sander1)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413/4 "2010-09-18T20:16:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Any hint how to deal with lists (genres, actors etc like in html code above)?
I haven't worked with "genres" yet, but by looking at the Cine-Passion agent, it should be something like this:
```auto
metadata.genres.clear()
genres = kinopoiskHtml.xpath('//a[contains(@href, "genre")]')
for genre in genres:
metadata.genres.add( genre.text.strip() )
```
---
**Author:**  [@ptath](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ptath)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 10:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413/5 "2010-09-19T10:20:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I haven't worked with "genres" yet, but by looking at the Cine-Passion agent, it should be something like this:
>
> ```auto
>
>
> metadata.genres.clear()
> genres = kinopoiskHtml.xpath('//a[contains(@href, "genre")]')
>
> for genre in genres:
> metadata.genres.add( genre.text.strip() )
>
> ```
Thank you, it works, but show only first genre. Cinepassion agent is good for this examples.
Still problem with directors, actors and so on, there no info inside tag:
```auto
| режиссер | Джеймс Кэмерон |
| DIRECTOR | JAMES CAMERON |
```
Any ideas please?
---
**Author:**  [@hrcolb0](https://forums.plex.tv/u/hrcolb0)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413/6 "2010-09-19T12:15:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Thank you, it works, but show only first genre. Cinepassion agent is good for this examples.
>
> Still problem with directors, actors and so on, there no info inside tag:
>
>
>
> ```auto
>
> | режиссер | Джеймс Кэмерон |
> | DIRECTOR | JAMES CAMERON |
>
> ```
>
>
>
> Any ideas please?
Use .get('href') for the link and .text for the Russian. Is thatxbmc nfo file?
---
**Author:**  [@sander1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sander1)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413/7 "2010-09-19T14:46:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Still problem with directors, actors and so on, there no info inside tag:
>
>
>
> ```auto
>
> | режиссер | Джеймс Кэмерон |
> | DIRECTOR | JAMES CAMERON |
>
> ```
>
>
>
> Any ideas please?
Find the \*td\* tag that contains a text node with value "DIRECTOR", get its parent node \*tr\* and find all \*a\* tags that are descendants of this node that contain the string "people" inside their href attribute:
```auto
//td[text()="DIRECTOR"]/parent::tr//a[contains(@href,"people")]
```
---
**Author:**  [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-html-with-xpath/5413/8 "2019-12-20T20:46:31Z")
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