# parsing javascript with xpath **URL:** \ **Category:** Dev/API Corner\ **Tags:** plugin-dev\ **Created:** [December 31, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272 "2009-12-31T00:23:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![David\_Veld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@David\_Veld](https://forums.plex.tv/u/David_Veld)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/1 "2009-12-31T00:23:13Z")
Hi, Is it possible in plex parsing a code that was generated with javascript using xpath. For example, in the script below I want only to extract the string value of sGlobalFileName=‘what-i-think-of-tv-news’, so as a result I want to have ‘what-i-think-of-tv-news’ in the end. Is this possible using xpath? If yes, How? ---
**Author:** ![jwray](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jwray/32/99832_2.png) [@jwray](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jwray)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/2 "2009-12-31T00:48:10Z")
Short answer. No. Xpath is for parsing XML documents or fragments, no general text. For that, extract the text of the script tag (that you can do using xpath) then use either regular expression or python substring to extract out the part you need. Messy, but no other way around it. > [@](#): > > Hi, > > Is it possible in plex parsing a code that was generated with javascript using xpath. > > For example, in the script below I want only to extract the string value of sGlobalFileName='what-i-think-of-tv-news', so as a result I want to have 'what-i-think-of-tv-news' in the end. Is this possible using xpath? If yes, How? ---
**Author:** ![David\_Veld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@David\_Veld](https://forums.plex.tv/u/David_Veld)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/3 "2009-12-31T00:58:24Z")
mmm could anyone help me how that would like for a bit, I am also searching the internet for regex but it is not very clear to me… ---
**Author:** ![jwray](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/jwray/32/99832_2.png) [@jwray](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jwray)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/4 "2009-12-31T01:23:47Z")
If you’ve never used regular expressions before now is probably not the time to learn. They are the spawn of the devil (but very powerful). You need a good python reference. String objects (and all others) have a number of very useful methods on them. You need to use find. Something like (pseudocode) ```auto
start = text.find('sGlobalFileName=') + 17
end = text.find(";", start)
substring = text[start:end]
``` > [@](#): > > mmm could anyone help me how that would like for a bit, I am also searching the internet for regex but it is not very clear to me.. ---
**Author:** ![sansnipple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@sansnipple](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sansnipple)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/5 "2009-12-31T05:17:39Z")
honestly, that js example looks like a primo candidate for rolling into a nice neat JSON object. as for exactly _how_ to do that, someone with more braincells than me will have to take a look. ---
**Author:** ![sander1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@sander1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sander1)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/6 "2009-12-31T19:27:15Z")
Although regexes are a bit more difficult, I think they are the best way to extract the data you want (in this case). ```auto
import re

webpage_content = HTTP.Request('http://www.example.com/pagecontainingthejavascript.html')
title = re.search("sGlobalFileName='(.+?)';", webpage_content).group(1)
``` A little explanation about the regex: (...) = a group within a regex, you can have multiple groups within one regex, you retrieve them with the group function. The above expression could also be written like this: ```auto result = re.search("sGlobalFileName='(.+?)';", webpage_content)
title = result.group(1) ``` . = matches any character except a newline + = match 1 or more repetitions of the preceding expression ? = make the expression ungreedy (= grab as few characters as possible) Without the "?" the result of this regular expression would be: what-i-think-of-tv-news';EmbedSEOLinkURL='http://www.break.com/';EmbedSEOLinkKeywords='Funny Videos';sGlobalContentID='355403';sGlobalContentTitle=document.getElementById("vid\_title").getAttribute("content");sGlobalCategoryID='7';sGlobalContentFilePath='2007/8';sGlobalContentUrl='http://www.break.com/index/what-i-think-of-tv-news.html';sGlobalContentIDEncoded='boEGsDRmcc5fL4GHC%2bhfyA%3d%3d';sSubmittedBY='rbbtcee';sKeywordTitle='Flashes,man,News,reporter,What I Think of TV News';sKeywordString='Flashes,man,News,reporter ---
**Author:** ![David\_Veld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@David\_Veld](https://forums.plex.tv/u/David_Veld)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/7 "2010-01-01T12:35:19Z")
Wow thanks, This really helped me! Thanks for the explanation. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Veld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@David\_Veld](https://forums.plex.tv/u/David_Veld)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/8 "2010-01-01T13:26:13Z")
I created the following code using regex but there must be something that I forgot because it does not work. Does anyone have any suggestions? ```auto def Video(sender, url):

dir = MediaContainer(title3=sender.itemTitle, art=R(ART), viewGroup="InfoList")

videos = XML.ElementFromURL(url, isHTML=True, errors='ignore').xpath(XPATH_VIDEOS)
for content in videos:
title = content.xpath("./a/span")[0].text
thumb = content.xpath("./a/img")[0].get('src')
summary = content.xpath("./a")[0].get('title')
url = content.xpath("./a")[0].get('href')
dir.Append(Function(VideoItem(PlayVideo, title=title, summary=summary, thumb=thumb), url=url))

return dir

####################################################################################################

def PlayVideo(sender, url):

video_link = HTTP.Request(url)
file_name_link = re.search("sGlobalFileName='(.+?)';", video_link)
file_path_link = re.search("sGlobalContentFilePath='(.+?)';", video_link)
file_path = file_path_link.group(1)
file_name = file_name_link.group(1)

total_video_link = 'http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/' + file_path '/' + file_name '.flv'

dir.Append(VideoItem(total_video_link)) ``` ---
**Author:** ![sansnipple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@sansnipple](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sansnipple)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/9 "2010-01-01T17:23:46Z")
see my response to the other topic you started. [http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/11941-play-video-using-regex/page\_\_view\_\_findpost\_\_p\_\_70717](http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?/topic/11941-play-video-using-regex/page __view__ findpost __p__ 70717) ---
**Author:** ![sander1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@sander1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sander1)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/10 "2010-01-01T17:44:33Z")
Your indentation is maybe wrong, but you also need to change the PlayVideo function. This: ```auto dir.Append(VideoItem(total_video_link)) ``` needs to be replaced by this: ```auto
return Redirect(total_video_link)
``` You're also missing two plusses here: total\_video\_link = 'http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/' + file\_path + '/' + file\_name + '.flv' ---
**Author:** ![sander1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@sander1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sander1)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/11 "2010-01-01T18:20:43Z")
You can also do the regex stuff once and grab everything you need. Here is an “optimized” (shorter) PlayVideo function: ```auto
def PlayVideo(sender, url):

video_link = HTTP.Request(url)
link = re.search("sGlobalFileName='(.+?)';.+sGlobalContentFilePath='(.+?)';", video_link, re.DOTALL)
total_video_link = 'http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/' + link.group(1) + '/' + link.group(2) + '.flv'

return Redirect(total_video_link)
``` ---
**Author:** ![David\_Veld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@David\_Veld](https://forums.plex.tv/u/David_Veld)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/12 "2010-01-01T23:16:59Z")
Wow… I feel so stupid. I just left the computer for a couple of hours alone and tried to get my concentration back and now I returned to it and read your messages it all sees so clear. Thank you for your support! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/parsing-javascript-with-xpath/3272/13 "2019-12-20T20:34:43Z")
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