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Asked: 2024-09-25T22:51:54+05:30 In:

I’m looking for a way to extract plain text from a webpage using JavaScript or jQuery. Specifically, I want to identify a certain piece of text on the page and capture everything that follows it. Any suggestions on how to achieve this?

anonymous user

I need a bit of help here. I’m not the best when it comes to JavaScript or jQuery, but I’ve been tinkering around with some stuff for a project, and I’m stuck on one specific issue.

So, here’s the deal: I’m trying to extract plain text from a webpage. I’ve got a particular piece of text in mind that I want to kick off from. Let’s say it’s a header or a specific paragraph. Once I find that text, I want to capture everything that follows it. Seems straightforward, right? Well, not for me!

I thought about using jQuery since it feels a little more manageable with its simplicity and all, but I’m open to using pure JavaScript too if it comes down to it. My main challenge is pinpointing that specific section of text and ensuring I grab everything that comes after it. I know there are various ways to go about it, like using `.text()` or `.html()` if I’m using jQuery, but I’m unsure how to structure that properly or even how to effectively search for the text I need.

To give you a bit more context, I’m not looking for anything complicated—just a clean way to grab that content. Ideally, it would be awesome if the script could run automatically, maybe on page load or when a button is clicked, and then display the extracted text somewhere on the page.

If you’ve been through this kind of thing before or have any snippets of code you could share, I’d really appreciate it. I just need a good start or some guidance on the logic behind it. It feels like I’m missing something really simple, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it! Looking forward to your thoughts or any examples you might have, thanks!

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    2 Answers

    1. anonymous user

      So, I totally get where you’re coming from! Extracting text from a webpage can definitely feel a bit tricky, especially when you’re starting out. Here’s a super simple way to get you going using jQuery.

      Assuming you want to find a header (like an <h2>) and grab everything that follows it, here’s a brief example:

      <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.6.0.min.js"></script>
    
    <script>
        $(document).ready(function() {
            // Change this to whatever text you're looking for
            var startText = "Your Header Text";
            
            // Find the element containing the start text
            var startElement = $("*:contains('" + startText + "')").first();
            
            // Check if we found it
            if (startElement.length) {
                // Get everything that follows it
                var followingText = startElement.nextAll().map(function() {
                    return $(this).text();
                }).get().join(" ");
                
                // Display the extracted text on the page
                $("#output").text(followingText);
            } else {
                $("#output").text("Text not found!");
            }
        });
    </script>

      In this little script:

      • We wait for the document to be ready.
      • We look for your specific header text using :contains().
      • If we find it, we grab all the elements after it with nextAll().
      • Finally, we display the extracted text in a div with the ID output.

      Make sure you have a div to display the output:

      <div id="output"></div>

      And if you’re curious about pure JavaScript, it might look a bit longer, but don’t worry, just ask if you’re interested!

      Hope this helps you get started on your project!

    2. anonymous user


      To extract plain text from a webpage starting from a specific header or paragraph, you can effectively utilize jQuery or pure JavaScript. Assuming you want to begin capturing text from a specific header (e.g., an `

      ` tag), you would first select that header and then gather all subsequent text nodes until the end of the document or until you encounter another block element. In jQuery, you could accomplish this by identifying the target header with a selector and then traversing the DOM to gather the following text. Here’s a sample jQuery snippet:

      $(document).ready(function() {
      // Select the specific header
      var startingPoint = $("h2:contains('Your Header Text')");
      // Get all subsequent text
      var extractedText = startingPoint.nextUntil("h2").text();
      // Display the extracted content somewhere (like in a div with id="output")
      $("#output").text(extractedText);
    });

      If you prefer to use pure JavaScript, the logic remains quite similar. You can use `querySelector` to pinpoint the header and then iterate through the next siblings to gather text content. Here’s how you might implement that:

      document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() {
      // Select the header
      var startingPoint = document.querySelector("h2:contains('Your Header Text')");
      var extractedText = '';
      var nextSibling = startingPoint.nextElementSibling;

      // Gather all following elements until the next header
      while (nextSibling && nextSibling.tagName !== "H2") {
        extractedText += nextSibling.textContent + ' ';
        nextSibling = nextSibling.nextElementSibling;
      }
      // Display the content in a specified element
      document.getElementById("output").textContent = extractedText;
    });


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