Documentation

WebPageExtractor
in package

Extracts readable text content from web pages.

Performs URL validation (SSRF protection), fetches HTML, detects charset, and extracts the main article text.

Tags
since
3.0.0

Table of Contents

Constants

CONTENT_TAGS  = ['article', 'main', '[role="main"]', '[id="mw-content-text"]']
Tags that indicate main content areas (in priority order).
FETCH_TIMEOUT  = 15
HTTP fetch timeout in seconds.
MAX_RESPONSE_SIZE  = 2 * 1024 * 1024
Maximum response size in bytes (2 MB).
NOISE_XPATHS  = [ // Common reference/citation sections '//*[contains(@class,"reflist") or contains(@class,"references") or contains(@class,"refbegin")]', '//*[contains(@class,"navbox") or contains(@class,"sidebar") or contains(@class,"infobox")]', '//*[contains(@class,"catlinks") or contains(@class,"mw-jump-link")]', '//*[@id="toc" or @class="toc"]', '//nav[contains(@class,"toc")]', '//*[contains(@class,"noprint")]', // Common ad/social/cookie elements '//*[contains(@class,"share") or contains(@class,"social")]', '//*[contains(@class,"cookie") or contains(@class,"banner")]', '//*[contains(@class,"related-") or contains(@class,"recommended")]', '//*[contains(@class,"comment") and not(contains(@class,"content"))]', // Wikipedia-specific '//*[contains(@class,"mw-editsection")]', '//*[contains(@class,"sistersitebox")]', '//*[contains(@class,"authority-control")]', ]
XPath selectors for noisy elements to remove (class/id-based).
STRIP_TAGS  = ['script', 'style', 'nav', 'header', 'footer', 'aside', 'form', 'noscript', 'iframe', 'svg', 'figure', 'figcaption']
Tags to strip before extracting text.

Methods

extractFromUrl()  : array{title: string, text: string, sourceUri: string}|array{error: string}
Extract title and text content from a URL.
stripGutenbergBoilerplatePublic()  : string
Strip Gutenberg boilerplate and clean up text (public API).
cleanText()  : string
Clean extracted text: normalize whitespace and line breaks.
detectCharset()  : string|null
Detect charset from HTML meta tags.
extractBodyText()  : string
Extract the main body text from the HTML document.
extractTitle()  : string
Extract title from HTML document.
fetchPage()  : string|null
Fetch page content from URL.
isPlainText()  : bool
Check if content is plain text (no HTML tags).
looksLikeBinary()  : bool
Check if content looks like binary (not HTML/text).
normalizeCharset()  : string
Detect charset and convert to UTF-8.
stripGutenbergBoilerplate()  : string
Strip Project Gutenberg header and footer boilerplate.
titleFromUrl()  : string
Derive a title from a URL's path.
unwrapHardLineBreaks()  : string
Unwrap hard line breaks typical of plain text files (e.g. ~72-char wraps).
findLargestTextBlock()  : DOMNode|null
Find the child element with the most text content.
getTextFromNodeList()  : string
Get cleaned text from a node list.
parseHtml()  : DOMDocument|null
Parse HTML string into DOMDocument.
queryNodes()  : DOMNodeList|null
Query nodes using either tag name or CSS-like selector.
stripByXPath()  : void
Remove elements matching XPath selectors.
stripElements()  : void
Remove specified element types from the DOM.

Constants

CONTENT_TAGS

Tags that indicate main content areas (in priority order).

private array<int, string> CONTENT_TAGS = ['article', 'main', '[role="main"]', '[id="mw-content-text"]']

FETCH_TIMEOUT

HTTP fetch timeout in seconds.

private mixed FETCH_TIMEOUT = 15

MAX_RESPONSE_SIZE

Maximum response size in bytes (2 MB).

private mixed MAX_RESPONSE_SIZE = 2 * 1024 * 1024

NOISE_XPATHS

XPath selectors for noisy elements to remove (class/id-based).

private array<int, string> NOISE_XPATHS = [ // Common reference/citation sections '//*[contains(@class,"reflist") or contains(@class,"references") or contains(@class,"refbegin")]', '//*[contains(@class,"navbox") or contains(@class,"sidebar") or contains(@class,"infobox")]', '//*[contains(@class,"catlinks") or contains(@class,"mw-jump-link")]', '//*[@id="toc" or @class="toc"]', '//nav[contains(@class,"toc")]', '//*[contains(@class,"noprint")]', // Common ad/social/cookie elements '//*[contains(@class,"share") or contains(@class,"social")]', '//*[contains(@class,"cookie") or contains(@class,"banner")]', '//*[contains(@class,"related-") or contains(@class,"recommended")]', '//*[contains(@class,"comment") and not(contains(@class,"content"))]', // Wikipedia-specific '//*[contains(@class,"mw-editsection")]', '//*[contains(@class,"sistersitebox")]', '//*[contains(@class,"authority-control")]', ]

STRIP_TAGS

Tags to strip before extracting text.

private array<int, string> STRIP_TAGS = ['script', 'style', 'nav', 'header', 'footer', 'aside', 'form', 'noscript', 'iframe', 'svg', 'figure', 'figcaption']

Methods

extractFromUrl()

Extract title and text content from a URL.

public extractFromUrl(string $url[, string $titleHint = '' ]) : array{title: string, text: string, sourceUri: string}|array{error: string}
Parameters
$url : string

The URL to fetch and extract from

$titleHint : string = ''

Optional pre-filled title (used as fallback for plain text files)

Return values
array{title: string, text: string, sourceUri: string}|array{error: string}

stripGutenbergBoilerplatePublic()

Strip Gutenberg boilerplate and clean up text (public API).

public stripGutenbergBoilerplatePublic(string $text) : string
Parameters
$text : string

Raw Gutenberg text

Return values
string —

Cleaned text

cleanText()

Clean extracted text: normalize whitespace and line breaks.

protected cleanText(string $text) : string
Parameters
$text : string

Raw text content

Return values
string —

Cleaned text

detectCharset()

Detect charset from HTML meta tags.

protected detectCharset(string $html) : string|null
Parameters
$html : string

HTML content

Return values
string|null —

Detected charset or null

extractBodyText()

Extract the main body text from the HTML document.

protected extractBodyText(DOMDocument $dom) : string

Strategy: strip noise elements, then try to find the main content area (

,
, etc.). If none found, fall back to the largest text-bearing
.

Parameters
$dom : DOMDocument

Parsed HTML document

Return values
string —

Extracted text content

extractTitle()

Extract title from HTML document.

protected extractTitle(DOMDocument $dom) : string

Tries og:title first, then <title> tag.

Parameters
$dom : DOMDocument

Parsed HTML document

Return values
string —

Extracted title

fetchPage()

Fetch page content from URL.

protected fetchPage(string $url) : string|null
Parameters
$url : string

URL to fetch

Return values
string|null —

HTML content or null on failure

isPlainText()

Check if content is plain text (no HTML tags).

protected isPlainText(string $content) : bool
Parameters
$content : string

Content to check

Return values
bool —

True if content appears to be plain text

looksLikeBinary()

Check if content looks like binary (not HTML/text).

protected looksLikeBinary(string $content) : bool
Parameters
$content : string

Content to check

Return values
bool —

True if content appears to be binary

normalizeCharset()

Detect charset and convert to UTF-8.

protected normalizeCharset(string $html) : string
Parameters
$html : string

HTML content

Return values
string —

UTF-8 encoded HTML

stripGutenbergBoilerplate()

Strip Project Gutenberg header and footer boilerplate.

protected stripGutenbergBoilerplate(string $text) : string

Gutenberg plain text files have a preamble ending with "*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ..." and a footer starting with "*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ...".

Parameters
$text : string

Raw Gutenberg text

Return values
string —

Text with boilerplate removed (unchanged if no markers found)

titleFromUrl()

Derive a title from a URL's path.

protected titleFromUrl(string $url) : string
Parameters
$url : string

The source URL

Return values
string —

A human-readable title

unwrapHardLineBreaks()

Unwrap hard line breaks typical of plain text files (e.g. ~72-char wraps).

protected unwrapHardLineBreaks(string $text) : string

Joins consecutive non-blank lines into paragraphs. Blank lines are treated as paragraph separators.

Parameters
$text : string

Text with hard line breaks

Return values
string —

Text with natural paragraphs

findLargestTextBlock()

Find the child element with the most text content.

private findLargestTextBlock(DOMNode $parent) : DOMNode|null
Parameters
$parent : DOMNode

Parent node to search within

Return values
DOMNode|null —

The node with the most text, or null

getTextFromNodeList()

Get cleaned text from a node list.

private getTextFromNodeList(DOMNodeList $nodes) : string
Parameters
$nodes : DOMNodeList

Node list

Return values
string —

Combined text

parseHtml()

Parse HTML string into DOMDocument.

private parseHtml(string $html) : DOMDocument|null
Parameters
$html : string

HTML content

Return values
DOMDocument|null —

Parsed document or null on failure

queryNodes()

Query nodes using either tag name or CSS-like selector.

private queryNodes(DOMXPath $xpath, string $selector) : DOMNodeList|null
Parameters
$xpath : DOMXPath

XPath instance

$selector : string

Tag name or attribute selector

Return values
DOMNodeList|null

stripByXPath()

Remove elements matching XPath selectors.

private stripByXPath(DOMXPath $xpath, array<int, string> $selectors) : void
Parameters
$xpath : DOMXPath

XPath instance

$selectors : array<int, string>

XPath selectors

stripElements()

Remove specified element types from the DOM.

private stripElements(DOMDocument $dom, array<int, string> $tags) : void
Parameters
$dom : DOMDocument

Document to modify

$tags : array<int, string>

Tag names to remove


        

        
    




    

    

                                

                

                                
    

        On this page

        
    


                

                            

            

    

        

            
Search results