An advanced converter that parses HTML and returns beautiful text. It was mainly designed to transform HTML E-Mail templates to a text representation. So it is currently optimized for table layouts.
- Transform headlines to uppercase text.
- Convert tables to an appropiate text representation with rows and columns.
- Word wrapping for paragraphs (default 80 chars).
- Automatic extraction of href information from links.
<br>
conversion to\n
.- Unicode support.
- Runs in browser and server environments.
npm install html-to-text
Or when you want to use it as command line interface it is recommended to install it globally via
npm install html-to-text -g
const htmlToText = require('html-to-text');
const text = htmlToText.fromString('<h1>Hello World</h1>', {
wordwrap: 130
});
console.log(text); // Hello World
You can configure the behaviour of html-to-text with the following options:
tables
allows to select certain tables by theclass
orid
attribute from the HTML document. This is necessary because the majority of HTML E-Mails uses a table based layout. Prefix your table selectors with an.
for theclass
and with a#
for theid
attribute. All other tables are ignored. You can assigntrue
to this attribute to select all tables. Default:[]
wordwrap
defines after how many chars a line break should follow inp
elements. Set tonull
orfalse
to disable word-wrapping. Default:80
linkHrefBaseUrl
allows you to specify the server host for href attributes, where the links start at the root (/
). For example,linkHrefBaseUrl = 'http://asdf.com'
and<a href='/dir/subdir'>...</a>
the link in the text will behttp://asdf.com/dir/subdir
. Keep in mind thatlinkHrefBaseUrl
shouldn't end with a/
.hideLinkHrefIfSameAsText
by default links are translated the following<a href='link'>text</a>
=> becomes =>text [link]
. If this option is set to true andlink
andtext
are the same,[link]
will be hidden and onlytext
visible.noLinkBrackets
dont print brackets around the link iftrue
.ignoreHref
ignore all document links iftrue
.ignoreImage
ignore all document images iftrue
.preserveNewlines
by default, any newlines\n
in a block of text will be removed. Iftrue
, these newlines will not be removed.decodeOptions
defines the text decoding options given tohe.decode
. For more informations see the he module.uppercaseHeadings
by default, headings (<h1>
,<h2>
, etc) are uppercased. Set tofalse
to leave headings as they are.singleNewLineParagraphs
by default, paragraphs are converted with two newlines (\n\n
). Set totrue
to convert to a single newline.baseElement
defines the tags whose text content will be captured from the html. All content will be captured below the baseElement tags and added to the resulting text output. This option allows the user to specify an array of elements as base elements using a single tag with css class and id parameters e.g. [p.class1.class2#id1#id2
,p.class1.class2#id1#id2
] . Default:body
returnDomByDefault
convert the entire document if we don't find the tag we're looking for iftrue
.longWordSplit
describes how to wrap long words, has the following parameters:wrapCharacters
is an array containing the characters that may be wrapped on, these are used in orderforceWrapOnLimit
defines whether to break long words on the limit iftrue
.
format
pass an object to enable custom formatting for specific elements (see below)unorderedListItemPrefix
defines the string that is used as item prefix for unordered lists<ol>
. Default:' * '
By using the format
option, you can specify formatting for these elements: text
, image
, lineBreak
, paragraph
, anchor
, heading
, table
, orderedList
, unorderedList
, listItem
, horizontalLine
.
Each key must be a function which eventually receive elem
(the current elem), fn
(the next formatting function) and options
(the options passed to html-to-text).
var htmlToText = require('html-to-text');
var text = htmlToText.fromString('<h1>Hello World</h1>', {
format: {
heading: function (elem, fn, options) {
var h = fn(elem.children, options);
return '====\n' + h.toUpperCase() + '\n====';
}
}
});
console.log(text);
It is possible to use html-to-text as command line interface. This allows an easy validation of your generated text and the integration in other systems that does not run on node.js.
html-to-text
uses stdin
and stdout
for data in and output. So you can use html-to-text
the following way:
cat example/test.html | html-to-text > test.txt
There also all options available as described above. You can use them like this:
cat example/test.html | html-to-text --tables=#invoice,.address --wordwrap=100 > test.txt
The tables
option has to be declared as comma separated list without whitespaces.
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<h2>Paragraphs</h2>
<p class="normal-space">At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. <a href="www.github.com">Github</a>
</p>
<p class="normal-space">At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<hr/>
<h2>Pretty printed table</h2>
<table id="invoice">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Article</th>
<th>Price</th>
<th>Taxes</th>
<th>Amount</th>
<th>Total</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
Product 1<br />
<span style="font-size:0.8em">Contains: 1x Product 1</span>
</p>
</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">6,99€</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">7%</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">1</td>
<td align="right" valign="top">6,99€</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shipment costs</td>
<td align="right">3,25€</td>
<td align="right">7%</td>
<td align="right">1</td>
<td align="right">3,25€</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
<td colspan="3">to pay: 10,24€</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td colspan="3">Taxes 7%: 0,72€</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
</table>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<hr/>
<h2>Lists</h2>
<ul>
<li>At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</li>
<li>At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</li>
<li>At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<hr />
<h2>Column Layout with tables</h2>
<table class="address">
<tr>
<th align="left">Invoice Address</th>
<th align="left">Shipment Address</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">
<p>
Mr.<br/>
John Doe<br/>
Featherstone Street 49<br/>
28199 Bremen<br/>
</p>
</td>
<td align="left">
<p>
Mr.<br/>
John Doe<br/>
Featherstone Street 49<br/>
28199 Bremen<br/>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<hr/>
<h2>Mailto formating</h2>
<p class="normal-space small">
Some Company<br />
Some Street 42<br />
Somewhere<br />
E-Mail: <a href="mailto:test@example.com">Click here</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
Gets converted to:
PARAGRAPHS
At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd
gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor
invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos
et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea
takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Github [www.github.com]
At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd
gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor
invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos
et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea
takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRETTY PRINTED TABLE
ARTICLE PRICE TAXES AMOUNT TOTAL
Product 1 6,99€ 7% 1 6,99€
Contains: 1x Product 1
Shipment costs 3,25€ 7% 1 3,25€
to pay: 10,24€
Taxes 7%: 0,72€
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LISTS
* At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd
gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
* At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd
gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
1. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd
gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
2. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd
gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COLUMN LAYOUT WITH TABLES
INVOICE ADDRESS SHIPMENT ADDRESS
Mr. Mr.
John Doe John Doe
Featherstone Street 49 Featherstone Street 49
28199 Bremen 28199 Bremen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAILTO FORMATING
Some Company
Some Street 42
Somewhere
E-Mail: Click here [test@example.com]
(The MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2019 werk85 <malte@werk85.de>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.