Parsing Capabilities
- domutils:
domutilsdoes not parse documents but provides utilities for manipulating and traversing DOM-like structures. It is designed to work with other libraries that handle parsing. - css-select:
css-selectdoes not parse documents itself; it relies on other parsers to create a DOM. It focuses on selecting elements using CSS selectors, making it lightweight and efficient for that purpose. - htmlparser2:
htmlparser2is a fast, streaming parser for HTML and XML that handles malformed markup gracefully. It supports incremental parsing, making it memory-efficient for large documents. - jsdom:
jsdomprovides a complete DOM implementation, including parsing HTML and XML documents. It adheres to web standards, making it suitable for applications that require a fully-featured DOM environment. - cheerio:
cheerioparses HTML and XML documents quickly, providing a jQuery-like interface for manipulation. However, it does not handle malformed HTML as robustly as some other parsers. - xpath:
xpathdoes not parse documents but operates on existing DOM trees. It allows for querying XML and HTML documents using XPath expressions, which can be more powerful than CSS selectors for complex queries.
DOM Manipulation
- domutils:
domutilsprovides basic DOM manipulation utilities, such as inserting, removing, and modifying nodes. It is lightweight and complements other libraries but lacks a comprehensive API. - css-select:
css-selectdoes not provide DOM manipulation capabilities; it is solely focused on selecting elements based on CSS selectors. Manipulation must be done using other libraries. - htmlparser2:
htmlparser2is primarily a parsing library and does not provide built-in DOM manipulation features. It focuses on efficiently parsing and handling HTML and XML content. - jsdom:
jsdomoffers full DOM manipulation capabilities, including support for events, styles, and attributes. It provides a rich API that closely resembles the browser DOM, making it suitable for complex manipulations and testing. - cheerio:
cheerioexcels at DOM manipulation, offering a wide range of methods similar to jQuery. It allows for easy traversal, modification, and extraction of elements, making it ideal for web scraping and data manipulation. - xpath:
xpathdoes not manipulate the DOM; it is used for querying and selecting nodes based on XPath expressions. Manipulation must be done using other DOM manipulation libraries.
Performance
- domutils:
domutilsis designed to be lightweight and efficient, with minimal overhead for the utility functions it provides. Its performance is best when used with simple DOM structures. - css-select:
css-selectis highly efficient for selecting elements, especially when used with a lightweight DOM. Its performance depends on the quality of the input DOM structure. - htmlparser2:
htmlparser2is one of the fastest HTML parsers available, especially for streaming and incremental parsing. It is optimized for performance and memory usage, making it suitable for large documents. - jsdom:
jsdomis more resource-intensive than lightweight libraries due to its comprehensive DOM implementation. However, it is optimized for performance and is suitable for most server-side applications. - cheerio:
cheeriois lightweight and fast for parsing and manipulating HTML, but it loads the entire document into memory, which can be a limitation for very large files. - xpath:
xpathperformance depends on the complexity of the XPath queries and the size of the DOM being queried. It can be slower than CSS selectors for simple tasks but is more powerful for complex queries.
Use Cases
- domutils:
domutilsis best suited for projects that need utility functions for working with DOM-like structures. It is often used alongside other libraries to enhance their functionality. - css-select:
css-selectis useful for projects that require a lightweight, standalone CSS selector engine. It can be used in conjunction with other libraries for custom selection logic without a full DOM. - htmlparser2:
htmlparser2is perfect for applications that require fast and efficient parsing of HTML and XML, especially when handling large or malformed documents. It is commonly used in web scraping and data processing tools. - jsdom:
jsdomis ideal for testing, server-side rendering, and applications that require a full DOM environment. It is widely used in automated testing frameworks and for simulating browser behavior on the server. - cheerio:
cheeriois ideal for web scraping, data extraction, and server-side HTML manipulation. Its jQuery-like API makes it easy to work with, especially for tasks that involve traversing and modifying the DOM. - xpath:
xpathis useful for applications that need to perform complex queries on XML or HTML documents. It is often used in data extraction, transformation, and processing tasks where advanced querying capabilities are required.
Ease of Use: Code Examples
- domutils:
DOM Manipulation with
domutilsconst { createElement, appendChild, removeChild } = require('domutils'); const root = createElement('div'); const child = createElement('span'); appendChild(root, child); console.log(root); // <div><span></span></div> removeChild(child); console.log(root); // <div></div> - css-select:
Selecting Elements with
css-selectconst { select } = require('css-select'); const { parse } = require('node-html-parser'); const html = '<div><p class="text">Hello</p><p class="text">World</p></div>'; const root = parse(html); const elements = select('.text', root); console.log(elements.map(el => el.text)); // Output: ['Hello', 'World'] - htmlparser2:
Parsing HTML with
htmlparser2const { Parser } = require('htmlparser2'); const parser = new Parser({ onopentag(name) { console.log('Opening tag:', name); }, ontext(text) { console.log('Text:', text); }, onclosetag(name) { console.log('Closing tag:', name); }, }); parser.write('<div>Hello <span>World</span></div>'); parser.end(); - jsdom:
DOM Manipulation with
jsdomconst { JSDOM } = require('jsdom'); const dom = new JSDOM('<!DOCTYPE html><p>Hello world</p>'); const document = dom.window.document; const p = document.querySelector('p'); p.textContent = 'Hello, jsdom!'; console.log(p.textContent); // Output: Hello, jsdom! - cheerio:
Web Scraping with
cheerioconst cheerio = require('cheerio'); const axios = require('axios'); async function scrapeWebsite(url) { const { data } = await axios.get(url); const $ = cheerio.load(data); const titles = []; $('h1, h2, h3').each((index, element) => { titles.push($(element).text()); }); return titles; } scrapeWebsite('https://example.com').then(console.log); - xpath:
XPath Querying with
xpathconst xpath = require('xpath'); const { DOMParser } = require('xmldom'); const xml = '<root><item>1</item><item>2</item></root>'; const doc = new DOMParser().parseFromString(xml); const nodes = xpath.select('//item', doc); nodes.forEach(node => console.log(node.textContent)); // Output: 1 2
