# posthtml-parser
[](http://badge.fury.io/js/posthtml-parser)
[](https://travis-ci.org/posthtml/posthtml-parser?branch=master)
[](https://coveralls.io/r/posthtml/posthtml-parser?branch=master)
Parse HTML/XML to [PostHTML AST](https://github.com/posthtml/posthtml-parser#posthtml-ast-format).
More about [PostHTML](https://github.com/posthtml/posthtml#readme)
## Install
[NPM](http://npmjs.com) install
```
$ npm install posthtml-parser
```
## Usage
#### Input HTML
```html
Cat
```
```js
import { parser } from 'posthtml-parser'
import fs from 'fs'
const html = fs.readFileSync('path/to/input.html', 'utf-8')
console.log(parser(html)) // Logs a PostHTML AST
```
#### input HTML
```html
Cat
```
#### Result PostHTMLTree
```js
[{
tag: 'a',
attrs: {
class: 'animals',
href: '#'
},
content: [
'\n ',
{
tag: 'span',
attrs: {
class: 'animals__cat',
style: 'background: url(cat.png)'
},
content: ['Cat']
},
'\n'
]
}]
```
## PostHTML AST Format
Any parser being used with PostHTML should return a standard PostHTML [Abstract Syntax Tree](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Abstract_syntax_tree) (AST). Fortunately, this is a very easy format to produce and understand. The AST is an array that can contain strings and objects. Any strings represent plain text content to be written to the output. Any objects represent HTML tags.
Tag objects generally look something like this:
```js
{
tag: 'div',
attrs: {
class: 'foo'
},
content: ['hello world!']
}
```
Tag objects can contain three keys. The `tag` key takes the name of the tag as the value. This can include custom tags. The optional `attrs` key takes an object with key/value pairs representing the attributes of the html tag. A boolean attribute has an empty string as its value. Finally, the optional `content` key takes an array as its value, which is a PostHTML AST. In this manner, the AST is a tree that should be walked recursively.
## Options
### `directives`
Type: `Array`
Default: `[{name: '!doctype', start: '<', end: '>'}]`
Description: *Adds processing of custom directives. Note: The property ```name``` in custom directives can be ```String``` or ```RegExp``` type*
### `xmlMode`
Type: `Boolean`
Default: `false`
Description: *Indicates whether special tags (`