Nested span, clean

[repilo]

Please, how can I, using regex, select the text between an opening tag of a div or span and its corresponding closing tag, without confusing it with the closing of another element nested inside it?
I would like to remove "span" tags without causing errors, i.e. taking into account other "span" tags nested inside them, for example in:

<span class="txt">Lorem <span class="italic">ipsum</span> dolor</span>

Can this be done via regex with Sigil?
The best I know how to do so far is:

Search: <span class="txt">([^<]+)</span>
Replace: \1

Thanks for your help.

[KevinH]

Use the TagMechanic plugin that is set up to handle just that.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=270639

You can find a set of useful free plugins here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=247431

[Tex2002ans]

Yes, TagMechanic is the best way to clean up all that HTML + <span> cruft.

I wrote multiple TagMechanic tutorials and linked to many more helpful topics of mine a few months ago in:

• 2023: "removing excessive <class> and other formatting horrors on epub"

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Yes, TagMechanic is the best way to clean up all that HTML + <span> cruft.

I use the last release of Microsoft Expression Web to do all the tag-related stuff...nothing else comes close to its power.

Being able to find a tag by one or more of:

• attribute existence or value (including regex search)
• contained/not contained inside another tag
• containing text (including regex)

with all of this infinitely nested when "contained inside tag" is used, and then doing one of:

• Remove the tag
• Change the tag
• Remove an attribute
• Set an attribute value
• Remove the tag and contents
• Replace the tag and contents
• Replace contents only
• Add before/after beginning/ending tag

The only thing that isn't really covered is changing the outermost tag where you only want to change it when it contains another tag with specific details.

[KevinH]

I think the op was looking for a Sigil based solution according his/her query. Can you use Microsoft Expression Web with Sigil's OpenWith or does it need access to all files in the epub at the same time?

[DNSB]

For what it may be worth, Microsoft Expression Web was discontinued over a decade ago. I vaguely remember some of the web devs using it for web page development before they moved on to better tools with fewer oddities.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Can you use Microsoft Expression Web with Sigil's OpenWith or does it need access to all files in the epub at the same time?

It works fine with Open With, since Sigil passes the file from the "workspace" directory, which allows it to see all the files. This means the CSS file is available, which allows Expression to show a preview if you need it.

Originally Posted by DNSB

For what it may be worth, Microsoft Expression Web was discontinued over a decade ago. I vaguely remember some of the web devs using it for web page development before they moved on to better tools with fewer oddities.

It is not good for building a whole website, and editing in the WYSIWYG "Design" view can lead to bad formatting. PHP is the most "modern" server-side language it understands.

But, as a standalone HTML and CSS editor, it has better features than the more recent MS releases (Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code). In particular, it is much better at not needing a "project" to have features like HTML/CSS linking. This makes it much better for touch-ups of ePub.

I use the Calibre editor, Microsoft Expression Web ("Unpack Book" from within Calibre), and Sigil. All have their strengths and weaknesses, but if I had to stop using any one of them, it would be a pain for my editing chain.

[KevinH]

Actually, If you are changing files via OpenWith outside of the current file, to guarantee it to work properly, Sigil must install a filewatcher on each file. Right now Sigil only does that for the target file. That is why a separate interface for PageEdit (External XHTML Editor) was developed.

If you do not need or use PageEdit, you may want to use that method to better/safer run Microsoft Expression from Sigil.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Actually, If you are changing files via OpenWith outside of the current file, to guarantee it to work properly, Sigil must install a filewatcher on each file.

I was talking more about Expression being able to see the CSS and image files and display its preview correctly.

If someone wanted to use the power of Expression's search and replace on all files in an ePub, I'd always recommend using "Unpack Book" from Calibre.

[KevinH]

Or you could just use the external XEditor interface in Sigil that PageEdit uses.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

If someone wanted to use the power of Expression's search and replace on all files in an ePub, I'd always recommend using "Unpack Book" from Calibre.

Or the FolderIn/FolderOut Sigil plugins.