Question

Are there any java APIs which does similar action like Html.fromHtml() as in Android? JSoup does parse and remove the tags but the output is not a formatted one.
eg:

<ol type="1">
 <li>Test1</li>
 <ol type="a">
  <li>TestA1</li>
  <li>TestB1</li>
 </ol>
 <li>Test2</li>
 <ol type="a">
  <li>TestA2</li>
  <li>TestB2</li>
 </ol>
</ol>

should give me something like

1. Test1

   a. TestA1

   b. TestB1

2. Test2

   a. TestA2

   b. TestB2

Answer 1

There’s no api for jsoup-to-“formated text”, but you can convert lists by your own:

1. iterate over all childs of the ul / ol element which is the root of the list
2. if item: format and add the output String
3. if sublist: do 1. – but with the sublist element – and add the result

Example:

In this example i use the type attribute to determine what kind of bullet is required and use the character (!) to index the items. If there’s no proper attribute, char 1 is used.

Implementation:

/**
 * Convert the Listelement <code>root</code> to a formated string-representation.
 * 
 * @param root      Rootelement of the list (normally 'ul' or 'ol' tag)
 * @param depth     Depth of the list (<code>=0</code> for root element)
 * @return          List as String
 */
public String createList(Element root, int depth)
{
    final String indentation = createIndentation(depth); // create indentation
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

    final String typeAttr = root.attr("type"); // Get the character used as bullet (= 'type' attribute)
    char type = typeAttr.isEmpty() ? '1' : typeAttr.charAt(0); // if 'type' attribute: use it, else: use '1' instead

    for( Element sub : root.children() ) // Iterate over all Childs
    {
        // If Java < 7: use if/else if/else here
        switch( sub.tagName() ) // Check if the element is an item or a sublist
        {
            case "li": // Listitem, format and append
                sb.append(indentation).append(type++).append(". ").append(sub.ownText()).append("\n");
                break;
            case "ol": // Sublist
            case "ul":
                if( !sub.children().isEmpty() ) // If sublist is not empty (contains furhter items)
                {
                    sb.append(createList(sub, depth + 1)); // Recursive call for the sublist
                }
                break;
            default: // "Illegal" tag, do furhter processing if required - output as an example here
                System.err.println("Not implemented tag: " + sub.tagName());
        }
    }

    return sb.toString(); // Return the formated List
}


/**
 * Create an Indentationstring of <code>length</code> blanks.
 * 
 * @param length    Size of indentation
 * @return          Indentationstring
 */
private String createIndentation(int length)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(length);

    for( int i=0; i<length; i++ )
    {
        sb.append(' ');
    }

    return sb.toString();
}

Testcode:

    Document doc = ... // Load / parse your document here

    Element listRoot = doc.select("ol").first(); // Select the root-element (!) of the list here. 
    final String output = createList(listRoot, 0); // Convert the list

    System.out.println(output); // Ouput

Result:

Input (HTML):

<ol type="1">
    <li>Test1</li>
    <ol type="a">
        <li>TestA1</li>
        <li>TestB1</li>
    </ol>
    <li>Test2</li>
    <ol type="a">
        <li>TestA2</li>
        <li>TestB2</li>
    </ol>
</ol>

Output:

1. Test1
 a. TestA1
 b. TestB1
2. Test2
 a. TestA2
 b. TestB2

Thats it! 🙂