DOMDocument::loadHTML(): warning - htmlParseEntityRef: no name in Entity

Question

I have found several similar questions, but so far, none have been able to help me.

I am trying to output the 'src' of all images in a block of HTML, so I'm using DOMDocument(). This method is actully working, but I'm getting a warning on some pages, and I can't figure out why. Some posts suggested surpressing the warning, but I'd much rather find out why the warning is being generated.

Warning: DOMDocument::loadHTML(): htmlParseEntityRef: no name in Entity, line: 10

One example of post->post_content that is generating the error is -

On Wednesday 21st November specialist rights of way solicitor Jonathan Cheal of Dyne Drewett will be speaking at the Annual Briefing for Rural Practice Surveyors and Agricultural Valuers in Petersfield.
<br>
Jonathan is one of many speakers during the day and he is specifically addressing issues of public rights of way and village greens.
<br>
Other speakers include:-
<br>
<ul>
<li>James Atrrill, Chairman of the Agricultural Valuers Associates of Hants, Wilts and Dorset;</li>
<li>Martin Lowry, Chairman of the RICS Countryside Policies Panel;</li>
<li>Angus Burnett, Director at Martin & Company;</li>
<li>Esther Smith, Partner at Thomas Eggar;</li>
<li>Jeremy Barrell, Barrell Tree Consultancy;</li>
<li>Robin Satow, Chairman of the RICS Surrey Local Association;</li>
<li>James Cooper, Stnsted Oark Foundation;</li>
<li>Fenella Collins, Head of Planning at the CLA; and</li>
<li>Tom Bodley, Partner at Batcheller Monkhouse</li>
</ul>

I can post some more examples of what post->post_content contains if that would be helpful?

I have allowed access to a development site temporarily, so you can see some examples [Note - links no longer accessable as question has been answered] -

Any tips on how to resolve this? Thanks.

$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadHTML(apply_filters('the_content', $post->post_content)); // Have tried stripping all tags but <img>, still generates warning
$nodes = $dom->getElementsByTagName('img');
foreach($nodes as $img) :
    $images[] = $img->getAttribute('src');
endforeach;

Showing the line that caused the error would definitely make debugging it easier. — lonesomeday
– lonesomeday, Commented Feb 1, 2013 at 14:27
??? The warning is on DOMDocument::loadHTML();, so the line causing the error is dom->loadHTML(apply_filters('the_content', $post->post_content)); — David Gard
– David Gard, Commented Feb 1, 2013 at 14:29
Ok, with you. In one case, it's James Cooper, Stnsted Oark Foundation;. I did think it could be the ; causing the issue, but rempving them all (there were several before) didn't help. — David Gard
– David Gard, Commented Feb 1, 2013 at 14:43
@DavidGard My best guess then is that there is an unescaped ampersand (&) somewhere in the HTML. This will make the parser think we're in an entity reference (e.g. ©). When it gets to ;, it thinks the entity is over. It then realises what it has doesn't conform to an entity, so it sends out a warning and returns the content as plain text. — lonesomeday
– lonesomeday, Commented Feb 1, 2013 at 14:49

David Gard · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-12 12:03:05Z

46

This correct answer comes from a comment from @lonesomeday.

My best guess then is that there is an unescaped ampersand (&) somewhere in the HTML. This will make the parser think we're in an entity reference (e.g. ©). When it gets to ;, it thinks the entity is over. It then realises what it has doesn't conform to an entity, so it sends out a warning and returns the content as plain text.

answered Feb 12, 2013 at 12:03

David Gard

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4 Comments

MavWolverine Over a year ago

So how do I fix it? I cant call htmlentities on whole html string.

PanPipes Over a year ago

@MavWolverine I know this is many years later, but I just stubbled into this same issue. The simplest option I found was just to do a string replace str_replace(' & ', ' & ', $string) as htmlentities and htmlspecialcharacters caused the < and > of the HTML tags to be converted. Now I am 100% sure there is a better way to do this, but that sorted what I needed on a simple one off parse job.

kagmole Over a year ago

@PanPipes a little more restrictive: preg_replace("/&(?!\S+;)/", "&", $string).

Ephra Over a year ago

This saves my day, I was struggling and later on finds that the contents generated by a user include & in a name and that was a source of all errors. Thanks

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:34:18Z

28

As mentionned here

Warning: DOMDocument::loadHTML(): htmlParseEntityRef: expecting ';' in Entity,

you can use :

libxml_use_internal_errors(true);

see http://php.net/manual/en/function.libxml-use-internal-errors.php

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:34

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Nov 10, 2014 at 22:06

Ka.

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3 Comments

Anil Chaudhari Over a year ago

And loading html as this @$dom->loadHTML($html); helps me.

Derk Jan Speelman Over a year ago

This fixed my problem

prashant Over a year ago

Great, again stackoverflow saved me ;)

Nay · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-02 04:48:09Z

5

An unescaped "&" somewhere in the HTML and replace "&" with &amp. Here is my solution!

 $html = preg_replace('/&(?!amp)/', '&amp;', $html);

It will replace the single ampersand with "&amp" but current "&amp" will still remain the same.

edited Mar 2, 2023 at 4:48

answered Jul 26, 2022 at 15:45

Nay

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Comments

Dhana · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-02 09:49:27Z

3

Check "&" character in your HTML code anywhere.I had that issue because of that scenario.

answered Mar 2, 2020 at 9:49

Dhana

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1 Comment

Digvijay Over a year ago

And replace & with &

Good Idea · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-01 17:02:47Z

1

I don't have the reputation required to leave a comment above, but using htmlspecialchars solved this problem in my case:

$inputHTML = htmlspecialchars($post->post_content);
$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadHTML(apply_filters('the_content', $inputHTML)); // Have tried stripping all tags but <img>, still generates warning
$nodes = $dom->getElementsByTagName('img');
foreach($nodes as $img) :
    $images[] = $img->getAttribute('src');
endforeach;

For my purposes, I'm also using strip_tags($inputHTML, "<strong><em><br>"), so all image tags are stripped out as well - I'm not sure if this would be a problem otherwise.

answered Jun 1, 2016 at 17:02

Good Idea

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Comments

yoorock.fr · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-01 20:33:56Z

0

I eventually solved this problem the right way, using tidy

// Configuration
$config = array(
    'indent'         => true,
    'output-xhtml'   => true,
    'wrap'           => 200);

// Tidy to avoid errors during load html
$tidy = new tidy;
$tidy->parseString($bill->bill_text, $config, 'utf8');
$tidy->cleanRepair();

$domDocument = new DOMDocument();
$domDocument->loadHTML(mb_convert_encoding($tidy, 'HTML-ENTITIES', 'UTF-8'));

answered Sep 1, 2019 at 20:33

yoorock.fr

1

2 Comments

Mehdi Yeganeh Over a year ago

Welcome to StackOverflow. please explain how your code solves the problem.

yoorock.fr Over a year ago

I believe that loadHTML method has trouble dealing with malformed HTML. Using tidy helped me solve this issue.

Apit John Ismail · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-22 10:17:54Z

0

For laravel,

Use {{ }} instead of {!! !!}

I faced this and I managed to solved it.

answered Jul 22, 2020 at 10:17

Apit John Ismail

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Comments

user3251285 · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-20 02:21:43Z

0

I found there was an error in my table tags. There was an extra </td> that I removed and bingo.

answered Sep 20, 2020 at 2:21

user3251285

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Comments

Mike · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-06 08:46:42Z

-8

just replace "&" with "and" in your string. do that for all the other symbols

answered Feb 6, 2014 at 8:46

Mike

3

1 Comment

David Gard Over a year ago

No, that's a terrible suggestion. The use of & is for a specific purpose, and simply replacing it with and doesn't conform in most cases. Company names are one obvious example.

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