Code snippet to scrape web site using jquery.

scrape.js

/**
 * scrape.js
 * Code snippet to scrape web site using jquery.
 * This code is from WEB+DB Press Vol.51 JavaScript 今ドキ活用術 by Shinichi Tomita
 */
jQuery.noConflict();

(function($) {
   jQuery.fn.scrape = function(def) {
     // get text value from DOM node
     function getText(n) {
       return n && $(n).text();
     }

     // make function which gets attribute value from DOM node
     function getAttr(a) {
       return function(n) {
         return n && $(n).attr(a);
       };
     }

     // make function which construct Object from definition object
     function getRecord(o) {
       return function(n) {
         if (!n) return null;
         var rec = {};
         for (var k in o) {
           if (o.hasOwnProperty(k))
             rec[k] = $(n).scrape(o[k]);
         }
         return rec;
       };
     }

     if (typeof def == 'string')
       def = {'selector': def};

     var value = def.value;
     var type = typeof value;
     var toValue = 
       type == 'function' ? value :
       type == 'object' ? getRecord(value) :
       type == 'string' && value.indexOf('@') == 0 ? getAttr(value.substring(1)) :
       getText;

     return def.array ?
       this.find(def.selector).map(function() {return toValue(this);}) :
     toValue(this.find(def.selector).get(0));
   };
})(jQuery);

// ===========
// how to use
// ===========
// 
// var record = $(document).scrape({
//   selector: '#foo > div.bar',
//   array: true,
//   value: {
//     title: 'div:first > div.foo a',
//     link: {
//       selector: 'div:first > div.foo a',
//       value: '@href'
//     },
//     price: {
//       selector: 'span.price',
//       value: function(n) {
//         return parseInt(n.firstChild.data.replace(/[^\d]/g, ''));
//       }
//     }
//   }
// });