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Find Element

Finds a single HTML element that matches a CSS selector and returns its outer HTML.

Common Properties​

  • Name - The custom name of the node.
  • Color - The custom color of the node.
  • Delay Before (sec) - Waits in seconds before executing the node.
  • Delay After (sec) - Waits in seconds after executing node.
  • Continue On Error - Automation will continue regardless of any error. The default value is false.
info

If the ContinueOnError property is true, no error is caught when the project is executed, even if a Catch node is used.

Inputs​

  • HTML - The HTML content to search within.
  • CSS Selector - The CSS selector pattern to match an element.

Options​

  • Contains Filter - Optional text that the matched element must contain.
  • Exclude Filter - Optional text that the matched element must not contain.

Output​

  • HTML Element - A string containing the outer HTML of the matched element.

How It Works​

The Find Element node searches HTML content using a CSS selector and returns the outer HTML of a single matching element. When executed, the node:

  1. Retrieves the HTML and CSS Selector input variables
  2. Validates that both HTML and CSS Selector are not empty
  3. Parses the HTML content into a goquery document
  4. Applies optional filtering:
    • Contains Filter - Only includes elements that contain the specified text
    • Exclude Filter - Excludes elements that contain the specified text
  5. Finds elements that match the CSS selector
  6. Validates that exactly one element matches (returns an error if zero or multiple elements match)
  7. Extracts the outer HTML of the matched element
  8. Sets the outer HTML string as the output variable

Requirements​

  • Valid HTML content to search within
  • Valid CSS selector pattern that matches exactly one element
  • Non-empty HTML and CSS Selector inputs

Error Handling​

The node will return specific errors in the following cases:

  • Empty or invalid HTML input - "HTML input can not be empty"
  • Empty or invalid CSS Selector input - "CSS Selector input can not be empty"
  • Malformed HTML that cannot be parsed - "Html data parse error"
  • No elements found matching the CSS selector - "Element not found."
  • Multiple elements found matching the CSS selector - "The CSS selector matches ambiguous multiple elements, but only one is expected."

Usage Notes​

  • Uses standard CSS selector syntax for element matching
  • Supports complex selectors like .class, #id, tag.class, tag[attr=value], etc.
  • The Contains Filter and Exclude Filter options work on the text content of elements
  • Returns the outer HTML of the matched element, preserving its complete structure
  • Useful for web scraping, content extraction, and HTML processing tasks
  • The outer HTML includes the element's opening tag, content, and closing tag
  • Can be chained with other DOM Parser nodes to further process the extracted element
  • Designed to find exactly one element - use Find All Elements if you need to match multiple elements
  • When no filters are applied, returns the first element matching the CSS selector