C# Html Agility Pack ( SelectSingleNode )

Question

I'm trying to parse this field, but can't get it to work. Current attempt:

var name = doc.DocumentNode.SelectSingleNode("//*[@id='my_name']").InnerHtml;


<h1 class="bla" id="my_name">namehere</h1>

Error: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Appreciate any help.

@John - I can assure that the HTML is correctly loaded. I am trying to read my facebook name for learning purposes. Here is a screenshot from the Firebug plugin. The version i am using is 1.4.0.

http://i54.tinypic.com/kn3wo.jpg

I guess the problem is that profile_name is a child node or something, that's why I'm not able to read it?

Answer 1

Try this:

var name = doc.DocumentNode.SelectSingleNode("//@id='my_name'").InnerHtml;

Answer 2

The reason your code doesn't work is because there is JavaScript on the page that is actually writing out the <h1 id='profile_name'> tag, so if you're requesting the page from a User Agent (or via AJAX) that doesn't execute JavaScript then you won't find the element.

I was able to get my own name using the following selector:

string name = 
    doc.DocumentNode.SelectSingleNode("//a[@id='navAccountName']").InnerText;