How to add attribute without value with Nokogiri

Question

I'm trying to add the attribute autoplay to an iframe. However, this attribute is only a markup, it does not have a value:

<iframe src="..." autoplay></iframe

In Nokogiri to add an attribute its like:

iframe = Nokogiri::HTML(iframe).at_xpath('//iframe')
iframe["autoplay"] = ""
puts iframe.to_s

---------- output ----------

"<iframe src="..." autoplay=""></iframe>"

Does Nokogiri has such a way to do this or should I remove /=""/ with an regex at the end?

Thanks

Answer 1

Nokogiri cannot do what you want, out of the box.

• Option 1: use your regex solution.

• Option 2: HTML syntax says that a boolean attribute can be set to its own value, thus this is legal and fine to do in your code:

  iframe["autoplay"] = "autoplay"
  

  Output:

  <iframe src="..." autoplay="autoplay"></iframe>
  

• Option 3: alter the Nokogiri gem code.

  $ edit nokogiri-1.6.6.2/lib/nokogiri/html/element_description_defaults.rb
  

  Find this line:

  IFRAME_ATTRS = [COREATTRS, 'longdesc', 'name', ...
  

  And insert autoplay:

  IFRAME_ATTRS = [COREATTRS, 'autoplay', 'longdesc', 'name', ...
  

  Now Nokogiri will treat autoplay as a binary attribute, as you want.

  I'm creating a pull request for your idea, to add this feature to Nokogiri for everyone:

  https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/pull/1291