Extracting Text from “Pseudo” HTML

Question

I am trying to rebuild work orders from a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) SQL database into.pdf form so that they can be printed en masse--as opposed to one at a time (one at a time is the only means the MES allows for).

I am stuck when it comes to the work instructions that contain links and etc (the pseudo-html...not sure what else to call it). I run the SQL query for the data needed and put it into a Pandas dataframe. The following is an example of the "Text" column (the work instructions) in the dataframe:

 "DWG/TECH DATA: ALL TASK WITHIN THIS WORK ORDER ARE TO BE ACCOMPLISHED IAW: <#Tab><UT=""LinkInvoke(Slide(OBJECT_ID=OBJECTID,@GlyphName=@InlineText,@Classification=General,@RenderDescText=True,'@Desc=| Description: PANEL, |',@Caption=DWG 123456-123,REF_ID=REFID))""><#Tab> MOA DWG: <#Tab><UT=""LinkInvoke(Slide(OBJECT_ID=OBJECT ID,@GlyphName=@InlineText,@Classification=General,@RenderDescText=True,'@Desc=| Description: FACEPLATES |',@Caption=DWG 98765 Plate,REF_ID=REFID))""> <#Tab><UT=""LinkInvoke(Slide(OBJECT_ID=OBJID,@GlyphName=@InlineText,@Classification=General,@RenderDescText=True,'@Desc=| Description: ARTWORK |',@Caption=DWG 9999-8888 ARTWORK,REF_ID=REFID))""><#Tab>"

The data I am trying to return should look something like this:

DWG/TECH DATA: ALL TASK WITHIN THIS WORK ORDER ARE TO BE ACCOMPLISHED IAW:

DWG 123456-123

MOA DWG:

DWG 98765 Plate
DWG 9999-8888 ARTWORK

The information there tends to have a lot of copy paste inserted to it; so finding patterns proved too difficult for my regular expression skills. Essentially, I think it can happen if everything between a "<" and ">" gets deleted -- Except if it is between a "@Caption=" and ",".

I also tried to extract the text with beautifulsoup but the caption never came out.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

With string manipulation (not regex), something along these lines works:

work = '''DWG/TECH DATA: ALL TASK WITHIN THIS WORK ORDER ARE TO BE ACCOMPLISHED IAW:
<#Tab><UT=""LinkInvoke(Slide(OBJECT_ID=OBJECTID,@GlyphName=@InlineText,@Classification=General,@RenderDescText=True,'@Desc=| Description: PANEL, |',@Caption=DWG 123456-123 ,REF_ID=REFID))""><#Tab>
MOA DWG:
<#Tab><UT=""LinkInvoke(Slide(OBJECT_ID=OBJECT ID,@GlyphName=@InlineText,@Classification=General,@RenderDescText=True,'@Desc=| Description: FACEPLATES |',@Caption=DWG 98765 Plate,REF_ID=REFID))"">
<#Tab><UT=""LinkInvoke(Slide(OBJECT_ID=OBJID,@GlyphName=@InlineText,@Classification=General,@RenderDescText=True,'@Desc=| Description: ARTWORK |',@Caption=DWG 9999-8888 ARTWORK ,REF_ID=REFID))""><#Tab>"
'''

work_dat = work.splitlines()
for line in work_dat:
    line_lst = line.split('|')
    step_1 = [item  if "@Caption=" in item else line_lst for item in line_lst][0]
    step_2 = [item if len(step_1)==1 else step_1[2] for item in step_1]
    if len(step_2)>1:
        print(step_2[1].split('=')[1].split(',')[0].strip())
    else:
        print(step_2[0])

Output:

DWG/TECH DATA: ALL TASK WITHIN THIS WORK ORDER ARE TO BE ACCOMPLISHED IAW:
DWG 123456-123
MOA DWG:
DWG 98765 Plate
DWG 9999-8888 ARTWORK