Parsing markup into element tree

Question

I need to parse markup not unlike XML or JSON into trees of elements, in PHP. I'm certain there exist libraries for doing this kind of thing, but I can't for the life of me find any.

Problem is this isn't XML or JSON; It's a number of obscure markups for which exist no specialized parsers. Thus I'm looking for a generic parser that can implement any markup in the form of an element tree.

Alternatively, articles on how to write one. I've written a recursive parser before, but am unsure how to approach making a generic, reusable one.

Answer 1

You could try this: http://pear.php.net/package/PHP_ParserGenerator with this: http://pear.php.net/package/PHP_LexerGenerator

There is also some versions of Lemon and JLex with support for emitting PHP here: http://wezfurlong.org/blog/2006/nov/parser-and-lexer-generators-for-php/

And this: https://drupal.org/project/grammar_parser