Extract Anchor and URL from pasted HTML

Agents, Actions and Automation
9

The Automator action is quick to implement. But, alas, there seems to be no easy way to get the anchor text.

However, to my surprise, I managed to wrangle AppleScript to do the job by adapting scripts shared online.

Screen Shot 2021-03-20 at 11.35.34
Screen Shot 2021-03-20 at 11.35.341540×1658 422 KB

Script here 
-- adapted from https://www.macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?pid=182034, https://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=46657

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions

-- get any rich texts off the clipboard
set pb to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
set theRichTexts to (pb's readObjectsForClasses:{current application's NSAttributedString} options:(missing value)) as list

if (count of theRichTexts) = 0 then
	display dialog "No rich text found on the clipboard" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
	error number -128
end if

set theRichText to (item 1 of theRichTexts)

-- get length so we can start from the end
set start to (theRichText's |length|()) - 1

-- make plain string copy to work on
set theString to theRichText's |string|()'s mutableCopy()

set output to return

repeat while start ≥ 0
	set {aURL, theRange} to theRichText's attribute:(current application's NSLinkAttributeName) atIndex:start effectiveRange:(reference)
	if aURL is not missing value then
		-- get linked text
		set anchorText to theString's substringWithRange:theRange
		if aURL's |scheme|()'s isEqualToString:"mailto" then -- email address
			set newLink to aURL's resourceSpecifier()
		else if anchorText's containsString:"This Site" then -- resource specifier, remove //
			set newLink to aURL's resourceSpecifier()'s substringFromIndex:2
		else -- full URL
			set newLink to aURL's absoluteString()
		end if
		set output to ((output & anchorText as text) & "::" & newLink as text) & return
	end if
	set start to (location of theRange) - 2
end repeat

return output -- to view in Script Editor Result pane
And shorter, cleaned up script here 
-- adapted fr https://www.macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?pid=182034, https://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=46657
-- copy rich text to clipboard and run

use framework "Foundation"

-- get any rich texts off the clipboard
set pb to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard()
set theRichTexts to (pb's readObjectsForClasses:{current application's NSAttributedString} options:(missing value)) as list

set theRichText to (item 1 of theRichTexts)
set start to (theRichText's |length|()) - 1 -- will work from end backwards
set theString to theRichText's |string|()'s mutableCopy() -- plain string copy to work on
set output to ""

repeat while start ≥ 0
	set {aLink, theRange} to theRichText's attribute:(current application's NSLinkAttributeName) atIndex:start effectiveRange:(reference)
	
	if aLink is not missing value then
		set anchorText to theString's substringWithRange:theRange
		set urlText to aLink's absoluteString()
		set output to (anchorText as text) & "::" & (urlText as text) & return & output
	end if
	
	set start to (location of theRange) - 2
	
end repeat

return output -- to view in Script Editor Result pane

Here the output simply goes to the Result pane in the format suggested for copy-pasting. It could, of course, be delimited in other ways and automated to set values of attribute(s) in Tinderbox.

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