Convert simple HTML to notebook cells (looking for implementations)

Questions
1

I was wondering, has anyone written tools to convert simple HTML to notebook cells? I’m only interested in the simplest tags of course, such as b, i, strong, em, a, hr, br, p, h1, h2, etc. I do not need tables, complex layouts, div or span (possibly with CSS), img, etc. Just the simplest things.

I can imagine several ways to tackle the problem, but it would take some amount of time implement this right and debug it. Also one of the difficulties is that boxes don’t seem to nest so easily. Think of a situatio such as

text <strong>bold <em>bold and italic</em> end</strong> plain

So is there anyone here who has already tackled the problem?

2

I have been using this programming pattern lately: (use Import instead if Import String if needed…)

XMLdata = ImportString["......",{"HTML","XMLObject"}];

body = Cases[ XMLdata ,XMLElement["body",_,content_]:>content,Infinity][[1]];

Row[body //. {XMLElement["strong",cellOptions_,content_]:>Style[Row[content],Bold],
XMLElement["em",cellOptions_,content_]:>Style[Row[content],Italic]}]

I hope this helps,

Luc