I am trying to parse an html input using jsoup (v1.18.1), extract elements, extract each attribute value and replace as follows:

• > with &gt

• < with &lt

The method I’m feeding this code into cannot have these symbols inside attribute values.

Below is the code I’m using

        Elements elements = htmlDocument.getAllElements();

        // Process each element's attributes
        for (Element element : elements) {
            // Iterate over all attributes of the element
            for (Attribute attribute : element.attributes()) {
                String originalValue = attribute.getValue();
                // Escape only '>' and '<' characters
                String escapedValue = escapeSpecificHtmlChars(originalValue);
                // Update the attribute with the escaped value
                element.attr(attribute.getKey(), escapedValue);
            }
        }

    private String escapeSpecificHtmlChars(final String input) {
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(input)) {
            return input;
        }
        // Replace only '>' with '>' and '<' with '<'
        return input.replace(">", ">")
                .replace("<", "<");
    }

Let’s say the element is
<span role="text" aria-label=">test value>">Test value!</span>

Attribute aria-label has the value ">test value>"

escapedValue would be ">test value>"

But when I set the element using element.attr(attribute.getKey(), escapedValue);, the attribute value becomes ">test value>"

I want the escapedValue to stay as is when I set it as the attribute value.

Any help would be appreciated!