HTML Validator

[Fred]

I get totally confused over whether to validate or not as the case may be.
I've tried using the WC3 validator on http://www.book-holidays-direct.com/
but it keeps coming back with items that are missing but are actually in the
html page such as < or > is missing. I use FP 2002. Is it worth validating
and is there a more friendly validation service somewhere on the web. Coments
welcome.

 

[Corey Bryant]

If you rely fully on FP 2002 to create a website and you neglect to go in and
change code, it will not validate.

For example, looking at the error, it seems you are using XHTML - which is
good, but FP 2002 does not fully understand how to handle XHTML.

You have: <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-gb">
but it should be more like:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-gb" />
Since XHTML tags need to be closed.

You have:
<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
but it should be more like:
<script type="text/javascript">

And XHTML tags should be in lower case as well.

There are other errors but most of the errors are just Frontpage coding
erros while using the WYSIWYG editor. Expression web does a much better job
but it does require one to be a bit more savvy on XHTML than Frontpage did.

 

[Fred]

Thanks for coming back. Sorry but I was experamenting with Doc Types and left
a temp xhtml code at the top of the page. I've now replaced it with what I
think should be correct. I've run the validator again but I'm still getting
confused by the answers as it staes on this example:

Error Line 40 column 21: value of attribute "NAME" must be a single token.
<meta name="Microsoft Border" content="tb, default">
This attribute can not take a space-separated list of words as a value, but
only one word ("token"). This may also be caused by the use of a space for
the value of an attribute which does not permit it.

As the "NAME" was created by FP as two words "Microsoft Border" why is the
validator saying that this is an error?

I suppose the real question is DO I NEED TO VALIDATE MY HTML at all?

 

[Ronx]

The meta tags associated with shared borders and themes in FrontPage are
invalid HTML and will never validate, nor will FrontPage text navigation
bars.

Successful validation using a complete <!doctype...> (including the URL
part) ensures that the page will display in standards mode in all modern
browsers. Standards mode is important for some sites, since this means
the pages will look the same in all modern browsers (within a pixel or
two). Quirks mode (what you may get if validation fails) means that
pages in IE may not display the same as in FireFox or Opera.

As far as "Must I validate?" is concerned - if the pages work in all
browsers to your satisfaction (test in all common browsers - at least
IE6, IE7, FireFox, Opera), there is nothing to worry about today. Next
week, however, a new browser may enter the market that renders invalid
pages horribly...
--
Ron Symonds - Microsoft MVP (FrontPage)
Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.
FrontPage Support: http://www.frontpagemvps.com/
http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp

 

[Corey Bryant]

As suggested, Frontpage will create extra code from time to time. If you are
going to rely on borders, you might consider looking into a DWT. This will
give you a bit more control and you can do away with shared borders.

MS created Expression web after years of getting complaints from web
developers that Frontpage creates horrific code. But it allowed users to
easily create a website without knowing a bit of code. Expression Web will
do the same thing, but it is better if you understand code

 

[Tom Miller]

I suppose the real question is DO I NEED TO VALIDATE MY HTML at all?
Maybe yes, maybe no.

The closer you come to having your website validate, the less likely your
customers will have any problems using your site using most of the
"standard" browser implementations. But because your using FP to write the
html, there are limits, unless you hand tweak the code, to how good the html
will be.

I was looking at my FP 2002 "Tools -> Page Options -> Html tab" and you can
apparently get the tag names to all get converted to lower case. But when
you select each one of the html tags in the box many of them have the "omit
end tag" box checked and greyed out. So as another has said the generation
of Xhtml is not fully supported in FP2002.

You might actually have to run the Gui version of Tidyup and then use an
external ftp program to publish it. If you do that, you will want to put it
into a subdirectory structure that uses the exact same naming conventions
and paths as your webserver. Then the paths don't need to be re-processed
before publication.

Good luck,
Tom Miller, Hobbyist