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W3 HTML Validator


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Posted

I have seen some postings related to this but, nothing in detail. I ran the w3.org html validator on my OSC site and it came back with a ton (35 to be exact) things that were not valid. Most of them were related to margins and table backgrounds. Has anyone ran this on their site and corrected some or all of the issues it listed? Is it possible with OSC? I would like to make my more html 4.01 valid (there are advantages to it) but, I don't know if it is possible.

Posted
Is it possible with OSC? I would like to make my more html 4.01 valid (there are advantages to it) but, I don't know if it is possible.

It is possible. Whether it's worth spending the time (for very little gain), I'm undecided on.

Posted
Is it possible with OSC?  I would like to make my more html 4.01 valid (there are advantages to it) but, I don't know if it is possible.

It is possible. Whether it's worth spending the time (for very little gain), I'm undecided on.

I am pretty sure I saw a posting from you mentioning that you have your site valid. Why did you do it? If you did.

 

I think that there are some reasons to. It will load slightly faster, it looks better to search engines. It will be valid for most browsers. I can't think of anything else.

Posted
I am pretty sure I saw a posting from you mentioning that you have your site valid. Why did you do it? If you did.

Exactly what you said. Having valid HTML can only benefit:

 

1/ Search Engine recognition

2/ It will load very slightly faster

3/ Valid HTML will not break the majority of browsers

 

And 1 more very important issue: Valid HTML allows your website to be more accessible to those people with impairments (example: blind people).

 

I estimate that it takes 3 hours to make any Oscommerce site fully validate to HTML 4.01 transitional. If you were to go "stricy" expect to triple that time at least.

 

My (personal) thought is that this is too much work to warrant at this point in time. Perhaps when MS3 comes out, or MS4 it would be worth doing.

 

I have offered my time to the Core Team for HTML validation purposes, but as yet, have heard nothing back. What I will probably end up doing is waiting until MS3, taking it, making it validate and then uploading as a contribution (assuming I get no "official" contact from the Core Team).

Posted
I am pretty sure I saw a posting from you mentioning that you have your site valid.  Why did you do it?  If you did.

Exactly what you said. Having valid HTML can only benefit:

 

1/ Search Engine recognition

2/ It will load very slightly faster

3/ Valid HTML will not break the majority of browsers

 

And 1 more very important issue: Valid HTML allows your website to be more accessible to those people with impairments (example: blind people).

 

I estimate that it takes 3 hours to make any Oscommerce site fully validate to HTML 4.01 transitional. If you were to go "stricy" expect to triple that time at least.

 

My (personal) thought is that this is too much work to warrant at this point in time. Perhaps when MS3 comes out, or MS4 it would be worth doing.

 

I have offered my time to the Core Team for HTML validation purposes, but as yet, have heard nothing back. What I will probably end up doing is waiting until MS3, taking it, making it validate and then uploading as a contribution (assuming I get no "official" contact from the Core Team).

Good point about accessiblity. There is another reason for me to do it and that is to help me with my web skills. I am not the best (although I can work with most of OSC) at PHP. So, it is good practice for me to do things like that. We will see. If you have any advice I would appreciate it, if not, no biggie. I will figure it out as I always do. :-)

Posted
You could start here:

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2027

very easy to install

Most of the errors I got on the html validator were related to table properties like marginwidth, etc.
You can fix those just by changing the body tag, since that is where they are (not tables). It's worth noting that if you do that, you reduce browser compatibility. Some older browsers (IE4, NS4) require those to show the page properly (without margins).

 

Cheers,

Matt

Always back up before making changes.

Posted
You could start here:

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2027

very easy to install

Most of the errors I got on the html validator were related to table properties like marginwidth, etc.
You can fix those just by changing the body tag, since that is where they are (not tables). It's worth noting that if you do that, you reduce browser compatibility. Some older browsers (IE4, NS4) require those to show the page properly (without margins).

 

Cheers,

Matt

Ok, I see. Hmmm, seems interesting that if you fix one thing it breaks another :-). I guess that is the story of my life :-)

 

Well, I am beginning to wonder if it really is worth it :-)

Posted

The HTML produced is HTML valid - it's not broken in the way that the page will render incorrectly due to missing or extra HTML tags.

 

The errors that show up are very minor, with most existing due to browser compatibility reasons.

 

[There is a common bug report of the footer being misaligned to the right side column, which is a PHP bug, not an osCommerce bug ;)]

 

We will make sure though that the HTML validates 100% for the 2.2 MS3 release as the browser compatibility issues that have been addressed are today no longer important.

:heart:, osCommerce

Posted

Good stuff. Note also that there are "errors", which are not errors, and so do not get picked up by the validator. As an example;

 

-> Creating an outline (box border) by use of nested tables.

 

Simple to fix by getting rid of the boxes and replacing with a <div> (or even better two divs) and a stylesheet setting.

 

It would be nice to be given an idea of the extent of the HTML updates that are to take place for MS3 / MS4 etc. Is there anywhere that these changes (proposed changes or changes already made) can be seen ?

Posted
It would be nice to be given an idea of the extent of the HTML updates that are to take place for MS3 / MS4 etc.  Is there anywhere that these changes (proposed changes or changes already made) can be seen ?

Not yet - the work currently being done involves/combines several workboard entries and will not be commited to the public CVS server until they have been finalized.

 

Most of the fat (table within a table) is being replaced with div blocks (as you wrote above) - which also allows for some [very] nice javascript/css magic to be implemented :)

 

With the current workboard status, all changes will be finalized for the 2.2 MS3 release leaving the MS4 release to adding contributions only.

:heart:, osCommerce

Posted
Most of the fat (table within a table) is being replaced with div blocks (as you wrote above) - which also allows for some [very] nice javascript/css magic to be implemented :)

Indeed. I've been using the Thrashbox method of creating infoboxes on a test site. Having a small problem with them so I have never set the site live but I can see the right way forward for sure.

 

If you need help you know where I am.

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