HTMLValidator : Java Glossary

Why Validate?

HTMLValidator is extremely configurable. You can get it to ignore picky errors for now, then when you have the big problems with your site cleaned up, turn them back on. You can also make it super picky, so that your HTML is easier to process with programs, or to gradually migrate your site to XHTML.

Learning What CSE HTML Validator Can Do

HTMLValidator comes in three versions. See this comparison chart to help you decide which version you need.

Configuring

Here’s how I configured it to demand balancing </li> tags.

1. Click Options ⇒ Configuration Editor ⇒ Edit ⇒ Tag Names.
2. On the top right, Select li (020) with the drop down box on the right (not the box on the left) as the “Tag Name Being Configured”
3. On the right, select the “Required end tag” radio button.
4. You’ll probably want to repeat this for all li tags whose context is distinguished with a number.
5. Save the configuration file to a different filename to make sure it doesn’t get overwritten if the CSE HTML Validator is reinstalled or updated.

I set check for high ASCII character on.

I set require lower case tags and attributes. Consistency never hurts.

I set required quoted attribute values. This consistency helps later with any search/replace or one-off text processing programs.

Other files in:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.userid\Application Data\AI Internet Solutions\CSE HTML Validator\8.0\
or in Vista:
C:\Users\roedy\AppData\Roaming\AI Internet Solutions\CSE HTML Validator\8.0\, you can configure include:

• cssinsertercfg.txt
• htmlvalV80.cfg: I suggest putting this file in some permanent data directory so it will be backed up and won’t get lost on reinstall.
• javascriptinsertercfg.txt
• msgidcfg.xml
• phpinsertercfg.txt
• taginsertercfg.txt
• tidyprofiles.xml
• userinsertercfg.txt

& and &amp;

Gotchas

• Make sure you uncheck the batch wizard option “After validating a target list, set process to ‘No’ for the targets with no errors, warnings or bad links.” Otherwise your validations will gradually stop working.
• The check for high ASCII characters is done without regard to tags. Unfortunately, this means you can’t use <cseignore> to to suppress high ASCII error messages.

Tips

• Use copy/paste the file name in the batch validation browser report to revalidate the bad document in regular mode, where you can correct the errors in its editor.
• Create a batch descriptor to validate your whole site, but limit it to changes within the last day (a feature available currently only in beta Last revised: 2008-06-23). Run this before every upload. It will complete quite quickly and this habit will prevent you from ever uploading bad HTML.
• Use the recent feature the batch validator version 9 (in beta currently) to only check files that have changed within n days where n can be a fraction. This will save needlessly checking files over and over. I now run a global check of all recently changed files several times a day. This helps me keep on top of any errors.

Validate your Webpages Free

Check your document online with CSE HTML Validator Lite. URL: