Free HG template #729 - 45 HTML markup errors

iKerry · #1 12-10-2008, 04:47 PM

I have configured our new free HG template #729 (without flash) and it appears to be working well (see Community Communications). We love it.

Today I ran, for the first time, the HTML Validator test and got 45 errors. Yikes!
I wanted to see how many errors I had caused and so I installed a default unedited copy of the 729 template without any changes and again got 45 errors. (See below)

The first thing I need is to know what doc type to enter at the very top (before <html>)?

I'm a old Frontpage user (FP enters all the tags and HTML automatically) Now we use Expressions Web but it too doesn't require much fundamental knowledge about tags and HTML.

I don't know how to contact "Roger" the template author.

Thanks,

Kerry

Here's the Validator result of running a clean install of HG's template #729 on /729test/index.htm without any editing.

Quote:

Potential Issues

The following missing or conflicting information caused the validator to perform guesswork prior to validation. If the guess or fallback is incorrect, it may make validation results entirely incoherent. It is highly recommended to check these potential issues, and, if necessary, fix them and re-validate the document.

1.

Warning No Character Encoding Found! Falling back to windows-1252.

None of the standards sources gave any information on the character encoding labeling for this document. Without encoding information it is impossible to reliably validate the document. As a fallback solution, the "windows-1252" encoding was used to read the content and attempt to perform the validation, but this is likely to fail for all non-trivial documents.

Before defaulting to windows-1252 the validator also tried to read the content with the following encoding(s), without success: UTF-8.

Read the FAQ entry on character encoding for more details and pointers on how to fix this problem with your document.
2.

Warning Unable to Determine Parse Mode!

The validator can process documents either as XML (for document types such as XHTML, SVG, etc.) or SGML (for HTML 4.01 and prior versions). For this document, the information available was not sufficient to determine the parsing mode unambiguously, because:
* the MIME Media Type (text/html) can be used for XML or SGML document types
* No known Document Type could be detected
* No XML declaration (e.g <?xml version="1.0"?>) could be found at the beginning of the document.
* No XML namespace (e.g <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">) could be found at the root of the document.

As a default, the validator is falling back to SGML mode.
3.

Warning No DOCTYPE found! Checking with default HTML 4.01 Transitional Document Type.

No DOCTYPE Declaration could be found or recognized in this document. This generally means that the document is not declaring its Document Type at the top. It can also mean that the DOCTYPE declaration contains a spelling error, or that it is not using the correct syntax.

The document was checked using a default "fallback" Document Type Definition that closely resembles “HTML 4.01 Transitional”.

Learn how to add a doctype to your document from our FAQ.

↑ Top
Validation Output: 45 Errors
Error Line 1, Column 0: no document type declaration; implying "<!DOCTYPE HTML SYSTEM>".

striddy · #2 12-10-2008, 07:16 PM

It's HTML 4.01 transitional so use this at the DOCTYPE statement. It must be the first line of the file.

Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

ghpk · #3 12-13-2008, 04:23 PM

Not all templates are W3C Validated, you would need to re-code a little bit to make them work with w3 standards.

gwyneth · #4 12-13-2008, 05:51 PM

What a great learning experience! It's almost like someone made up some teaching exercises.

iKerry · #5 12-13-2008, 06:47 PM

I added <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> before the <html> of 279test/index.htm and it caused the tabs "Home Page, About Us, etc." to mover to the far left. (see default unedited copy of the 729 template ).

Suggestions?

Kerry

striddy · #6 12-13-2008, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iKerry

I added <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> before the <html> of 279test/index.htm and it caused the tabs "Home Page, About Us, etc." to mover to the far left. (see default unedited copy of the 729 template ).

Aloha Kerry.

Looks like you test page and your "live" page are slightly different besides the DOCTYPE declaration. Can you copy your "live" page as another test page and use that to experiment with. Begin by inserting the DOCTYPE declaration.

iKerry · #7 12-13-2008, 08:27 PM

Here's a copy of the live page. http://www.comcom121.org/279test2/index.htm I removed the <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> so that it's just as I installed it.

Sure would be nice if I could get this right. Never in 10 years, with 15 webs, have I done it correctly.

Thanks,

Kerry

Hullabaloo · #8 12-15-2008, 11:29 AM

If you are going to use that DOCTYPE you have to specify px in your padding statements.
style="padding:62 0 0 475;
has to be
style="padding:62px 0px 0px 475px;

and so on and so on and so on....

Stephen

Hullabaloo · #9 12-15-2008, 12:00 PM

After adding px I got some weirdness in the position of the rollovers, I put each on a separate line (make sure no white space in between) and seems to be fixed:

Code:

<div style="padding:7px 0px 0px 110px ">
<a href="index.htm" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image1','','images/mainrol.jpg',1)">
<img src="images/main.jpg" name="Image1" width="98" height="31" border="0"></a><a href="index-1.htm" style="margin-left:3 " onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image2','','images/aboutrol.jpg',1)">
<img src="images/about.jpg" name="Image2" width="115" height="31" border="0"></a><a href="index-2.htm" style="margin-left:3 " onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image3','','images/contrrol.jpg',1)">
<img src="images/contr.jpg" name="Image3" width="112" height="31" border="0"></a><a href="index-3.htm" style="margin-left:3 " onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image4','','images/servrol.jpg',1)">
<img src="images/serv.jpg" name="Image4" width="107" height="31" border="0"></a><a href="#" style="margin-left:3 " onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('Image5','','images/control.jpg',1)">
<img src="images/cont.jpg" name="Image5" width="100" height="31" border="0"></a></div>

iKerry · #10 12-15-2008, 12:25 PM

Hi Hullabaloo,

Rather than change coding can I insert another DOCTYPE?

Thanks,

Kerry

Hullabaloo · #11 12-15-2008, 01:43 PM

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

Will force "quirks" mode.
It displays ok locally for me in Firefox, IE and Opera, so it should work.

Quirks mode forces modern browsers (IE 6+, Netscape 6+, Mozilla 1+, Safari 1+, Opera 6+) to render more like older browsers (IE 5, Netscape 4, etc.), but supporting any new tags.

There are reasons not to use quirks mode but the template was probably written using an older browser so should work fine.

Stephen

striddy · #12 12-15-2008, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iKerry

Rather than change coding can I insert another DOCTYPE?

Aloha Kerry,
4.01 Transitional is the closest DOCTYPE to the way your template is coded. To change it to say xhtml you have much more re-coding to do.

Looks like the template creator didn't bother to check if the code validated correctly. This is why you may have some visitors with a less than ideal visual experience.

iKerry · #13 12-16-2008, 02:45 AM

The Quirks mode DOCTYPE works. http://www.comcom121.org/279test2/. It immediately fixed the tab positioning error.

I'll see what other errors Validator brings up later this week.

Thanks everyone,

Kerry

iKerry · #14 12-16-2008, 03:46 AM

Is this OK? It sure looks weird.

<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns

="urn:schemas-microsoft-com

ffice

ffice">

It came with the template.

Opps, the : and o turn to smilies.

Kerry

Hullabaloo · #15 12-16-2008, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iKerry

Is this OK? It sure looks weird.

<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns

="urn:schemas-microsoft-com

ffice

ffice">

It came with the template.

Opps, the : and o turn to smilies.

Kerry

Beats me, some kinda strange MS Word add-on. I doubt you need it.

iKerry · #16 12-16-2008, 04:12 PM

I've removed it from the /279test2/ template and replaced it with <html> and it doesn't appear to have effected the display when using IE, FF, Safari, or Opera.

Thanks,

Kerry

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