Cleaning up HTML errors in templates

[NgtCrwlr]

Hi Guys,

Well I'm starting the template cleanup project and need some advice on the best approach. At first I was going to post the errors that I found, but this would be too much of a time consumer. Here's an example of how hard that would be:

forumhome

5 The attribute value "text/css" for the TYPE attribute was not enclosed in single or double quotation marks when it must be.
in cssinclude template add quotes to (type="text/css")

112 The FONT tag must be closed but the closing tag was not found.
in forumbit template find (alt="Go to last post"></a> $lastpostdate) add (</normalfont>) after $lastpostdate

121 The ID or NAME attribute value "cat" has already been used in this document. A tag's ID or NAME attribute must be unique within the document. A tag cannot have an ID or NAME attribute that has already been used. Note that the ID values are not case sensitive (except when used to link to an anchor) and that ID and NAME attribute values share the same namespace.
Not sure how to handle this one yet

130 The closing tag for TD was found, but the tag was never opened or has been closed too many times.
130 The closing tag for TR was found, but the tag was never opened or has been closed too many times.
remove the /td /tr and leave /table in line 130

145 The FONT tag (opened in line 145) should be closed before the B tag is closed (nesting error).
find (A closed forum) swap </b></font> to </font></b>

Right now I'm thinking that I'll just do the cleanup and post the templates instead of pointing out where each error is.

Another question is how many of you use .css? For our forum I am replacing 99% of the FONT tags with CSS and am wondering if it would be better to just post the validated templates that I use. Kind of a catch22 because most of you have modified templates already. The big problem is figuring out how to let everyone know where the errors are.

By the way this whole ordeal is just because I'm a fanatic when it comes to valid HTML 4.0 code. I'm sure there are some of you who could care less as long as it works, but I'm sure there are other's like me that would prefer to have valid code.

Anyone have any input on how to go about this?

Larry "NgtCrwlr" Mingus
http://www.mis-forums.com

[Edited by NgtCrwlr on 06-14-2000 at 10:40 PM]

[Digi-God]

I'm also a bit anal when it comes to clean HTML. My site footer include proudly displays the 'valid HTML 4.01' logo all over the shop... It was VERY embarassing to see the rude things vBulletin did to my perfect record

If you need some help cleaning up the templates, give me a shout, I'll give you a hand.

I've started on it myself, but I'm getting nowhere...

I dumped the template table into a text file, and I'm driving myself nuts with the vi(1) editor trying to clean the thing up...

Any suggestions and help are MOST welcome!

- Philip

[chrispadfield]

maybe it is worth waiting until the new set of templates come out in the next release ?

[NgtCrwlr]

Sorry I'm late to reply. I thought this was a dead issue, at least no one till now showed any interest. I figured as long as no one came forward it would be a waist of my effort to clean up the default templates.

Instead I focused on my own templates. It took quite a few hours, but I did get all of our pages to pass CSE HTML Validator.

Digi-God, I think Chrspadfield has the right idea about waiting for the next release. It's a lot of work and I'm afraid a lot of the work would need to be done again in the next version.

I'm all for doing this as a group project when the new templates are ready. Just give me a toot when you're ready.

Cheers!

Larry

[eva2000]

well i like my templates the way i have them... cleaning it up would be a hell of a job..

which validator do you use ?

[NgtCrwlr]

eva2000 - This is what I use and highly recomend.
http://www.htmlvalidator.com/htmldownload.html

I think you would be surprised to see just how many HTML errors there are in vB. Give the trial version of CSE a shot, it's a tool you shouldn't be without.

Cheers!

-Larry

[Freddie Bingham]

The new templates are available in the members section. You can get to work early if you wish

[Meli]

I'm relatively new here so I'm pulling up old posts, but...

I was curious as to whether someone has been tasked with validating the HTML in version 2.0?

I am also a stickler for proper HTML, and I moving now toward having all my sites both valid and proper in XHTML 1.0. I'm just wondering how much work will be involved in 'fixing' the templates when the new version is released.

Thx.

[Freddie Bingham]

Validating the HTML in v2.0 will be almost (if not the last) thing that is done.

[Paul]

Validating the HTML in v2.0 will be almost (if not the last) thing that is done.

By '[last thing] that is done'... do you mean we should still be waiting for it?

I just found this thread while doing a search for others who might have tackled this. I'm currently in the process of migrating all of vbulletin's templates to valid XHTML/CSS. I'm actually trying to eliminate tables.

I sure hope a more serious effort happens with vB3.

[Scott MacVicar]

Well what an old thread.

But i've been working on it over the weekend
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=ht...com%2Fforum%2F but this is on the vB2 style since its what we have at the moment.

[Orfejs]

Scott MacVicar
Nice to know you've cleaned it. It took some time ...