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What is the value of W3C validation if... 1

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henrybarnett

henrybarnett

Technical User
Mar 25, 2009
10
FR
I have asked a French website company to write a website for me. I validated it using W3C's Validation service and saw loads of errors on every page. The declared doc type is:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="...

When I validate any of the pages it said there were Meta tags in uppercase and not closed properly, nesting errors, tags not allowed and more. The company told me their code written with Dreamweaver 8 and was correct. They pointed out that if I validated Google's or Firefox's or Microsoft's main page, they will and do show errors. So what is the value of WW3 validation and is "bad" code in this case bad? Will it not work in some browsers? For the moment I have no answer to give them. The site, which is half-live (!), is villa-stbarths com. I wrote another website myself henry-bar net which has no errors (I corrected them all) and it works fine. Should I pursue my gripe or let it go. Will it work as is? Henry
 
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There are at least a couple of ways to do this without breaking standards but to be honest, if you fix the other errors you could live with the Flash "problem".

Try Googling for "Flash Satay" if you want a way to embed Flash content whilst meeting XHTML 1 standards.

There are 2 flash objects on the page. The first is your photo area at the top, the second is a "button" labelled "Cortix" at the bottom. This button doesn't seem to do much at all. It's either broken because of the HTML errors or is being used in conjunction with a tracking script. Can't really tell from here.


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I'll try and get the photo bit changed but I think I'll not mention the "cortix" button as it is a link to them and it'll serve them right if it doesn't work!
 
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I am totally with Foamcow on this one.
If I contract a DTP agency who also code a bit HTML to create my website, I can expect the site to look good.
Beyond that I can only hope it will be half-way decently coded.
If I contract a "Internet & Multimedia Solutions" specialist, I can expect my site to be properly coded and functional, and half-way decent looking. Beyond that I can only hope it will be a work of visual art...

Cheers,
MiS

[navy]"We had to turn off that service to comply with the CDA Bill."[/navy]
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Makitso,

Cortix, being an Internet & Multimedia Solutions Company (that's what they say) I did expect my site to be properly coded and functional, and half-way decent looking. I did not ask for a work of art, the photos and text will do the necessary for me. I see many diverging opinions on valid code. I "Googled" Flash Satay and read some of the other articles and he seems to say that code validated sites are a moot point!

Henry
 
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Henry,

that's plain wrong. For example, search engines love valid HTML. Validating your page and correcting errors in one step of search engine optimisation.
Let alone the effect a site full of errors has on the perception of the professionality of the site owner.
;-)

[navy]"We had to turn off that service to comply with the CDA Bill."[/navy]
- The Bastard Operator From Hell
 
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I would remove any link to Cortix or mention of them from your site - why give them free advertising when they've given you bad code?



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I would remove any link to Cortix or mention of them from your site - why give them free advertising when they've given you bad code?
Click to expand...

I agree, but check the contract first.

I know of a UK company that operates in the way in which you described and their contract is very crafty with regards to things like that.

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I don't really care if they have a little name tag on the bottom that does not work.

Their contract is very well written. If I sneeze I am sued! They even sued a dissatisfied client who tried to contact other similar clients through a blog!!
 
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Thanks Foamcow. Yes I have. I asked to join the association but do not hold up much hope of getting out of any contract. I cannot say I do not want to and the expense of doing it alone is very high. I've had experience of the legal process in France and the judges have a tendency to give amazingly twisted logical/illogical results. I am actually working on the fact that they will not deliver a valid coded site. If they do not I will see if that is enough to say they have not fulfilled their contract so Bye Bye.

Henry
 
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Helly Henry,

No you weren't too harsh to me. I can also accept your viewpoint on the w3c validation reporting errors, but it does categorize them itself in errors and warnings.

And most pages have errors and still work. It's of course not that cumbersome to create error free pages in that category of some pictures and text in them. Even considering flash.

Every car you buy has an error, in that it will some day not work anymore. And there might be several errors despite of the main components working totally correct that don't show until you drove a thousand miles or so.

Software and especailly html is very different in respect to checking it from first to last byte.

A missing closing /td tag surely is an error, a major error, even if browser render the table correctly anyway.

Other things might be defined in the w3c standards but not implemented in some or even all browsers. It's still only a consortium proposing standards and guidelines, not laws.

Bye, Olaf.
 
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