Is there an auto validator

How to become W3C Validated quickly

[newborn]

Hello how do I auto validate my web pages?

Is there a software that does the validating process for you?
Or is the best option to get a web developer to do it for me?

I have a network of websites and as you guessed I did not validate...so Im in trouble now. I used Front Page 2003 to do all my websites and they are in both HTML and ASP pages. Any suggesstions?

NB

[cameraman]

There's a couple of Firefox extensions that do it, and there's:
[validator.w3.org ]

[penders]

Is there a software that does the validating process for you?
Or is the best option to get a web developer to do it for me?

Unless the page/site was a complete mash of hacks and outmoded concepts (that ideally would require a good head scratch and a rewrite) then a web developer would still run it through a validator (if you were implying otherwise). A validator doesn't necessarily tell you how to fix the problem - it might give you an idea as to what the problem is (ie. "tag <#*$!> isn't allowed here"), you still need to know how to fix it in a standards compliant/accessible way (and why) - although HTML Tidy can try and fix some (basic) things for you.

I've been using CSE HTML Validator V6.5 Pro recently (not free, this version is a few years old, latest is V8) - the 'Pro' versions can batch process an entire site and produces, nothing short of, a mass of information (if you let it)! Must say, I'm very impressed! Would be great to hear opinions from others who have used this and/or any other 'batch capable'/verbose validators. (I've not found any mention of 'CSE' in these forums for a couple of years...?)

[rocknbil]

Homesite, formerly by Macromedia but now by Adobe, has CSE HTML Validator, HTML Tidy, and six other "Code Sweepers" built into it. It also has a a variety of html/xhtml levels you can validate to (example, set it to HTML 4.0, it will validate to 4.0 spec.)

It has hundreds of other time-saving features, some I've never even used, including auto completion and tag completion, tag insight, function completion, color coding options, you can make your own set of macro key functions for favorite tags, create custom menus in the program, save templates, it's endless. Homesite is the best hand coding proggie I've found.

It can validate one document, all open docs, or hundreds in a directory, and has been 99% accurate with the W3C validator - but if your question is will the validation function correct invalid documents for you, the answer is no. Like any other validator it only points to the line numbers of the errors. The Code Sweepers will make some corrections for you, format your code, and other cool fix-ups.

[g1smd]

After validating hundreds of sites over the years on behalf of many people, I think it is true to say that the same 20 code errors account for more than 99% of all the validation errors that I have ever seen.

I think several WebmasterWorld threads over the last year or two have listed the vast majority of what they were, and how to fix them. Once you have learnt those 20 fixes, you too will be able to fix 99% of all the errors that you will ever see.

[kieranmullen]

So why not list them instead of gloating about them?

Arent we here to help each other?

KieranMullen

[simonuk]

The main ones I can think of:

No Doctype
No alt tags
Not closing tags
No table summary
Using height attributes
Using border attirbute
Using align
Type not specified
using & etc instead of the html equivilent

[newborn]

In other words no help for a new born. I ran my sites through the W3C validator and index page alone has 144 errors.

So i guess then I cant buy any software that might say ok these are the errors #1 - #10 and more importantly say should we correct? i.e the software do it. Problems then

[kieranmullen]

Some programs are better at producing compliant code as well.

Dont use frontpage. Use dreamweaver as well.

You could also post your website to freelance coders website to have them clean it up.

KM

[simonuk]

Firefox has some good extensions including HTML validators that will show the errors, give examples of what they mean and then give examples on how to fix them.

This isn't the end of the matter if you want true accessibility but it's a good place to start.

Simon.

[kieranmullen]

Create a sitemap for visitors and for spiders. They dont like java/flash menus. Create robots.txt for pages you dont want crawler. Remove long query strings if you can and replace with a static page pull.

page.html?ID=7 = page7.html pageX.html

Written through a .htaccess

Unsure of how important ALT tags are for images unless images are your business. If you are selling insurance I dont know how important they are.

Comments anyone?

[Robin_reala]

If you've got some programming skill and a spare *nix machine you could easily combine a local install of validator [validator.w3.org] and one of the many open source spiders out there.

[londrum]

newborn: about those 144 errors... it's probably not as bad as you think. if you have a mistake near the top of the page then it will effect everything coming below it.
if you just fix that one at the top, then a lot of the other errors will solve themselves.

for example, i've done this loads if times... if you forget to close a <span>, and then follow it with <p>'s <div>'s <h2>'s, or whatever, then it will chuck up loads of errors because you're not allowed to put block-level elements in a <span>.
by closing the span you'll fix all the other errors below it.