Problem validating

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Problem validating

document type does not allow element "FORM" here

palmpal

10:14 pm on Mar 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

Hello,
My website validated to HTML 4.01 until recently. I added a CGI script for a poll and now I have a validation error.

My source code:
form method="post" action="http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/survey/survey.pl">

My error message:
document type does not allow element "FORM" here; missing one of "APPLET", "OBJECT", "MAP", "IFRAME" start-tag

Can anyone tell me what the problem is? I'm pretty new to CGI scripts.

Thanks!

Alternative Future

10:24 pm on Mar 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

Hi palmpal,

Not too sure on cgi either but only thing i can see that might be causing the error is a name for the form!? which is used in the Document Object Model (DOM) [added]or try placing a type= again this might help![/added]

But as said am not to sure either :(

HTH,

-gs

tedster

10:39 pm on Mar 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

The message talks about the document type - what DTD are you using?

And I realise this may just be a copy/paste error, but your posted code has no < at the beginning of the form tag.

Allen

8:48 am on Mar 14, 2003 (gmt 0)

Are tags nested correctly?

You haven't got something like:
<table>
<form>
<....content....>
</table>
</form>

also check that your form tag isn't somewhere illegal like outside the body tag.

Allen

g1smd

12:30 am on Mar 15, 2003 (gmt 0)

Ca you post the 10 lines of code around the place the error is reported?

palmpal

2:52 am on Mar 15, 2003 (gmt 0)

OK here is my document type info:

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

Here is some of the code before and after the error. I have no other validation errors on this page except for the one mentioned in my earlier post.

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="50%">
<tr>
<td align="center"><a HREF="pkt015.htm">
<img BORDER="0" SRC="images/pkt015.jpg" ALT="Best Friends" width="100" height="102"></a></td>
<td align="center"><h4 CLASS="scpbody"><br>New!<br>Best Friends<br>Album!</h4>
</td>
</tr>
</table><BR>
<H4 CLASS="scpbody"><a href="#prod_name">View Product Categories</a><BR><BR>
Find out about new digital scrapbooking<br>products by <a href="#news">signing up</a> for our<br>monthly newsletter below!<BR></H4>
<a name="#prod_name"><IMG SRC="images/flwd.jpg" ALT="" WIDTH="300"></a><BR><BR>

<H4 CLASS="scpbody">When should new holiday layouts be added?<br>
<form method="post" action="http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/survey/survey.pl">
<input type="hidden" name="id" value="1">
<input type="radio" name="response" value="1">Before the Holiday<br>
<input type="radio" name="response" value="2">After the Holiday<br>
<input type="radio" name="response" value="3">Doesn't Matter<br>
<input type="submit" value="Vote!"></form></H4>
</DIV>
<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="50%"><DIV ALIGN="center"><A HREF="ppa.html">
<IMG SRC="images/pktbg.jpg" ALT="Pocket Photo Albums" BORDER="0" width="230" height="100"></A></DIV></TD>

Thanks for taking a look!

Palmpal

Nicu_Alecu

6:40 am on Mar 15, 2003 (gmt 0)

My guess (I'm actually pretty sure on this, but I still wouldn't stick my neck out ... LOL) is that you contained the form inside a <H4> tag. Try removing the <h4> (yeah, I know, it might mess things up) and see if it validates.

tedster

6:56 am on Mar 15, 2003 (gmt 0)

No question in my mind (out goes the neck!) Just close the H4 tag before the form tag opens and you should have it nailed.

Nicely spotted, Nicu_Alecu

g1smd

9:13 pm on Mar 15, 2003 (gmt 0)

As <h> tags are for headings, you are best off just using them to enclose a few words that are a heading. I agree with the above two posts, you are using the <h> tag incorrectly.

palmpal

11:06 pm on Mar 15, 2003 (gmt 0)

Thank you All!

I changed the <H> tags to <DIV> and everything validates fine. You are the best!

Palmpal

g1smd

9:10 am on Mar 16, 2003 (gmt 0)

If you have some short pieces of text that are paragraph headings then you should enclose them in <h> tags. The content of these tags is indexed by search engines.

One way to check your document outline is to feed the site through [validator.w3.org...] ticking the box show outline, scroll down past the error list to see your outline.