online html editor not writing compliant code

[nippi]

I am testing an online html editor, seems ok, until I tried to validate the code and realised instead of writing " when in wysiwyg mode, it writes ".

Likely problems or don't worry?

[ronin]

Ouch.

[vkaryl]

This sort of thing was why I refused to approve Configure for a non-profit that I do work for: the Media Director wanted something she and a few others who have "state" sites linked to the national site could use to update their own pages. Sounds like a blessing to ME in theory, but a nightmare in practice: when I tried a simple two line rewrite of basic content (NOTHING FANCY! not even any "new" tags!) on a temp page, then tried to validate it, I got all sorts of errors on html that previously validated to 4.01 strict.

AND the stupid program costs mega bucks (well, okay, "only" $150 US, far less than DW, but still....)

I honestly don't know of a CMS that the "non-html-savvy" would be able to use in what I call "safety".... Edit: I should add that I haven't tried all or even most of them.

[DrDoc]

Likely problems or don't worry?

Don't worry... That's something you can address down the road. But, it will work fine in most (if not all) browsers.

[vkaryl]

Dr. Doc: the simple changes I made using Configure did NOT display properly in anything but IE6+; not even IE 5.5 was exempt. Again, I repeat that I didn't try anything fancy, add or remove any tags, etc. I just rewrote one sentence into two - a simple addition that is exactly the sort of thing Configure et al are supposed to implement easily and seamlessly!

I didn't try to take it all apart to see what was happening, since I honestly don't have the time to whack away at a "heedless" sort of program. It's easier to have those who need to make simple changes to existing content just email text files to whoever's responsible for the site. You can make a couple of minor changes through WS_FTP Pro f'rinstance without doing anything other than opening the existing html file in notepad, saving after the changes are made, and uploading immmediately.

And I DO worry about non-valid html, whether I myself produce it with notepad (*sigh* NOT an unusual circumstance at all!), or it's produced FOR me by something like Configure or another online-type CMS.... Valid, validating html IS important, no matter whether "most" browsers will more or less display your pages the way you designed them....

[DrDoc]

Then the problem must be more than an unconverted quotation mark in the middle of some text. " vs. " is not known to cause any problems (as far as I know). For sure not in any recent browsers. You must be overlooking something else.

[vkaryl]

Entirely possible, though I did double-check the syntax at the time. And THAT is EXACTLY my point. If I (with YEARS of writing html in various editors including notepad and notetab) have that sort of problem with a program supposedly written SPECIFICALLY for the website non-pro, then it's simply an accident waiting to happen.

I can't recommend CMSs like Configure. And I can't recommend being so cavalier about valid/validating html/css. Not that anyone needs to give a rat's ass about my recommendations or lack thereof!

Edit to fix typos *sigh*

[ronin]

What made me sit up was the day a less experienced administrator runs it through the validator and sees that the quote marks should be escaped.

"oh, fair enough," says the administrator and does a search and replace to convert all the " marks into "

I can't see the page working in any browser after that.

Better not to have that sort of thing lying around in the first place.

[DrDoc]

I can't see the page working in any browser after that

" works in all recent browsers... Name one that doesn't support "...

[tedster]

convert all the " marks into "

Could cause problems if you replace the " marks around attributes, and not just quotes in the text.

[moltar]

typo3 apparently released a new version that produces valid XHTML! And it's free.

[ronin]

DrDoc> I was thinking about the same point as tedster mentioned.

<img src=&quot;http://www.mysite.com/myimage.png&quot; width=&quot;100&quot; height=&quot;50&quot; border=&quot;1&quot; alt=&quot;myimage&quot;>

doesn't work in Firefox 0.8, Opera 7.23 or IE 6.0

Please bear in mind I was talking about subsequent administrators tinkering with things they don't properly understand - in an attempt to replace the quote marks in the text to " they could end up messing up the HTML on the entire page.

Easy to fix, I know, but as I said before, better not to have that kind of thing lying around in the first place.

[DrDoc]

<img src=&quot;http://www.mysite.com/myimage.png&quot; width=&quot;100&quot; height=&quot;50&quot; border=&quot;1&quot; alt=&quot;myimage&quot;>

...that's not supposed to work though :)
You're supposed to use real quotes for attributes (single or double).

[ergophobe]

...that's not supposed to work though :)

... and that was Ronin's point. Some clueless admin takes over and somebody says "Hey I put your page through the validator and your quotes aren't escaped. You need to change quotes to &quot;" The new admin is so clueless that he does a universal replace and changes all " to &quot;

Realistically, though, that seems like a pretty long shot.

Tom

[ronin]

You haven't seen the network administrators at the company I used to work for >;->