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| author | link <link@localhost> | 2001-02-23 09:06:49 +0000 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | link <link@localhost> | 2001-02-23 09:06:49 +0000 |
| commit | 1455eff94f527f606b7e360258fa3774731528d7 (patch) | |
| tree | f5e1a6c0fb011a12c5371b646486ff9dbad4a887 /htdocs/docs/users.html | |
| parent | 0d8ea0eb2b620b0ab52500d3d52f7cd3d8acf787 (diff) | |
| download | markup-validator-1455eff94f527f606b7e360258fa3774731528d7.zip markup-validator-1455eff94f527f606b7e360258fa3774731528d7.tar.gz markup-validator-1455eff94f527f606b7e360258fa3774731528d7.tar.bz2 | |
Checking in documentation. Mostly just importing (cleaned up versions of)
Scott Bigham's original FAQ/docs. New additions: a User Manual and information
for developers. All files use the (also new) base stylesheet.
Diffstat (limited to 'htdocs/docs/users.html')
| -rwxr-xr-x | htdocs/docs/users.html | 177 |
1 files changed, 177 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/htdocs/docs/users.html b/htdocs/docs/users.html new file mode 100755 index 0000000..0a89cff --- /dev/null +++ b/htdocs/docs/users.html @@ -0,0 +1,177 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + + <head> + <title>W3C HTML Validation Service User Manual</title> + <link rev="made" href="mailto:gerald@w3.org" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/base.css" /> + <meta name="keywords" content="HTML, Hypertext Markup Language, Validation, + W3C HTML Validation Service" /> + <meta name="description" content="W3C's easy-to-use HTML validation + service, based on an SGML parser." /> + <meta name="revision" content="$Id: users.html,v 1.1 2001-02-23 09:06:49 link Exp $" /> + <meta name="modified" content="$Date: 2001-02-23 09:06:49 $" /> + </head> + + <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000ee" vlink="#551a8b"> + <h1><a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img align="left" + src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/w3c_home" height="48" border="0" + alt="W3C" /></a> HTML Validator User Manual</h1> + <p align="right" class="navbar"> + <a href="about.html">About this service</a> | + <a href="whatsnew.html">What's new</a> | + <a href="source/">Source code</a> | + <a href="feedback.html">Feedback</a><br clear="right"/> + <a href="file-upload.html">Upload files</a> | + <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/">www-validator + archives</a> | + <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/">CSS validator</a> | + <a href="checklink">Link checker</a><br clear="right"/> + <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/">HTML Tidy</a> | + <a href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/">HTML home</a> | + <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/">HTML 4.01</a> | + <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/">XHTML 1.0</a> + <br clear="all" /> + </p> + + <div id="Quickstart" class="stb"> + <h2>QuickStart</h2> + <p> + Just type (or Cut&Paste) the URL for the page you want to validate + into the text field on the form and press the "Validate this page" + button. + </p> + <p> + If you have a local file you want to validate, choose the "File Upload" + link from the navigation menu. Select the button labelled "Browse..." + (or something like that, depending on your browser) and choose the file + you want to upload in the usual manner for your OS. + </p> + </div> + + <div id="Introduction" class="stb"> + <h2>Introduction</h2> + <p> + The W3C HTML Validation Service is a web gateway to a well known SGML + parser called SP. SP will take your HTML and compare it to a set of + objective syntax rules called a "DTD", a Document Type Definition. This + way you can be sure your HTML is really valid and not just that it + conforms to some random programmer's idea of "nice" HTML. Note that + valid HTML does not guarantee that your pages will work ok in all + browsers. Most of them are severly broken and you may need to find + alternate ways of achieveing your goal. + </p> + <p> + When you send an URL to the W3C HTML Validation Service, it will fetch + that URL and feed it to the SGML parser. If you upload a file it'll get + fed directly into the SGML parser. We then take the output from the + SGML parser and format it nicely as HTML and send it back to your web + browser. The W3C HTML Validation Service isn't generating any of the + error messages; they are all generated by the underlying SGML Parser + which is checking your HTML against the actual standard for the version + of HTML you are using. + </p> + </div> + + <div id="Options" class="stb"> + <h2>The Options</h2> + <p> + In addition to the text field where you enter an URL -- or the file + selection field if you are uploading files -- there are a few + checkboxes that alter the behaviour of the validator. The options are: + </p> + + <dl> + <dt>Show source input (<code>ss</code>)</dt> + <dd> + Displays the HTML source of the document you validated and links + error messages directly to lines in this output. Makes it easy to + see what's wrong. + </dd> + <dt>Show an outline of this document (<code>outline</code>)</dt> + <dd> + Will generate an outline of your document from the H1 - H6 elements. + For a properly formed document, this will be a nicely nested tree + structure. The visualization of your document's structure makes it + easier to see where you've skipped a heading. + </dd> + <dt>Show parse tree (<code>sp</code>)</dt> + <dd> + Shows you exactly how the SGML Parser read your document. Probably + best used only by advanced users as it deals with low-level SGML + constructs. + </dd> + <dt>exclude attributes from the parse tree (<code>noatt</code>)</dt> + <dd>Supress attributes from the parse tree to make it more readable.</dd> + </dl> + </div> + + <div id="Calling" class="stb"> + <h2>Calling the Validator</h2> + <p> + You can link directly to the Validator home page, or you can call the + Validator CGI program. The home page is <URL:<a + href="http://validator.w3.org/">http://validator.w3.org/</a>> at + the moment (and for the forseeable future) and the CGI program can be + reached at <URL:<a + href="http://validator.w3.org/check">http://validator.w3.org/check</a>>. + </p> + <p> + If you call the CGI program with extra path info matching "/referer" + (i.e. <URL:<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer">http://validator.w3.org/check/referer</a>>) + it will fetch the refering document and validate that. This means that + if you embed a link to that URL in your pages, following on that link + will send you the validation results for that page. + </p> + <p> + You can also link to the validation results for a specific page. You do + this by giving "check" an "uri" parameter pointing at the page you want + to validate. For example <URL:<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.example.com/">http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.example.com/</a>> + will validate the www.example.com home page. + </p> + <p> + The various options are listed above in the section + "<a href="#Options">The Options</a>" in paranthesis after the long + name. To add options to your links directly, append the options + separated by a semi-colon. For example <URL:<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.example.com/;ss;outline;sp">http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.example.com/;ss;outline;sp</a>> + will validate the example.com home page with "Show Source", "Outline" and + "Show Parse Tree" on, but "Exclude Attributes" off. + </p> + <p> + You may also see these separated by amperstands and equal-signs, but + this usage is deprecated and support may be removed at some time in the + future. + </p> + </div> + + <div id="Interpret" class="stb"> + <h2>Interpreting the results</h2> + <p> + Interpreting the error messages isn't quite what you'd call easy. The + error messages are generated in the context of a full SGML environment + which demands a somewhat higher level of technical detail then your + average HTML document. We're working on ways to make the error messages + more friendly, but for now feel free to email the + <a href="mailto:www-validator@w3.org">www-validator@w3.org</a> + mailinglist if you need help interpreting the results. This will have + the added benefit of letting us know which error messages are causing + the most trouble so we can fix those first. Please be as specific as + possible and include the <em>exact</em> error message and, preferably, an URL + we can validate to see for ourselves. + </p> + </div> + <div id="Installing" class="stb"> + <h2>Installing a local Validator</h2> + <p> + You can download the Validator to tun on your own system, but it's not + recommended for average users as the process is rather complex and + involves obscure incantations on the command line. <tt>:-)</tt> + </p> + <p> + If you feel you're up to the task, you can find the information you need + in our <a href="devel.html">Developer Manual</a>. + </p> + </div> + </body> +</html> |