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tosd · 2011-05-18, 19:13:49

Here is something a little different. A site for a blacksmith.

As a development platform for this type of simple website GetSimple was a delight to work with. Many, many thanks to the development team (my next click after submitting this post will be the donation link!).

And I am sure that Raven Forge's resident blacksmith will also find it a delight to administer.

Check it out: http://www.raven-forge.com.au

The only thing I am still wrestling with is the HTML validation for the pages that use the Simple Image Gallery plugin. Any suggestions welcome!

Connie · 2011-05-18, 19:26:46

Hej, that is an interesting page!

And the design fits very well to the topic! I am glad

You could switch to another doctype in your template to get a better validation, I suggest
in the moment it is:

Code:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

Code:
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.raven-forge.com.au/index.php?id=blacksmithing-classes">

should be

Code:
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.raven-forge.com.au/index.php?id=blacksmithing-classes"/>

so I think with a modified DocType you will have better results with the validator at http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3...ator%2F1.2

tosd · 2011-05-18, 19:46:58

Thanks for your reply Connie.

According to the W3C validator I am using the trailing slash in the Link line should not be included. Putting it in generates an error.

At this stage I have the home page validating correctly with the transitional DOCTYPE, it is just the pages that use use the Simple Image Galllery and News module that are producing a few errors. To achieve validation on the home page I had to remove all closing slashes from image and break tags.

Unfortunately I am not too clever when it comes to DOCTYPES and the correct syntax to use with them. I thought there may be a standard for GetSimple to ensure that plugins worked correctly with templates.

***ccagle8*** · 2011-05-18, 22:21:30

tosd Wrote:my next click after submitting this post will be the donation link!

Thank you for that!

polyfragmented · 2011-05-18, 23:30:50

tosd,

tosd Wrote:According to the W3C validator I am using the trailing slash in the Link line should not be included. Putting it in generates an error.

You're still having the problem at around line 31.

It seems a lot of the problems stem from the fact that the squareit gallery plugin assumes a different doctype. This isn't the plugin developer's fault per se, because s/he will probably generate output for a doctype s/he is using herself or which seems to be widespread or for whatever reason. If this causes problems you can either change your doctype and go through your own markup to match it or modifiy the plugin's HTML output. Either way, you probably will have to touch the website again. In this case, modifying the plugin's output may be less work. You can easily edit the template with differing doctypes and have it validated again to see how many errors are being spit out.

Code:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.raven-forge.com.au/plugins/squareit-gallery/plugins/fancybox/jquery.fancybox-1.3.1.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />

Removing the trailing slash reduces the validation errors from 5 to 3 in one go. Such errors can cascade, as is the case here.

At around line 33 the script element is missing a required attribute. The correct opening tag of the element must be

Code:
<script type="text/javascript">

This reduces the errors to 1 which seems to be the paragraph tag at around line 80/81. If I remove it, the document validates with still 7 warnings though. Those seem to stem from the slash-at-the-end problem mentioned earlier.

tosd Wrote:Unfortunately I am not too clever when it comes to DOCTYPES and the correct syntax to use with them. I thought there may be a standard for GetSimple to ensure that plugins worked correctly with templates.

I strongly suggest updating your knowledge about doctypes and allowed elements. You could start at the W3C consortium or search the web for articles about the matter. w3schools may be a good starting point as well.

There is no standard for assuring that plugins in GS generate appropriate markup for different doctypes unless the developer adds it herself. Since templates can use different doctypes that would not be reasonable I guess.

tosd · 2011-05-19, 10:31:00

Thank you so much for your detailed response and advice 'polyfragmented'. I think it will be best to to adopt an XHTML transitional DOCTYPE in my templates in future as I suspect it will work in best with the plugins. I am still looking into that though. Back to the books for a bit of research!

GetSimple is the most refreshing CMS I have come across recently and I am really looking forward to doing more with it.

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