Fix Validation Errors Without Knowing How
I’m sure nobody likes fixing website errors, but it’s part of the job. Missing tags or unrecognized attributes plague the biggest and smallest websites alike and in the world of the WYSIWYG web editor, these errors are bound to be on the rise for some time to come.
As someone who does not come from the world of code, I am not the person you would want to pick for fixing all of your website errors. At least you’d think I’m not the person you want. The really great thing about website validators is the fact that they tell you exactly what is wrong with the code behind your website and how to fix it. They make it so easy that literally anyone can fix validation errors, whether you know what you’re doing or live in the dark.
So, let’s take a little trip down validation lane…
Validate Your Website
The first step is to get your website validated. Enter your website (http://example.com) in the appropriate field and click the Check button to get your results. Sadly, Upsmack.com has one error:
Scrolling down the page shows me that I have a no attribute error on line 105, column 54. There’s also a nifty explanation of the error and suggestions for fixing it. If you don’t know what you’re doing, this can be a daunting task. Not so fast!
The website validation tool is telling me I have an attribute error that I need to fix. The first thing I do as someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing is just Google the error. There is no attribute target explains pretty easily that the target attribute was removed because it was decided to be not cool to force your visitors to open a new browser window if clicking a link. Remove the option, resolve the problem. Makes sense to me.
So I’ve got a target attribute tag on my site somewhere that needs to be destroyed. What now?
Go To The Source
You’ve figured out that there’s an error. You’ve figured out what the problem is and how to remove it. Now you just have to find it and remove it. The next step now is to visit the website you validated. Right-click on a text portion of the page and select “View Source.” This should bring up another browser window populated with the code that makes up your website.
If you’re using FireFox, you can click the Edit drop down and then select Find. Plug-in the line of text that includes your error. In my case it’s:
<a rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=”http://digg.com/submit?ph
With the click of a button I’m brought to the exact location of my error. You can maximize the page to get a better look at where the error is living in your code. In the beginning it may be a little tricky to figure out where the error actually lives in your website, but have a little patience and you’ll find it. My error happens to be from the Sociable Plug-In that desperately wants to open a new window when visitors try to promote my article. I went into the Settings tab for the Plug-In and sure enough, there’s a setting that allows me to force links to open in a new window. I unchecked that option to disable the feature. Let’s see what happens when I run Upsmack.com through the validator again:
Really, thank you. No applause necessary. This didn’t take very long for me to complete and I don’t even know what I’m doing. Now go find a website and run it through the validator. Let me know how many errors it comes up with. I think you’ll be pretty surprised to find just how many websites aren’t WC3 Compliant.
