Re: External submissions for Validator service

On 28.08.01 at 18:49, Alex Vincent <jscript@pacbell.net> wrote:

>I'm building a website to assist people in creating webpages which follow
>"best practices" -- XHTML, object-oriented programming, etc.  I like your
>HTML Validation service a lot, and I figure "why reinvent the wheel?". 
>I'd like to be able to submit a form from a webpage I create (and my
>website fills in) to the W3C HTML Validation service directly.
>
>I don't want to infringe on W3C copyrights or anything, so the first part
>of this e-mail is about getting permission in writing to do so, and
>finding out any conditions the W3C would attach thereto for any webpage
>submitting to its validator service.

I don't speak for the W3C, but the W3C HTMl Validation is a freely
accessible service so linking to it should not be a problem. I assume
people use common sense, of course. :-)

I'd be a bit carefull about using a custom front-end and/or framing it; not
that I think anyone would mind very much, but it's always better to be safe
then sorry.

For the greatest amount of flexibility, I suggest you download the source
and set up a local copy on your web server. The validator is open source so
this should not be a problem.


As mentioned, I don't speak for the W3C -- I don't, and never have, had any
authority to speak for them -- so this should in no way shape or form be
construed to be an official response from the W3C or have any binding
obligation on them.


>The second part of this e-mail is about the technical requirements for
>doing so.  I notice W3C has not yet implemented a textarea-based upload
>form (wishlist!!!),

It's on the TODO and we have some code for it, but it's not in a usable
state just yet.


>so obviously I would have to fill in the appropriate URI myself. (My site
>is designed to do this, among other things.)  I have just looked over the
>source code for the submission page (http://validator.w3.org ), and I do
>not see any hidden data fields in the source.  Nonetheless, I would like
>to know if there would be any special fields or field names I need to
>include for a "custom" validation submit page -- and if the Validator
>would safely ignore extraneous form fields submitted.  (It would not be
>terribly difficult to build a strictly compliant form.  I'd just like to
>see what kind of flexibility I have.)

We currently ignore any unknown parameters, but be aware that we may decide
to add new parameters at any point. Current parameters will likely continue
to work exactly as before, but we may add new ones (and there are a few
internal parameters that aren't exposed on that page).

Your best bet would probably be to make a local installationn, but you
should be able to do what you want by simply creating a custom form. I see
no obvious caveats with what you are attempting to do.

Please feel free to ask if you need any help, and do let us know if there
is anything we could do to make this sort of application easier in future
versions.

Received on Saturday, 1 September 2001 07:57:14 UTC