[ANN] W3C Markup Validator 0.8.0, Beta 2

== Beta test for the W3C Markup Validator - version 0.8.0 beta 2 ==

The new version of the W3C Markup Validator, to be released soon as  
version 0.8.0, is entering its second beta test period.

http://validator-test.w3.org/

The W3C Markup Validation Service, also known as "HTML validator", is  
a popular free service and software providing Web content authors a  
way to check Web documents.

The previous stable version (v0.7.4) of the validator was released  
last November, but work on the version 0.8 had been going for a very  
long time, and is now reaching maturity. Since the end of April, the  
new validator has been at beta stage, and with a number of bug fixes  
and UI polishing, we are now starting a second beta phase. If you  
would like to help with this beta test, please see the section  
"Testing and reporting issues" below.


** Changes **

There were many changes between the latest release of the validator  
and the current Beta.
For a list of changes between the release 0.7.4 and the first beta of  
0.8.0, see:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/2007Apr/0074.html

Below are the changes between 0.8.0 beta 1 and beta 2:

   *  Revised main UI. Cleaner design. Improved tabbing between  
validation methods. Adding toggled option visibility
   * Bug Fix: Fixing transcoding issues, encoding of source display
   * Bug Fix: For XML document types, not reporting xmlns:*  
attributes as an error
   * New Feature: Adding error message id to the SOAP API, error  
context (source snippet), added error message explanation
   * Bug Fix: Fixed fatal error display in SOAP API
   * Bug Fix: Fixed line number display in case of broken encoding
   * Usability: more usable fatal error displays, removed "reset  
form" button, rewordings, error message explanations...
   * Bug Fix: Fixed outline for non-xml document types
   * New FEature: Added support for XHTML + RDFa
   * New Feature: For non-xhtml XML documents without document type,  
the validator will not try to perform validation and will only check  
well-formedness
   * code cleanup, other bug fixes



** Testing and Reporting Issues **


In order to make the stable release as successful as possible, the  
tool will have to be tested in a variety of conditions by as many  
people as possible. This is the time when *you* get to make a big  
difference on the quality of the validator.

    * Test the new version online

In addition to the usual service, a test instance of the Markup  
Validator is available online at the following address:
http://validator-test.w3.org/

Feel free to use this instance, or install it on your environment.

    * Feedback and Bug Reports

When testing the beta version of the validator, you are invited to look
for, and report, any bug or issue you may encounter. This includes
validation bugs, software errors, User Interface issues, and other
suggestions. Bug reports regarding the recognition of document types are
particularly welcome.

Instructions for feedback are given at:
http://validator-test.w3.org/feedback.html

It is recommended to read through these instructions, and check the
Mail archives and Bug database, before sending a new bug report to the
publicly archived mailing-list www-validator@w3.org.

If reporting a bug for this beta test, be sure to mark it as  
belonging to version 0.8.0b1, so that developers can easily look  
through the issues raised during this beta test.

    * Install the validator locally

The validator is free software, and it is possible to install it on a
local Web server. Testing whether the latest version install and runs
properly on all systems, and checking that the installation guide is
correct and up to date (see below) would be valuable. People already
maintaining a local instance of the validator are especially invited
to install and test the beta version.

A tarball of the latest version of the validator, as well as the
catalogue of grammars it uses, are available:

http://validator.w3.org/dist/validator-0_8_0b2.tar.gz
http://validator.w3.org/dist/sgml-lib-0_8_0b2.tar.gz

The installation guide is online, and distributed with the software:
http://validator-test.w3.org/docs/install.html

For those already running an instance of validator 0.7.x, the  
following upgrade notes should be useful too:
http://www.w3.org/QA/2007/04/validator_080_upgrade_notes.html

   * Spread the word

As mentioned earlier, getting a high number of people to participate  
to this beta test would help make it a success. If you are part of a  
community of Web designers, developers, or other types of users of  
the W3C Markup Validator, invite others in these communities to  
participate, too. Please refer to this announcement on
the www-validator mailing-list:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/2007Jun/0002.html
and use your best judgement to avoid spamming.



**  Thank you  **

Many thanks to the people who have been giving feedback, opinions,  
reporting bugs or sending patches for the beta1 of the validator.  
We've tried to take all of that excellent feedback into account, and  
if it hasn't made its way into the validator yet, we hope to improve  
the validator even further in future versions. Special thanks to  
Valerio Proietti (of http://www.mootools.net/ ) for his work and help  
on improving the style and interaction of the validator's UI.


olivier
-- 
olivier Thereaux - W3C - http://www.w3.org/People/olivier/
W3C Open Source Software: http://www.w3.org/Status

Received on Friday, 1 June 2007 05:52:59 UTC