One hundred percent validation
Earlier today I put live the updated version of my site on The Auteurs. It had been due for an update and I’d been working on it on and off for the last few months. A burst of activity in the last few weeks has finally seen the job done. This update means that every single public XHTML, HTML, CSS, RDF, XML and RSS file on this site validates. That’s everything; all of the main site, all of the Auteurs site and all of the Michael Marshall Smith site.
The HTML, XHTML and CSS are all validated using a command-line script I wrote a few months ago to make use of various free utilities such as the WDG HTML Validator and the W3C CSS validator. This means I can validate all of my html in one go, or even just set up a cronjob to validate everything at a set time (which I’ve just done). If I run the script right now it tells me “Total invalid : 0 / 504 (100.00% valid)”.
The various RSS formats are validated using the RSS Validator, another invaluable resource. This is currently done by hand, which is easy as there are only 8 feeds right now. When it gets to the point that there are too many to validate individually, or when I have some spare time and the inclination, I’ll play with validating RSS with SOAP. For now we’ll stick with manual labour.
At this time last year the site looked as I expected it to, but the vast majority of it didn’t come close to validating. Since then I’ve reworked every part of the site to make it more accessible and standards-compliant. The move to standards has been a convenient side effect of my move to make the entire site easier to maintain. Now I have both and I’m a much happier developer.