According to the W3C validator (http://validator.w3.org/) my site isn't valid, because of some affiliate code. The code looks like this: <a href="http://www.myreferer.com/mydb/?M=decalgirl&ID=Rainbow7180&L=1" target="_BLANK"><img src="http://www.decalgirl.com/graphics/banner-1.gif" alt="Console skins at DecalGirl" border="0" height="60" width="468"></a> Code (markup): And the validator has trouble with the ID and the L after my username - here are the error messages I get: Warning Line 136 column 180: cannot generate system identifier for general entity "ID". Error Line 136 column 180: general entity "ID" not defined and no default entity. Error Line 136 column 182: reference to entity "ID" for which no system identifier could be generated. The link works fine by itself and the page looks fine in Firefox and IE (don't have Opera) - so should I worry that my page doesn't validate because of that link, or is it not a big deal?
There's no reason for those errors. These appear to be bugs in the W3C validator. I tested that line in the HTML Help validator (and much more accurate instrument), and it correctly bypasses those elements, recognizing the semi-colons as part of a URL. You'd throw a couple errors if you were trying to validate to a script docype (HTML 4.01 Strict, XHTML 1.0 Strict or HTML 1.1), but if you'd using a transitional doctype, this bit of code is perfectly clean.
<img src="http://www.decalgirl.com/graphics/banner-1.gif" alt="Console skins at DecalGirl" border="0" height="60" width="468"> Code (markup): Should be <img src="http://www.decalgirl.com/graphics/banner-1.gif" alt="Console skins at DecalGirl" border="0" height="60" width="468" /> Code (markup):
That's not what I found when I checked out your site. The ampersands in your affiliate URIs are not specified as & Those errors are telling you that there are no html entities for &ID and &L which is what is actually in the uri because the ampersands (&) aren't converted to & No it shouldn't Rich
The index page is http://www.consolecolors.com/index.html and the affilliate banner is at the bottom. Sorry about the ampersands, I pulled the code from View Source instead of from the HTML itself. I didn't realize it would render differently. <A HREF="http://www.myreferer.com/mydb/?M=decalgirl&ID=Rainbow7180&L=1" TARGET="_BLANK"><img src="http://www.decalgirl.com/graphics/banner-1.gif" border="0" WIDTH="468" HEIGHT="60" ALT="Console skins at DecalGirl"></A> Code (markup): It is HTML 4.01 transitional. Thanks for the info, the_pm, I'll look for that online.
Rich_H got it. I was thinking that it had to be the &'s. Change every "&" symbol in the link to "&". It will work then. Any time you have a problem with validation due to entities open up the HTML file on you computer (Not Browser souce code) and do a search (CTRL+F for Windows) for "&" within the document. Anywhere you find an "&" without a semi-colon anywhere near it it is invalid code.
Oooh, gotcha, thanks!! I noticed their code isn't optimized... it doesn't provide the width and height... had to do it myself.
Here's a link: http://www.htmlhelp.com/cgi-bin/val...ecolors.com/index.html&warnings=yes&input=yes Other than your unclosed description metatag, everything checks out
I dont know why you care about the w3c standards honestly. Check how it looks in 10+ browsers and move on with your life, the w3c stuff wont make your css work in IE half the time..
That logic is about as flawed as a housebuilder saying "I don't know why you bother with building codes - if it stands, it's fine."