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Offline validation To ensure that browsers can display your HTML page properly, you must make sure your HTML page meets certain conditions. This is called validation, which can be done on-line at W3C, but sometimes it's busy and you have to access the Internet. Even complex pages can take time. Sometimes it seems as if nothing happened. More useful would be if you can validate off-line on your own computer. By coincidence I have found an offline validator which works in OS/2-eCS. It is a Java program which is available for Windows, OS X and Linux. No OS/2-eCS. The author don't want to support it. Was a simple zip up to version 6.x sufficient, today with the latest version 7.x it is totally impossible to use the program. That's because a different browser version can not be specified anymore in the free version. You have to buy the program to get this option. I wrote about it to the author, but he sends back a general reply. Before you let yourself be tempted for the paid version, the package works very well, the https site where you should order and pay shows defects and Firefox comes with "corrupt" messages. Missed opportunity. License In the license you can read the following; LICENSE GRANT. You are granted a free non-exclusive and non-transferable right to use and distribute, for personal or commercial purposes the Software, provided any copy contains this license and all of the original proprietary notices. RESTRICTIONS. Except as otherwise expressly permitted in this Agreement, you are not allowed to: (a) modify or create any derivative works of the Software; (b) reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the Software except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation; (c) manipulate or alter the components that make up this Software in any way; (d) sell, rent, lease, sublicense, or otherwise transfer rights to the Software; (e) embed the Software within another product or service. System requirements
Installing Total Validator The Linux distribution is the most appropriate distribution for OS/2-eCS as a starting point. Download the original file totalvalidatorbasic.tar.gz.The file contains version 6.13.1 and is the last usable version for OS/2-eCS. From version 6.13.1 and up the possibilities of the free version are severely limited and an alternative browser can not be specified anymore. Therefore these versions have become unsuitable for OS/2-eCS. Given the standpoint of the author this will not change. Unpack in FC/2 the "tar.gz" to a "Tar"-file, the file will grow from ± 3.7 to 12.5 Mb. In FC/2 you can also extract the tar-file and then you end up with a directory name "totalvalidatorbasic" containing a number of subdirectories. Copy the contents of the directory "totalvalidatorbasic" to a new directory, for example, with a name like "totalvalidatorbasic_v6131". The largest subdirectory is the subdirectory "dicts". In it are the languages English (UK/U.S.), German, French, Spanish and Italian. Other languages can only be added with the paid version. In this way it is a firm discrimination, but that misses the author. Should we be raw about this? No! Why not?, because you can not add new words, this is only possible in the paid versions. So you keep getting reports with misspelled words that are perfectly correct. The spelling check is very basic and works only if the HTML page is set to the correct language. If you have pages in one of these languages it could be quite useful. Validating goes page by page in the free version and with spelling its going quite fast. The Linux distribution contains of course only help and tutorials for Linux. As written, the support for OS/2-eCS is 0.0. The used cmd file The latest useable version can, with not too much trouble, run in Open JDK and works under OS/2-eCS. I have a totalvalidator.cmd created with the following contents; @echo off set BEGINLIBPATH=[drive: java]\JAVA\JAVA160\bin set pad=%path% set path=[drive: java]\JAVA\JAVA160\bin [drive: tv] cd [drive: tv]\html-wiu\totalvalidatorbasic_v6131 java -Duser.home=[drive: tv]\html-wiu\totalvalidatorbasic_v6131 -jar totalvalidator.jar 2>totalvalidatorbugs.txt set path=%pad%I use 2 separate partitions, one for Java and one for Total Validator itself with the files created by this program. The references used in the cmd file;
should be replaced with real drive letters. Save the file and rename it to TV_J160.cmd. The "J160" indicates that this file works with Java version 1.60 (aka version 6). This file is copied to the totalvalidatorbasic_[version] directory. Furthermore, different paths?, adjust according to your needs. Set up Total Validator This file starts the validator on eCS. But there are still a few things to be done in the program itself;
In "Validations" you can select in the "HTML validations" a method, such as "XHTML 1.0 Frameset" or "HTML 4.01 Transitional" or "HTML 5.0". If you did set up your HTML page in the proper way you can select "Auto-detect". You can leave the box "Accessibility Validation" empty or opt for example "U.S. Section 508" or "AAA WCAG v2" and everything in between. With this option you can test how well the page can be accessed. The box "Spell check" remains empty if you use Dutch, because this is not supported in the free version. Very interesting is the checkbox "Check for broken links." If this is checked you have to connect to the network, because each link is verified. Handy! Furthermore, two check boxes to turn on warnings and/or if the page did test successful. In the section "Browser for results" you can setup the browser for displaying the results. If this field is blanc or if the program can not be found than the file "total_validator.sh" is used which won't work in OS/2-eCS. The package generates a HTML page with the results. In the picture you can read "I:\firefox_359\Firefox!EL.exe", at present it says "I:\firefox_10012\Firefox!EL.exe". Please note the drive letter and this setup works! I use the package RUN, hence the program name "Firefox!EL". If FireFox is already up and running then a new tab will open with the results and this goes fast. The box "Browser identification" is a bit unclear. Of course, no OS/2-eCS version. I added some and have not noticed anything. So let this stay on "Total Validator". In the section "Starting web page:" you have to specify the page you want to validate, so its going page after page. Is this annoying? no, I don't know about you, but I write page after page. The big advantage is offline validation, once problems arise the program displays all kinds of hints and tips which trace back to original W3C documents. Download In the file the discussed cmd file, all drive letters are set to C:, and an OS/2 Total Validator icon: TV-160 revisie 26 augustus 2013 |
