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Validating Documents with Server Side Scripting

CSE HTML Validator attempts to make validating documents with server side scripting meaningful. The way it does this is by trying to ignore such scripts.

NOTE: CSE HTML Validator Lite may not support all the features and behaviors mentioned here, such as the Batch Wizard and integrated web browser.

For example, HTML Validator will ignore <% ... %> (ASP) and <? ... ?> (PHP) blocks that are not in tags. You'll have to make sure that HTML Validator will ignore the ASP blocks by making sure that the option to ignore these blocks (in the Validator Options) is checked. For PHP blocks, there is no option as it always ignores PHP blocks.

When an ASP, PHP, or MIVA macro appears in a tag, HTML Validator will convert it to "ASP", "PHP", or "MIVA". For example, if you are using PHP and you use <input type=<? echo("checkbox name=checkbox1 value=red selected"); ?>>, then the validator will simply see <input type=PHP>. HTML Validator will automatically accept attributes and attribute values if they are "ASP", "PHP", or "MIVA", which the validator will see in this case.

The result of doing all of the above makes it possible for CSE HTML Validator to be useful when writing documents such as ASP and PHP documents. However, because documents containing server side scripting can be complex, there may be many situations where CSE HTML Validator is not useful when validating raw documents containing ASP and PHP code. In this case, it is best to use CSE HTML Validator to check only the final output of the scripts. An easy way to do this is to use the Batch Wizard and add URL targets. The Batch Wizard will then request a URL from a server and check the HTML document that is returned after the server processes any scripts in the document. You can also open documents from the web using the integrated editor.

With CSE HTML Validator Standard and Professional, you can use the integrated web browser to browse the web inside of HTML Validator. The HTML source that is returned from the web server and shown in the integrated web browser can be automatically validated. This makes it easy to check the HTML produced by ASP, PHP, and similar pages.

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