W3C's HTML Validator

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May 2nd, 2002, 03:57 PM
chrisjk

W3C's HTML Validator

Is it crap...what is wrong with appending variables into URLs, and why isn't id picked up if it has a problem with them?

Quote:

Below are the results of attempting to parse this document with an SGML parser.

Line 50, column 35:
... td><a href="dealdisplay.php?id=521&PHPSESSID=59891d7f1533616 ...
^Error: unknown entity "PHPSESSID"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry, this document does not validate as HTML 4.01 Transitional.

That's the only error and it's damn annoying because it makes no sense
May 2nd, 2002, 10:24 PM

that probably why a lot of sites make PHPSESSID as s

s=PHPSESSID
May 3rd, 2002, 06:43 AM
Rick Bull

Try using &amp; instead of just & that worked for me with XHTML
May 3rd, 2002, 06:49 AM
punkpie_uk

Yeah, & is correct in ASCII standard
May 3rd, 2002, 08:46 AM
chrisjk

I'm not appending the '&PHPSESSID=...' bit though, PHP is doing that automatically for it's session tracking.

:confused: :confused:
May 3rd, 2002, 09:19 AM

I think you can turn that off, not sure. I use it as well and it doesn't appnd it to me. let me look into it.
May 3rd, 2002, 09:41 AM
chrisjk

I want it to do it though, otherwise the system breaks if the user turns cookies off.

I'm just wondering why the validator has a problem with

<a href="some.php?var=value&var1=value1">

that's standard HTTP stuff surely, PHP is doing nothing wrong :confused:
May 3rd, 2002, 09:46 AM

I had the same problem. maybe it looks for the variable and it if doesn't find it, then it gives a warning. I seen it skip some of mine, like your id, and give errors on other ones. so I don't think it is just PHPSESSID itself.
May 3rd, 2002, 09:52 AM
chrisjk

At least someone else is getting the same thing happen :D

where would it be looking for the variable though? I don't even see why it cares what is between the quotes of the href.
May 3rd, 2002, 10:08 AM

actually mine was in a link as well, but I was missing an alt atrrib in the img that had it on it and the error went away. I did nothing else after that.
May 3rd, 2002, 10:39 AM
chrisjk

hmm, it is an image hyperlink, but there is an alt attribute and I don't get any other errors
May 3rd, 2002, 12:54 PM

hey chris, I noticed something odd as well with the variables you are having troubles with.

it seems that all the errors are on the second variable in the link. like so

id=3&phpsession=
-------^ error on all the time. never on the first variable. maybe it nlt like one varialbe in the link.

just a thought.
May 4th, 2002, 09:24 PM
chrisjk

hmm, this is getting crazier all the time; I think i'll just put it down to a bug in the validator because what's wrong with multiple vars? :confused:

Thanks for your help
May 6th, 2002, 05:36 PM
Rick Bull

Unless I'm not understanding what you guys are saying, I said at the start of this thread that you have to write & as an entity like &amp; as anything starting with a & is supposed to only be an entity or escape character. Just change the & to &amp; and it should validate.