XHTML Validation

Currently, EditMe does not output XHTML valid code. This is due to the nature of its XML/HTML generating engine.While you can create XHTML valid code in your Layout, EditMe will output singleton tags like META and IMG without self-closing them. For example <img src=".."> instead of <img src=".."/>.

We are working on changing this to output HTML or XHTML depending on the DOCTYPE of the layout used.

Developers can access the experimental implementation of this functionality by including the following code anywhere in their layout:

var __xhtml = true;

This can be put into an eval attribute command or in a server-side script tag. After inserting this code, you'll notice that singleton tags are self closed. After additional testing, EditMe will be updated to do this automatically for any layout with an XHTML DOCTYPE.

Another roadblock to XHTML validation is tag nesting violations in the standards skins. For example, you might find a DIV tag nested within a SPAN tag, which is not allowed. Until EditMe updates the existing skins to resolve these errors, you will need to do this on your own if you require that your site passes XHTML validation.

Finally, EditMe's layouts currently make heavy use of SPAN and DIV tags to insert attribute commands. A new SS Self-Removing Tag is now supported that allows attribute commands to be used in a layout without leaving any trace after processing. Use of the SS tag will likely be needed in the current skins to get them to pass XHTML validation.

These changes are being released early due to requests from customers that require XHTML validation for compliance reasons.

TIP: Do not add an XMLNS attribute to your layout's root HTML tag. This will break EditMe's layout parser. If you have __xhtml=true and the appropriate DOCTYPE set, EditMe will insert the appropriate HTML attributes for you.