CSS Validator issues

Hardbyte · #1 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 11:03

Hey, im trying to get my css and html validated, however I get 1 error.

I have a script that detects the browser, then either puts in a firefox/ie6/ie7 etc.. css file after the core css file. This then allows the site to look good in most browsers and works a treat.

However when passing the URL thru the CSS validator online, it obviously doesnt detect a browser type, meaning I get only 1 css error because it can not access the missing browser css file.

Does this make any sense?

karinne · #2 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 12:40

By script you mean JS?

Use conditional comments instead

Code: Select all

<!--[if IE 6]>
Special instructions for IE 6 here
<![endif]-->

Hardbyte · #3 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 13:17

Nope - the site is written in php, it detects the browser then "includes" the .css dependant on the browser.

However, when you run the page thru a validator, the validator is not actually using a browser so it then cant include the file - meaning I get 1 error message for not including the file.

Would this still class as a css validation error which would need to be fixed to give me the green light?

karinne · #4 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 13:26

Well ... JS or PHP ... whatever ... you should be using conditional comment anyways.

And quite frankly, the amount of CSS that's different from browser to browser should NOT be alot.

If done well, only 1 stylesheet should suffice.

Hardbyte · #5 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 13:51

Many thanks for your reply.

So would the following work in just the one core.css file:

Code: Select all

<!--[if IE 6]>
Special instructions for IE 6 here
<![endif]--> 
<!--[if IE 7]>
Special instructions for IE 7 here
<![endif]--> 
<!--[if Firefox]>
Special instructions for Firefox here
<![endif]-->

etc...

Where can I find more information of this?

Thanks again.

karinne · #6 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 13:53

See the link I posted above.

And ... you should need a if Firefox ... it's IE that's the problem ... not firefox

Code your site properly and it will work in FF.

Hardbyte · #7 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 14:02

I always develop in firefox anyways, so ill just add the conditional comments to alter the IE parts.

Many thanks for your help.

karinne · #8 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 14:03

Yep ... no problem

Hardbyte · #9 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 14:18

Sorry - another quick question.

Is there of any way of putting this type of thing within a .css file. For example; I need to enter width:100%; if its IE but I dont need this at all if its firefox (hence the reason me picking up different css files using php)

Hardbyte · #10 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 14:19

Sorry - scrap that - its sorted now.

karinne · #11 (**permalink**) Sep 4th, 2007, 14:22

Your HTML document should look something like this

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en-CA" xml:lang="EN-CA">

<head>
    <title>Some title</title>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="main-styles.css" />
    
    <!--[if IE]>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="IE-styles.css" />
    <![endif]-->    


</head>

<body>

</body>
</html>

MikeHopley · #12 (**permalink**) Sep 6th, 2007, 12:48

Note that conditional comments are a proprietary feature of IE (and a great one too!).

You cannot use conditional comments to target other browsers. Only IE.

So this code is pointless:

Code: Select all

 <!--[if Firefox]>
Special instructions for Firefox here
<![endif]-->

The good news is that, if you make standards compliant code and don't try anything too cutting edge (CSS 3, say), then every browser except IE should render it fine. Then you can fix IE with conditional comments.

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CSS Validator issues