Creating and Verifying Content

You should ensure that the content your application is intended to render is valid, standard, compliant, and optimized. Although ICEbrowser applications are tolerant of content errors, and can correct for many of them, the adage of "garbage in, garbage out" is useful to keep in mind.

Creating Content

If your application will render proprietary content, your organization can ensure that the content is valid and compliant through a disciplined content-creation process and thorough testing.

Use and follow the W3C specifications, and follow best practices for creating web pages. A few useful resources include the following:

Topic	Resource
W3C specifications
DOM Level 1	http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/
CSS	http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/
HTML/XHTML	http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/
HTTP	http://www.w3.org/Protocols/
Development practices and tips
Web page development best practices	http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/bestwebdev.html
JavaScript and CSS Tips	http://www.quirksmode.org/

Topic

Resource

W3C specifications

DOM Level 1

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/

CSS

http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

HTML/XHTML

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

HTTP

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/

Development practices and tips

Web page development best practices

http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/bestwebdev.html

JavaScript and CSS Tips

http://www.quirksmode.org/

Verifying Content

Invalid HTML coding is a common source of content-rendering problems. Mainstream browsers are forgiving of some invalid HTML, as are ICEbrowser applications.

However, there are instances where a badly formed HTML document may render in MSIE or Mozilla, but not render as expected in your ICEbrowser application. The extensive use of MSIE-proprietary HTML extensions may also occasionally cause such problems.

As part of your content creation process, or to help you identify errors in content, you can use a number of verification tools to determine if an HTML document is valid or to check for MSIE proprietary content. Some of these tools can fix invalid HTML documents. Some useful tools include the following:


Tool	Link and description
HTML Tidy	http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/ An open-source utility for the analysis and correction of HTML documents. It can provide a detailed breakdown of an HTML document's transgressions from the W3C specification, indicating the use of proprietary HTML extensions, missing tags, and so on. In addition, it can create a version of the document that will pass the W3C verification tests. This is a useful tool for debugging complex HTML content.
W3C Markup Validation Service	http://validator.w3.org/ or http://validator.w3.org:8001/ (beta version with improved messages) Verifies that an HTML document complies with the W3C HTML/XHTML specification.
W3C CSS Validation Service	http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ Verifies that a CSS complies with the W3C specification. This can be used to debug complex layout issues and determine if a badly formed CSS is preventing the application from rendering the content as expected.

If you have no control over the content your application is to render, and the content is targeted at a particular mainstream browser, consider using one of the browser emulation modes.