HTML Guide

The type attribute on <a> elements, when present, gives a hint on the MIME type of the linked resource, for example:

<a href="application/pdf" src="book.pdf">Read our book</a>
<a href="image/jpeg" src="photo.jpeg">See a photo</a>

That is, we’re talking about the type of the linked resource, not the type of the <a> element, as it’s sometimes misunderstood. The following example is invalid because button is not a valid MIME type.

<a href="/order.php" type="button">Submit</a>

The type dob is not valid for an input. If you want to build a date picker field, you can use the native HTML input elements with type date, datetime-local, or a generic text input decorated with JavaScript and CSS.

In HTML, the type attribute for the <input> element specifies the type of input control that is to be displayed. The type attribute can have values like text, password, email, date, etc. Using an unsupported or invalid value like dob (which presumably stands for “date of birth”) will cause this validation error.

Here’s an example of how you can correct this issue by using a supported type attribute value for the date of birth input:

<label for="dob">Date of Birth:</label>
<input type="date" id="dob" name="dob">

In this corrected example, we’ve used the type="date" attribute value for the date of birth input. This is a valid type for handling dates in HTML forms. Replace the input type with a supported type according to the specific data you need to capture.

Alternatively you can use a JavaScript library to build a date picker on a generic text input. For example, the popular bootstrap-datepicker library will generate a date picker around a text input.

The href attribute of an <a> element contains an invalid character, that should be properly encoded as a URI percent-encoded character.

The href attribute of the a element contains an invalid backslash character, which is not permitted in URLs.

According to the WHATWG HTML living standard, the href attribute must contain a valid URL. URLs use forward slashes (/) for path separators, and backslashes are not allowed as they can cause browsers and validators to misinterpret the address. Backslashes often arise when file paths are copied from Windows environments.

Correct Usage:

• Always use forward slashes / in your URLs.
• Remove any backslashes from href values.

Example of incorrect usage:

<a href="images\picture.jpg">View Picture</a>

Corrected example:

<a href="images/picture.jpg">View Picture</a>

<a> tags can be used to link to an email address using the mailto protocol in the href attribute. Ensure that there is no space in the email address.

<a href="mailto: liza@example.com">This is wrong as it contains an space</a>

<a href="mailto:liza@example.com">This is OK</a>

The W3C HTML Validator issue you encountered indicates that the URL provided in the href attribute of an anchor (<a>) element is not formatted correctly.

How to Fix the Issue

• Check the Protocol: For a valid URL, make sure that after https: there are two slashes (//).
• Update the URL: Correct the URL format to include the missing slash.

Example of Incorrect HTML

Here is an example of the code that would trigger the validation error:

<a href="https:/example.comf">Example</a>

Corrected HTML

Here’s how the corrected code should look:

<a href="https://example.com">Example</a>

Summary

Make sure that all URLs within href attributes are correctly formatted with both slashes following the protocol (https:// or http://).

The W3C Validator issue you’re seeing is because the ping attribute on the <a> (anchor) element is supposed to contain a space-separated list of URLs to which, when the hyperlink is activated, the browser will send ping requests. The ping attribute must only contain proper “http” or “https” URLs, that is, relative URLs are not allowed.

Example of Incorrect Code

<a href="https://example.com" ping="/track">Visit Example</a>

Examples of Correct Code

1. Proper Ping URL: Ensure the ping URL starts with http or https and is correctly formatted.

   <a href="https://example.com" ping="https://example.com/track">Visit Example</a>

2. Multiple URLs: If you have multiple URLs, they should be space-separated and each should be a valid URL.

   <a href="https://example.com" ping="https://example.com/track https://example.com/another-track">Visit Example</a>

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Using invalid URL schemes like mailto: or /relative-path.
• Including broken URLs or URLs with protocols other than http or https.
• Incorrectly formatting multiple URLs; they must be space-separated, not comma-separated or otherwise.

Note

The ping property is not effective in Firefox and its usage may be limited due to privacy and security concerns.

The value used to define the type of a link is not valid. You’re probably using a URL instead of a valid type.

Example of a valid type:

<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="favicon.png">

The combination of type="module" and defer is not allowed. The type="module" attribute itself implies that the script should be executed in a deferred way, hence using the defer attribute is unnecessary and invalid.

Steps to Fix the Issue:

1. Remove the defer Attribute: When you use type="module", you should not include the defer attribute since module scripts defer automatically.

Incorrect Code:

<script type="module" defer src="example.js"></script>

Corrected Code:

<script type="module" src="example.js"></script>

The <script> tag allows authors to include dynamic scripts and data blocks in their documents. When the src is present, this tag accepts a type attribute which must be either:

• an empty string
• text/javascript (that’s the default, so it can be omitted)
• module

Examples:

<!-- This is valid, without a type it defaults to JavaScript -->
<script src="app.js"></script>

<!-- This is valid, but will warn that it can be omitted -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="app.js"></script>

<!-- An empty attribute is valid, but will warn that it can be omitted -->
<script type="" src="app.js"></script>

<!-- The module keyword is also valid as a type -->
<script type="module" src="app.js"></script>

<!-- Any other type is invalid -->
<script type="wrong" src="app.js"></script>
<script type="text/html" src="app.js"></script>
<script type="image/jpeg" src="app.js"></script>