HTML Checking for Large Sites
Rocket Validator automatically checks your pages on the W3C Validator.
Obsolete doctype. Expected “<!DOCTYPE html>”.
Rocket Validator checks HTML on your sites using the latest version of W3C Validator Nu HTML Checker, which is intended for HTML5 documents.
The page scanned is using an obsolete doctype, instead of the expected <!DOCTYPE html>.
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Related W3C validator issues
Rocket Validator checks HTML on your sites using the latest version of W3C Validator Nu HTML Checker, which is intended for HTML5 documents.
The page scanned is using an “almost standards mode” doctype, instead of the expected <!DOCTYPE html>. While the almost standards mode was used in the transition to HTML5, you should consider moving to the HTML5 standard.
Learn more about the “Almost standards mode”:
HTML documents are expected to start with a first line containing the Document Type Declaration, that defines the HTML version used. Since HTML5, it’s just <!DOCTYPE html>, which must appear before the start <html> tag.
Here’s an example of a minimal HTML5 document:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<p></p>
</body>
</html>
All HTML documents must start with a <!DOCTYPE> (Document Type Declaration), that informs browsers about the type and version of HTML used to build the document. In HTML5, this is simply <!DOCTYPE html> and must appear at the start of the document.
Here is an example of a minimal HTML document, including the Document Type Declaration at its start:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<p></p>
</body>
</html>
The old <acronym> element in previous versions is now obsolete, in HTML5 you must use <abbr> instead.
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The <big> tag is now obsolete. It was used to increase the size of text, you can do that using CSS instead. For example:
<p>Now this is <span style="font-size: larger;">big</span></p>
Read more:
A <script> element has been found that is using the now obsolete charset attribute. You can safely remove this attribute.
For example, this is using both type and charset attributes, with their default values. Both can be removed:
<script src="app.js" type="text/javascript" charset="UTF-8"></script>
and just use this:
<script src="app.js"></script>
Learn more:
The <font> element, used to define the font face, size and color in previous versions of HTML, is no longer valid in HTML5. Instead, you should rely on CSS styles.
For example, you can define a font size of 12px, bold text with inline styles like this:
<p style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold;">some text</p>
Learn more about CSS fonts:
The <script> tag allows authors to include dynamic scripts and data blocks in their documents. This tag accepts two optional attributes, type (which is unnecessary if it’s JavaScript, as that’s the default), and src to indicate the URL of the external script to use.
The language attribute is now obsolete and should not be used.
Read more about:
The <option> element no longer accepts a name attribute, which is now obsolete.
Example:
<select id="pet-select">
<option value="">--Please choose an option--</option>
<option value="dog">Dog</option>
<option value="cat">Cat</option>
<option value="hamster">Hamster</option>
</select>Learn more:
The <meta> element no longer accepts a scheme attribute, it’s now obsolete and should be removed.
For example, old documents adhering to old definitions in DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative) use this HTML tag to define a date:
<meta name="DC.Date.Created" scheme="W3CDTF" content="2009-11-30" />
As the scheme attribute is now obsolete, it should now be removed. The following HTML code will pass current validations, but you should check the exact definition to use if you want to keep using the DCMI tags.
<meta name="DC.Date.Created" content="2009-11-30" />
Learn more:
The <tt> tag, used in HTML4 to apply a monospaced (fixed width) font to the text, was deprecated in HTML5. Instead, you should use CSS to apply the desired font.
Example, instead of this deprecated code:
<tt>This is deprecated</tt>
You can define a monospaced text using font-family:
<span style="font-family: monospace;">This is monospaced text</span>
Learn more:
In HTML5, there’s no need to specify the version attribute - it is now obsolete. Here’s an example minimal HTML document to start with:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<p></p>
</body>
</html>Learn more:
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