HTML validation with Safari Tidy

A great extension for Firefox is the HTML Validator extension, which uses Tidy to automatically validate the HTML of every page you open in Firefox. This extension is one of the reasons I have for keeping Firefox running all day alongside Safari, my main browser.

But now, thanks to Kasper Nauwelaerts, you can add the same functionality to Safari. The Safari Tidy plugin works in a similar way to the HTML Validator extension, but it does miss a few features.

When Safari Tidy is installed, the rightmost part of the status bar at the bottom of the browser window will display the status of each page you visit. If a page contains invalid HTML, a warning or error icon will be displayed along with the number of warnings or errors. If you view source, all errors and warnings are shown in a list and will be highlighted in the source.

This is the first release of the Safari Tidy plugin, so maybe more features will be added later. (via Veerle)

Posted on May 24, 2006 in Browsers, Quicklinks

Comments

  1. May 24, 2006 by Nate klaiber

    Thanks for the link Roger! I just installed this in Safari. It will help now as I won’t have to bounce back and forth as much (except for a few other features/tools in firefox).

    Peace, Nate

  2. May 24, 2006 by Jeff

    It sure would be nice if they put something like that in every browser. A lot more people would write valid markup if their visitors saw a warning icon otherwise. It’s wishful thinking though, I guess.

  3. May 24, 2006 by Roger Johansson (Author comment)

    Jeff: That would be great, but indeed I think it’s wishful thinking.

  4. May 24, 2006 by Jan Brasna

    I’m a bit afraid of Safari plugins as they have made my Safari pretty unstable and unresponsive lately. Have you noticed any similar signs of such a behavior with this one?

  5. May 24, 2006 by Roger Johansson (Author comment)

    Jan: I’ve had the plugin installed for a couple of days and haven’t noticed any problems yet.

  6. May 24, 2006 by Scott

    Now if only there were some tools for Opera to help diagnose when it renders things differently.

  7. May 24, 2006 by Rob

    I don’t like to add stuff to my InputManagers folder. It is one of the weak spots in MacOS X. There was a security warning a few months ago where you should make InputManagers folder not writable as a virus/trojan called latestpics.tgz used that folder to spread itself to other applications.

    I still tried the Safari plugin and it seems to work. For now I stay with Firefox for development. But nice to have an alternative. :)

    //Rob

  8. May 25, 2006 by gary turner

    There’s something wrong with my FF Tidy. It indicates no warnings or errors for this page. No, really, I can see it right now. Now how could that be? :)

    cheers,

    gary

  9. May 25, 2006 by Lachlan Hunt

    If only Tidy wasn’t the most useless validation tool available, I’d consider trying it out. I’d like someone to create an validator extension based on a real SGML and/or XML parser.

  10. May 25, 2006 by Eckhard Rotte

    Thats great! I’d like to get more of these FF-like plugins in Safari!

    The next feature i would like to see in Safari (also in Camino) is this handy search bar on the bottom of the viewport. I’m using FF for development and every time I switch back to Safari this is the most missed tool.

    This dumb “find” box is annoying and doesn’ t fit to a modern Browser.

  11. May 25, 2006 by Robert Wellock

    Tidy is a really Lint Checker rather than a Validator.

  12. May 26, 2006 by Alex Leonard

    Ah deadly. I hadn’t come across this plugin for firefox before. Absolutely fantastic.. saves a lot of time in going through and validating pages when a site build is completed.

    I’m over the moon.

    (I clearly also need to get out more)

  13. May 26, 2006 by Jesse Skinner

    I leave the Tidy plugin disabled most of the time.. it’s too distressing to see an error icon in my browser for 99% of web sites. :)

  14. May 31, 2006 by Najk

    Cool tip, love the plugin

  15. August 7, 2006 by mushu

    Safari Tidy is wrong most of the time, when you click to see in view source the supposed error doesn’t even exist or they are incorrectly categorized as error or warning

    this website here ST shows 17 warnings lol

    its a worthless plugin highly not-recommend it

  16. August 7, 2006 by Roger Johansson (Author comment)

    mushu: It’s because it also checks the source of any iframes on the page and includes any errors it finds in those in the count. When you view source only the errors on the page you actually view source on are displayed.

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