CSS HTML Validator - The fast, all-in-one, HTML, CSS, Link, SEO, spelling, and accessibility checker for Windows, & htmlval for Mac and Linux
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Output Format (Original)

Sample Output

Note that this sample output was generated by (what is now) an obsolete version of CSS HTML Validator. However, the purpose is to show the format of the output. The actual validation messages may have changed or been updated in current versions.

VALIDATOR=CSE HTML Validator Professional VERSION=10.00 REGISTERED=YES REGISTRATIONNAME=Albert Wiersch FILENAME=t:\sampleoutput.html BYTESIZE=361 CHARSIZE=361 LINESCHECKED=12 PERCENTLINESCHECKED=100.0 LINESINFILE=12 LINESIGNORED=0 NUMBEROFENTITIES=0 NUMBEROFTAGNAMES=6 NUMBEROFCLOSINGTAGS=4 PERCENTCLOSED=66.7 SERVERSECTIONS=0 NUMBEROFHTMLCOMMENTS=0 NUMBEROFVALIDATORCOMMENTS=15 NUMBEROFMESSAGES=1 NUMBEROFERRORS=5 NUMBEROFWARNINGS=2 MAXMESSAGECHARS=633 MESSAGETYPE=WARNING MESSAGECATEGORY=Search Engine MESSAGENUMBER=2 MESSAGE=No title tag was found. Each page on a site should have its own unique title. Every title should contain appropriate keywords and search terms that are relevant to the page. Don't just stuff keywords in the title. The first words in the title are more likely to result in higher rankings than subsequent words, so use important keywords at the very beginning when reasonable. The title should also be something that a user will want to click on when it's listed on a search engine. A good title is also important when a visitor bookmarks a page. MESSAGETYPE=ERROR MESSAGECATEGORY=Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (Level A) MESSAGENUMBER=1 LINENUMBER=2 CHARLOCATION=2 CHARLOCATIONLENGTH=4 MESSAGE=The default human language of each web page should be identified [A, 3.1.1]. Consider using the "lang" and/or (for XHTML) "xml:lang" attributes with the "html" tag to specify the default human language. For example, lang="en" for English or lang="fr" for French. Specifying the language assists braille translation software, speech synthesizers, translation software, and has other benefits. Visit http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H57 for more information. MESSAGETYPE=MESSAGE MESSAGECATEGORY=Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (Priority 3) MESSAGENUMBER=1 LINENUMBER=2 CHARLOCATION=2 CHARLOCATIONLENGTH=4 MESSAGE=The natural primary language of a document should be identified [P3, 4.3]. Use the "lang" and/or (for XHTML) "xml:lang" attributes with the "html" tag to specify the language. For example, lang="en" for English or lang="fr" for French. Note that the language may also be specified by the web server through HTTP headers in which case checkpoint 4.3 would be satisfied without the "lang" or "xml:lang" attributes. Specifying the language assists braille translation software, speech synthesizers, translation software, and has other benefits. MESSAGETYPE=ERROR MESSAGENUMBER=2 LINENUMBER=4 CHARLOCATION=3 CHARLOCATIONLENGTH=6 MESSAGE=The "tittle" element is not a recognized element. Is it misspelled? MESSAGETYPE=ERROR MESSAGENUMBER=3 LINENUMBER=4 CHARLOCATION=10 CHARLOCATIONLENGTH=20 MESSAGE=Text is contained in a "head" element. Because it is contained here, it must also be contained in a "title" element. MESSAGETYPE=ERROR MESSAGENUMBER=4 LINENUMBER=4 CHARLOCATION=31 CHARLOCATIONLENGTH=6 MESSAGE=The end tag for "title" was found, but no start tag for "title" was found. This appears to be a misplaced end tag that should be removed. MESSAGETYPE=WARNING MESSAGECATEGORY=Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (Priority 2) MESSAGENUMBER=1 LINENUMBER=7 CHARLOCATION=3 CHARLOCATIONLENGTH=4 MESSAGE=This document has a "head" section but it does not contain a title element. Metadata should be provided to add semantic information to pages and sites [P2, 13.2]. Such metadata, like that supplied by the "head" element, can provide important orientation information to users. Metadata is information about your document. MESSAGETYPE=ERROR MESSAGECATEGORY=Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (Level A) MESSAGENUMBER=5 LINENUMBER=7 CHARLOCATION=3 CHARLOCATIONLENGTH=4 MESSAGE=This document has a "head" section but it does not contain a title element. Web pages should have titles that describe topic or purpose [A, 2.4.2]. Visit http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H25 for more information. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Section 508 Accessibility Standards MESSAGENUMBER=1 MESSAGE=[73] Section 508 accessibility checking is disabled. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Search Engine MESSAGENUMBER=2 MESSAGE=Keyword density: quick (1x - 20.0%), test (1x - 20.0%). Complete list. 3 words in exclude list. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGENUMBER=3 MESSAGE=HTML 4.01 Transitional document detected. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Search Engine MESSAGENUMBER=4 MESSAGE=[8] <meta name="description" content="(actual description)"> should be used in the "head" section to provide a brief description of what is contained on this page. Although descriptions may not be used directly for rankings, search engines may display descriptions in search results, with bolding of the relevent keywords. Therefore, a good description can help boost click-through rates and thus increase traffic to a website. If you're using HTML Validator's integrated editor, then this can be added from the 'Tags' menu or from the Tag Inserter. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Search Engine MESSAGENUMBER=5 MESSAGE=[8] <meta name="keywords" content="(actual keyword list)"> should be used in the "head" section to provide a list of keywords that are relevant to this page. This information may be used by search engines when indexing a site, however some experts now say meta keywords are no longer useful and may even be harmful if used by a competitor for research, so you may or may not want to use this tag. Our current recommendation is to use it, but avoid spending too much time on it. If you're using HTML Validator's integrated editor, then this can be added from the 'Tags' menu or from the Tag Inserter. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Search Engine MESSAGENUMBER=6 MESSAGE=No "h1" or "h2" header tag was found. Using these header tags (preferably with important keywords) to describe sub-topics of a page may improve search engine rankings. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Search Engine MESSAGENUMBER=7 MESSAGE=No italicizing, emphasizing, bolding, or strong tags were used. Emphasizing or italicizing keywords (with the "em" element) may improve rankings. Similarly, using strong text or bolding keywords (with the "strong" element) may also improve rankings. Some sources say that italicizing may have more benefit than bolding. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Search Engine MESSAGENUMBER=8 MESSAGE=[113] Random Search Engine Tip #29 - Important! Keep sites and content crawlable. Content that search engines can't access cannot be indexed. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Accessibility Tips MESSAGENUMBER=9 MESSAGE=[124] Random Accessibility Tip #17 - Provide text alternatives for ASCII art, emoticons and leetspeak. Visit http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H86 for more information. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGECATEGORY=Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (Priority 3) MESSAGENUMBER=10 MESSAGE=Provide keyboard shortcuts to important links (including those in client-side image maps), form controls, and groups of form controls. This is often done using the "accesskey" attribute. [P3, 9.5] MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGENUMBER=11 MESSAGE=An ICRA RDF label was not found in the "head" section of this document. Browsers that are enabled with this free, self-regulating, content rating system may not display documents that have not been labeled. Currently, however, ICRA labels are not widely used. Consider if it's worth including an ICRA label in this document. For more information and online ICRA tools, please visit http://www.icra.org/webmasters/. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGENUMBER=12 MESSAGE=[10] CSE HTML Validator Std/Pro allows you to disable certain messages (like this example message) and groups of related messages by disabling flags. For instance, the [10] at the beginning of this message indicates that you can disable this message by disabling validator flag 10. If you are using HTML Validator's integrated editor, then you can simply use your mouse on this message to open the context menu (usually done by right-clicking the mouse on this message) and select 'Disable Flag 10' to disable this message. For more information about disabling messages, please look at the Configuration section in the documentation. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGENUMBER=13 MESSAGE=CSE HTML Validator Std/Pro allows you to disable many messages on an individual basis without using flags. For instance, you can disable this message by using HTML Validator's integrated editor to open the context menu for this message (usually done by right-clicking the mouse on this message) and selecting 'Options for this Message->Disable Message' to disable this message. For more information about disabling messages, please look at the Configuration section in the documentation. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGENUMBER=14 MESSAGE=367 bytes; 0.3s@14.4Kbps, 0.1s@28.8, 0.1s@50, 0.1s@64, 0.0s@128, 0.0s@384, 0.0s@512, 0.0s@768, 0.0s@1.5Mbps, 0.0s@10Mbps. MESSAGETYPE=COMMENT MESSAGENUMBER=15 MESSAGE=0.01s, 5 errors, 2 warnings, 1 message, 15 validator comments, 12 lines, 6 tags (4 closed), 0 document comments, 0 entities, 5 words spell checked (0 in comments), 16 programs run. ENDOFFILE=YES

Output Format Notes

  1. Statistical and header information will always come before the first MESSAGETYPE but the order of the statistical information may change. Lines can also get added and deleted. For example, the number of character entities is given only when the user has Validate character references enabled.
  2. Every message begins with MESSAGETYPE and ends with another MESSAGETYPE or ENDOFFILE=YES. That is, all the message information for each message is between the beginning MESSAGETYPE line and the next MESSAGETYPE line or between the beginning MESSAGETYPE line and the ENDOFFILE line.
  3. The message information can come in any order and sometimes items may be omitted if it is not available (such as LINENUMBER for comments).
  4. The file will always end with ENDOFFILE=YES.
  5. There are four MESSAGETYPES: ERROR, WARNING, MESSAGE, and COMMENT.
  6. Each message type can have message numbers of 1, 2, 3, etc. (i.e. there can be an error message with a message number 1 as well as a warning message with a message number of 1, but there can't be two error messages with the same message number).

Parsing Recommendations

When parsing the output file, we recommend the following for best compatibility:

New Lines/Changes to Output File