Why Web professionals should validate to W3C standards.

In early 2009, the web community was asked if they thought there still was a strong motivation for validation. Here are some reasons they mentioned:

Validation as a debugging tool

While most Web browsers do an increasingly good job of parsing even the worst HTML “tag soup”, some errors are not always caught gracefully. Very often, different software on different platforms will not handle errors in a similar fashion, making it extremely difficult to apply style or layout consistently.

Using standard, interoperable markup and stylesheets on the other hand, offers a much greater chance of having one’s page handled consistently across platforms and user-agents. Indeed, most developers creating rich Web applications know that reliable scripting needs the document to be parsed by User-Agents without any unexpected error, and will make sure that their markup and CSS is validated before creating a rich interactive layer.

When surveyed, a large majority of Web professionals will state that validation errors are the first thing they will check whenever they run into a Web styling or scripting bug.

Validation as a future-proof quality check

Checking that a page “displays fine” in several contemporary browsers may be a reasonable insurance that the page will “work” today, but it does not guarantee that it will work tomorrow.

In the past, many authors who relied on the quirks of Netscape 1.1 suddenly found their pages appeared totally blank in Netscape 2.0. Whilst Internet Explorer initially set out to be bug-compatible with Netscape, it too has moved towards standards compliance in later releases.

Validation is one of the simplest ways to check whether a page is built in accordance with Web standards, and provides one of the most reliable guarantees that future Web platforms will handle it as designed.

Validation eases maintenance

It is reasonable to consider that standards such as HTML and CSS are a form of “coding style” which is globally agreed upon. Creating Web pages or applications according to a widely accepted coding style makes them easier to maintain, even if the maintenance and evolution is performed by someone else.

Validation helps teach good practices

Many professionals have been authoring the Web with HTML and CSS for years and know these technologies by heart. Beginners and students, on the other hands, will find automated checking tools invaluable in spotting mistakes. Some teachers also stress that automated validation tests are a good introduction to broader, more complex quality concepts such as accessibility.

Validation is a sign of professionalism

As of today, there is little or no certification for Web professionals, and only a few universities teach Web technologies, leaving most Web-smiths to learn by themselves, with varied success. Seasoned, able professionals will take pride in creating Web content using semantic and well-formed markup, separation of style and content, etc. Validation can then be used as a quick check to determine whether the code is the clean work of a seasoned HTML author, or quickly hacked-together tag soup.

Note: Currently, Central Mass Web Design, Inc. insures W3C validation on all of the websites they release. Furthermore, before release these new websites are reviewed and tested in Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8, Firefox, and Google Chrome.

Thank you to http://validator.w3.org for their contribution to this article.

Have you ever sent a business related email you immediately regretted?  Forgot to attach an attachment?  Mistyped a word and as it was being sent noticed it?  Well Google and Gmail have your back!

If you haven’t heard about Gmail, you should.  Google’s website states, “Gmail is a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful. And maybe even fun. After all, Gmail has:

Less spam
Keep unwanted messages out of your inbox with Google’s innovative technology.

Mobile access
Read Gmail on your mobile phone by pointing your phone’s web browser to http://gmail.com/app.

Lots of space
Over 7309.223600 megabytes (and counting) of free storage so you’ll never need to delete another message.”

Can you maintain your email address with domain name?  Absolutely!  We have been using Gmail at Central Mass Web Design for months now.  I must admit having my work email, web based, is a plus.  I can integrate it into my Palm, as well as check it from anywhere.  (Gmail also has Blackberry applications.)    Not to mention, it’s all free.

So what has Gmail done to make this all even better?  They have added an undo feature to their send mail option.   No more will we send emails to the wrong people.  No more will we forget to send attachments and immediately have to send a second email, making us look unorganized and incompetent. No more will we go on a rant, and immediately regret sending it to our boss.  Gmail allows us to get it back!

Downfalls to this new application… well, if the email is completely sent, there is no getting it back.  Gmail will hold the email for 5 seconds before sending it.  This is the time you have to hit undo, 5 seconds.  Once the email says “sent”, you cannot recover it.  Is this the first step to having completely error proof emails?  Is the future of email a completely integrated email system that communicates with all carriers to allow an unsend feature for all emails no matter how long ago they were sent?  One could hope!

-Kimberly Veautour

The Central Mass Web Design Team is thrilled to announce the release of 2 new websites!

James Stillman of Stillman Landscape came to us with a very short deadline, and a specific reason for starting a new website. He wanted to showcase his amazing work at the Flower and Patio Show in Worcester, Ma that was to take place in just 4 weeks. The Central Mass Web design team, pulled together a great website that shows just what a perfection to detail person James Stillman is, and what great work he has accomplished.

www.stillmanlandscape.com

BSR Labs asked Central Mass Web Design to create a website that was great to look at, easy to navigate, but also showed the field they were in to be innovative and dynamic. Using different types of code, we were able to create a space at the bottom of the page that made the website easy to use and interactive for the client.

www.bsrlabs.com

Check back often for more releases, as the CMWD team breaks ground with some innovative websites coming your way!

Kimberly Veautour