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Bug 4614 - uploded_file= fails when validation passes using web interface
Summary: uploded_file= fails when validation passes using web interface
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: Validator
Classification: Unclassified
Component: check (show other bugs)
Version: 0.7.4
Hardware: PC All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Olivier Thereaux
QA Contact: qa-dev tracking
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2007-06-10 00:48 UTC by zz_beard
Modified: 2007-06-11 12:06 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:


Attachments

Description zz_beard 2007-06-10 00:48:51 UTC
When using the web interface to validate my file, i get this:

Result: Passed validation  
File: J:\Documents and Settings\Beardy\Desktop\TestLog-04-06-2007.html 
Encoding: iso-8859-1 
Doctype: HTML 4.01 Transitional 

However using the URL
http://validator.w3.org/check?uploaded_file=J:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Beardy\Desktop\TestLog-04-06-2007.html

Validation fails giving this:

Result: Failed validation, 1 error  
File: "J:\Documents and Settings\Beardy\Desktop\TestLog-04-06-2007.html" 
Encoding: utf-8 
Doctype: (no Doctype found) 

No Character Encoding Found! Falling back to UTF-8. 


I am uncertain if this is actually a "BUG" as such, or me not understanding how to call the validator correctly... 

The online guidance I found at
http://validator.w3.org/docs/api.html#requestformat 
is less than clear to a newbie on the EXACT syntax to use constructing such URL's.

Your assistance would be greatly appreciated resolving this.
Comment 1 Ville Skyttä 2007-06-10 08:41:46 UTC
Files can not be uploaded by using the HTTP GET method (which is what happens when using a URL like the one in this report).  The documentation cited notes that it needs to be done using the HTTP POST method using the multipart/form-data Content-Type.
Comment 2 zz_beard 2007-06-10 21:01:13 UTC
Thanks for telling me this is expected behaviour, however, this leaves me no closer to knowing how I can actually validate a page without manually going to the web interface, which the windows automation script used to generate the page in the first place cannot read, or enter the file path into.

I'd *rather* verify it before publishing it on the www. but that becomes a bind when it's generated at 1am(ish) 365(6) days each year...

Perhaps your page should include some info for us newbies for whom the finer points of "POST" & "GET" methods are NOT self-evident?  A simple working example would probably suffice.

As I'm not up on the details of those finer points, surely I'm one of those cases who *needs* to validate their work???? It may even spare others from making similar mistakes to myself.
Comment 3 Olivier Thereaux 2007-06-11 12:06:44 UTC
(In reply to comment #2)
> Perhaps your page should include some info for us newbies for whom the finer
> points of "POST" & "GET" methods are NOT self-evident?  A simple working
> example would probably suffice.

Forget about POST and GET for a moment... When you use the "by URI" validation the URI is the information that the validator needs to go and retrieve your page online. When you work by file upload, however, the validator does not care about the file name, but it cares about the file itself. A mechanism whereby a service on a remote server would be able to retrieve a file on your local computer without you sending it would be a terrible security issue.

If you want the validator to go fetch the document for you, put it online. If you don't want to put it online, send it by file upload, direct input method, or use one of the (many) existing programs and browser extensions that allow you to interact with the validator, doing the content upload for you.