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I am recieving the following statement after i attempt to check a page. Only problem is 1 minute ago it validated! This is severely annoying as i would like to finish an assignment that requires me to validate the HTML code with the http://validator.w3c.org validator and it is complaining that my server is not sending the required file format. I do not have a firewall turned on when i tried this, it worked a few times until i got it right then it stopped and wont validate any of the files i try to upload. Sorry, I am unable to validate this document because its content type is text/plain, which is not currently supported by this service. The Content-Type field is sent by your web server (or web browser if you use the file upload interface) and depends on its configuration. Commonly, web servers will have a mapping of filename extensions (such as ".html") to MIME Content-Type values (such as text/html). That you recieved this message can mean that your server is not configured correctly, that your file does not have the correct filename extension, or that you are attempting to validate a file type that we do not support yet. In the latter case you should let us know that you need us to support that content type (please include all relevant details, including the URL to the standards document defining the content type) using the instructions on the Feedback Page.
["annoying validator bug" is in no way a reasonably useful description of the issue", changing that] [ tested upload feature of validator, works fine, switching status to "worksforme" ] The fact that the validator refuses to validate documents served (or, in your case, since you are using upload, sent) with a wrong content-type is not a bug. If there is a bug, it is probably with the browser you are using to upload the documents to the validator. You claim the behaviour of the validator changed without giving any detail or proper process to reproduce the issue. This makes the bug report less useful. Probable cause of your problem: did you change the file name (or its extension, or its "default handler") between the moment the validator accepted it and the moment it stopped? minor note: it's validator.w3.org, not w3c.org.
i did not change anything on the file AT ALL, i closed the web page and then re-opened them and then tried to upload the same file and other files. i am using IE v6 all updated didn't change ANY settings. everything was just the same as it was. no other files seemed to work either!
Please upload the file you are trying to validate as an attachment to this bug report (see the "Create New Attachment" link at the top of the page). We'll also need to know the exact filename (including filename suffix) and which application this file type is bound to on your computer (which application is launched when you double-click the file in Windows Explorer); keeping in mind that WIndows by default will hide the real filename extension in Explorer windows. Please note that there is a very strong probability that this is an issue somewhere on your computer. Most likely Windows has associated the particular filename suffix with Notepad or similar, and thus Internet Explorer is sending incorrect Content-Type information when you try to upload the file to the Markup Validator.
Created attachment 369 [details] main page
the first application opened when i double click a .htm file is IE v6.0.2800.1106 filename is index.htm i don't doubt that the problem is probably on my computer but why the hell did it work quite a few times then i close IE open it again and get the error? its just that it is really annoying
Ok. The attachment to this bug demonstrates that your browser is sending the file as text/plain and that the problem lies on your end and not in the Markup Validator, since the Validator and this Bug Tracking system are entirely separate codebases (and it's unlikely both would have the same bug). Since this is not a problem in the Markup Validator I'm closing this bug report. We have however made a note that MSIE:win has problems in this regard and will investigate ways to alleviate the problem in a future version of the Markup Validator. Since the problem is on your system it's not possible for us to troubleshoot it effectively. Sorry. My only suggestion would be to download and install an alternative browser -- such as Mozilla.org's "Firefox" browser http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ (which is a better browser overall anyway) -- to work around this problem in IE (you will not need to remove IE to use another browser; both can be installed concurrently). For further support with Internet Explorer problems I suggest you contect your local tech support department, or one of the Microsoft-related forums on the Internet. For instance, the USENET Newsgroup comp.infosystems.www.browsers.ms-windows may be able to shed some light on the problem.
(In reply to comment #6) A bit late finding this but I never usually use the 'upload' feature. A colleague of mine also had the exact same problem, validates fine though IE6 when using the URI validator, but gave the text/plain error as above when using the upload validator method. I tried the same thing and I also get failures on all files using the upload method, all validate fine using the URI method. All the above using IE6 SP2 - my colleague using IE6 SP1. There are no such problems as you say in Firefox etc. Are you saying then that this is a flaw with Microsoft rather than an incompatibility problem with the validator? I would only guess that MS will not change their code to be compatible with the validator.
It is not a matter of compatibility only with the validator, it's a plain regression bug in that version of IE that MS should fix (to make it "compatible with the Internet" so to say, regarding this issue). If they don't fix it, well, there are several other browsers that are known to work better. See also bug 838.