W3C CSS Validator / Validation Service

In a Nutshell

The CSS Validator is a free software developed by W3C, and a free online service .

Project Logistics

Project Host

W3C is hosting and leading this project, and has been since its origin in 2002.

(use the source from github to be sure to get the latest version)

Discussion / Development / Feedback Fora

Bug Tracking

User Mailing-list www-validator-css@w3.org

Archive

Developer Mailing-list public-qa-dev@w3.org

Archive
shared with other projects, hackers' forum
~40 subscribers
~30 messages/month

Development

Languages Used

java.

The code uses a lot of classes, which can be a bit overwhelming for a beginner, but most of the code is fairly simple. Some parts, however, are rather complex and/or would need a rewrite.

Translations

The CSS validator is translated in more than 10 languages. The translation kit contains instructions for translation, as well as two types of files:

static documentation (HTML, encoded as utf-8) pages
a properties (text) file listing the terms used in the validator, and their value in english, to be translated

Once a translation is submitted it is:

added to GitHub
tested: run (on the dev server) java org.w3c.css.index.TranslationTableGenerator.java will generate the translation table

The translation table is also used to track an need for translation updates when the code changes.

Development Speed

The development speed is fairly slow, with bursts of development when w3c staff gets some time or when interns get associated to the project.

The project is localised in many languages (10 at the time of this writing), and relies on community to get new/updated translations, which makes it slow to push any change to production.

As a result, we have managed to have 1 major release per year in the past few years.

Test Suite

There is a test suite

cd /usr/local/Jigsaw/Jigsaw/WWW/css-validator/

for i in `ls autotest/testsuite/xml/*.xml | sed 's,autotest/testsuite/xml/,,' | sed 's,.xml,,'`; do ./autotest/autotest.sh autotest/testsuite/xml/$i.xml; mv autotest/results/results.html autotest/results/$i.html; done

Plan and Vision

High-Level Objectives

Provide the web with a one-stop service for Web Quality check
Help raise quality for (m)any kind(s) of Web content
Build a positive culture of Web Quality
Future-proof our services (new formats, new usage)
Leverage Communities energy
Remain the trusted source by professionals
Find the right balance between accuracy and user-friendliness

Roadmap

New engine: The CSS validator is currently suffering from its usage of a relatively complex java engine for parsing and validation. With help, the engine could be rewritten using either java or a different technology (e.g javascript), while using the existing test suite and localization resources to keep the tool reliable and multilingual.
- discussion on W3C QandA weblog
- thread on www-style
move from a per-profile only validation to a checking of "all of CSS properties" by default, mirroring the current consensus in CSS Working Group that there is only "one CSS".
Add major features, such as accessibility checker (color contrast analysis) and browser bug check (your CSS is valid, but these feature may cause trouble).

Misc.

Resources

source code in GitHub
Feedback page
Win32 build script
WebService::Validator::CSS::W3C Perl module
thoughts on a new logo
CSS Validator FAQ
How to add CSS properties in the validator?, then send a Pull Request
LogValidator has CssValidator Support through WebService::Validator::CSS::W3C
...

Testing

There is WebService::Validator::CSS::W3C Perl module ...

It might be worthwhile to use Value definition parser @@ to generate test data for legal style sheets, ala

x { color: red }
x { color: green }
...
x { color: #eee }
x { color: #000 }
...
x { color: rgb(0, 0, 0) }
...

to get an idea of the implementation status for CSS3 features and to ensure that legal style sheets are not invalidated... Woult not be perfect as the lexical space might be infinite

x { width: 0px }
x { width: 1px }
x { width: 2px }
x { width: 3px }
...

but it is unlikely that there are bugs in this direction, except maybe

x { width: 16385px }                /* a */
x { width: 65537px }                /* b */
x { width: 4294967296px }           /* c */
x { width: 18446744073709551617px } /* d */
...

but these might be special cases... Indeed, the CssValidator does not handle this properly, it validates d but pretty prints

x { width : 1.8446744E19px }

which is not allowed... but that would be out of scope here, as only the pretty printer is affected...