W3C Validator does not send media type/mime headers

[JAB Creations]

As the title says the accept media type/mime is not set when the W3C (X)HTML validator contacts a URL. This prevents the validator from receiving XHTML pages as XHTML unless the media type/mime is hard-coded however few people would do this as it would block IE users. I'm not sure how to contact the W3C without begging for spammers to drop my email address in to their spam pools so if someone would be so kind as to pass the word I'd appreciate it!

[zcorpan]

http://validator.nu/ sends Accept and prefers XHTML, IIRC. It also changes its Accept header based on the parser selection in the UI.

[valkyr]

You can set up rules in your scripting language of choice to send headers specifically for the validator. In PHP for example you could do

Code: Select all

if (stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"W3C_Validator"))
{
   header("Content-type: application/xhtml+xml");
}


[JAB Creations]

You can set up rules in your scripting language of choice to send headers specifically for the validator. In PHP for example you could do

Code: Select all

if (stristr($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"],"W3C_Validator"))
{
   header("Content-type: application/xhtml+xml");
}


I did that however it's no different then people who detect IE based on the user agent. It works though, I don't imagine many people spoof the validator.