Building Standards Compliant Websites

John-Daniel Trask

Mindscape

What is a Standard?

• Agreed upon protocols
• Three types
  • De-facto
  • Industry
  • Government

Importance of Web Standards

• Ensure durability
• Ensure accessibility
• Ensure portability

HTML

• HTML 4.01
• Last revision
• Being superseded by XHTML

CSS

• Level 1 (CSS 1.0)
• Level 2 revision 1 (CSS 2.1)
• Level 3 (under development)
• Mobile Profile
• TV Profile

WAI

• Web Accessibility Initiative
• Guidelines for
  • Aiding disable audience
  • Aiding agent type support

NZ Standards

• e-Govt Web Guidelines
• Current version is 2.1, 3.09 under review
• http://www.e.govt.nz/standards/web-guidelines/
• E-GIF

Other Standards

• RSS / ATOM (and icon)
• SiteMaps
• OpenSearch

Why Standards Compliance Makes a Difference

• Acid2 Test

Implications of “no standard”

• Separate specification class emerges per browser
• More expensive delivery
• Frustrates users
• Hurts adoption

Microsoft and Web Standards

• Getting better
• IE7 is a major step forward
• IE8 under development (Acid2 compliant)
• Working with other organisations

IE7 Functional Advancements

• Support for OpenSearch
• Scaling handled by browser (text and graphics simultaneously)
• Phishing filter
• Tabbed browsing
• RSS platform support

IE7 Rendering Advancements

• Fixed more than 50 CSS bugs
• Transparent PNG support
• Added CSS 2.1 positioning
• Added CSS 2.1 selector support

Advancements in Tooling

• Validation added to existing tools
• CSS Control Adapters for ASP.Net 2.0
• Plug-ins for Internet Explorer
• Full new product line…

Expression Web

• For designers
• Standards based
• CSS based layout
• Strong support for XML and XSLT
• Direct integration with ASP.Net 2.0

Key Benefits

• Prevents non-compliant sites
• Rich CSS designer support
• No OOTB (out of the box) legacy tags
• Comprehensive DOCTYPE validation

How to use this stuff…

• Get demo of Expression Web
• Expression Web not on MSDN
• Designer is coming within VS Orcas!
• Download http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

Visual Studio

• Orcas, March CTP
• Richer validation support
• Link checking
• Tag structure visualization
• Web Designer and CSS support baked in Orcas
• ASP.Net 2.0

ASP.Net 2.0 CSS Control Adapters

• Demo

Validating your sites

• Validate online with W3C
• Validate with tools (e.g. expression ware)
• Ease validation with browser integration
• Download http://tinyurl.com/

Checklist for building your site

• Valid HTML
• Valid CSS
• Page weight
• Screen size, font size
• Accessibility factors
• Cross browser checking

Call to Action

• Validate your sites
• Grab Expression Web Designer (free 60 day trial)
• Develop to standards