W3C Validator offline
Problems
The following things may go wrong:
- Configurating the Web Server
blechtrottel brodaktschns recommends studying the server's documentation. It may be helpful to run simple Perl or CGI scripts ("Hello World!") - Running Perl
Check your Perl's help and documentation or try running scripts in a DOS box. ActivePerl comes with some simple scripts for testing purposes, all you have to do is add the file extension .pl and change the first line (compare fine tuning. If perl.exe is not part of the PATH environment variable then the first line must include the full path to the exe (this here being our example installation path):#!C:\Web\Perl\bin\perl.exe -w
Final Tips
- Since final version 0.8.0 the Validator has finally referenced all images locally. You no longer have to change any templates or the file types.conf. As of version 0.8.5 you will not get a W3C logo in the top left corner in your title bar. This is to show that you are working with a local copy. Should you prefer to have the proper logo there, change the markup in C:\Web\Apache2\validator\htdocs\header.html from no_w3c.png to w3c.png.
- We at blechtrottel brodaktschns installed the validator into a folder that we named validator11. Should a new version of the validator be published, it will get its own folder named accordingly (of course, it will also get a separate virtual host in Apache). So if adapting the new check.pl for Windows takes longer than expected, we will still have a working older version to validate our files with.
Disclaimer
This howto is not for newbies! Applying the changes described is recommended for seasoned users only. Blechtrottel brodaktschns cannot be held responsible for any damage caused by your implementation. Any mistakes you come across and point out to us will be gladly accepted. Since we are not native speakers of English this also applies to the text itself (grammar, spelling, etc).
Thanks
We would like to thank Karlheinz Zöchling for tutoring us in Perl.
We also would like to mention the validator pages at www.bjoernsworld.de (in German), which made us deal with this project. Last but not least another thank you goes to the team of the W3C validator for all the work.
Final Tip
An even more detailed howto by David Tibbe with lots of screen shots can be found at SelfHTML aktuell. It is in German only. However, it is the basis for the install_win.html that comes with the validator.
