Download XTH (v2.01) here

By popular demand here it is – version 2.01 of the original XHTML-to-HTML wordpress plugin. Now called XTH (bit catchier, no?), it is a complete rewrite of the original version and aims to fix the Javascript CDATA and RSS feed issues that the original suffered.

Caveats

OK, this version seems to successfully avoid parsing inline Javascripts and external Javascript libraries. This is necessary because the XHTML closing sequence is a valid pattern in javascript regex, and removing it from those places would mess up those libraries.
The downside to that is that it’s then up to you to make sure that any JS you use doesn’t output any XHTML, as XTH no longer ‘fixes’ it for you.
Same goes for any other external libs that you or your plugins load.

Note that XTH doesn’t address javascript URLs of the form <a href=”javascript:foo()”>. This is for efficiency – and also because I haven’t ever seen a regex used in that context, but who knows, someone might try it. I might add this as an option in a future

Don’t forget!

A single XHTML closer anywhere in the output will fail HTML 4.01 validation Resulting in tag soup and defeating the object of the whole exercise.

XTH also avoids RSS feeds.

Problems, bugs and comments below please. This is a complete rewrite of the plugin so we’re back to square one with the list of problems and required tweaks.

Thanks to all those people who gave feedback and whose time and knowledge helped to make this new version possible.

The Yorke Dance Project is an existing American company, new to the UK. Obviously, after relaunching themselves here, they needed a website and some branding work and came to us via a recommendation (we love those) as a company they could rely on to launch them into the UK dance scene in the right way.

They wanted a flexible, content managed website, a stylish look (who doesn’t want that?) and lively, which would allow for expansion and development as the company grew.

Yorke Dance Project

Starting with a user-focused viewpoint, we mapped out the key areas that needed to be on the site and easily accessible, and then developed the site architecture. Once we had this in place, we started the design cycle, developing  some design choices for the Artistic Director, Yolande Yorke-Edgell, to choose from. We were provided with a wide range of imagery from the dance company’s current and past repertoire, and created a set of ‘identity assets’ (logo, colour scheme, font etc.) for them to use throughout their business.

We included a range of galleries containing video and still images, a subscribers’ mailing list, as well as lots of pages for the productions and biographies. The site currently runs to 47 pages and counting. The front page has a live news feed, making the site look and feel appropriately current. The site uses John Kilroy’s specially developed word press theme called ‘Artsblog’, so that the dance company can manage the site themselves.

The Blog (ok it wasn’t just a ‘Blog’, we made lots of modifications) we created for them, and to which almost all the project participants contributed, was soon a-buzz with the project’s activities and the thoughts of those taking part. The Blog format is almost perfect for a recording/documentation project such as this, particularly one which lots of people or groups want to share and contribute to. The site is currently private, only the participants can use it, but hopefully when the project finishes in May we may be able to tidy up some of the raw edges and let the world take a look at what they’ve been up to. At the moment there are 135 posts, 80 images, 30 audio recordings, 37 videos and several dozen PDF files and word documents – which, given the scale of the project is a pretty comprehensive set of records I think.

Design-wise the site is very simple. It isn’t necessary or, given the objective, to some extent even desirable to go too far with the visual design (an archive doesn’t have to sexy and Villiers didn’t want this anyway). This keeps the costs down and lets us focus our energies on the content and organisational side of things, so the site works to the very limit of it’s capabilities (obviously this is budget dependent).

We would very much like to use this site as a model for further archival, documentation and/or “project process” projects in the future. We believe that, with certain important modifications, the simple Blog format has a lot to offer people working in that area.

Stars in a Story Screen Shot.

Important

At last there is a new version of this plugin.

This version is no longer supported. Please download the new version.

This tiny plugin filters Wordpress’s output to produce HTML instead of XHTML. It is simple to use and will ensure that your Wordpress Blog stands at least a fighting chance of being properly standards compliant.

Background

The Wordpress platform is based with the best intentions, from boots to brow, on XHTML and has been ever since I’ve been using it. Now this is a shame really because that single fact may be preventing your Blog from being properly standards compliant.

Put your hands up if you are running a blog that serves documents using a MIME type of “application/XHTML+XML”? What’s that deathly silence I hear – what, nobody is doing that? Then in that case nobody (regardless of what doctype you are using) is serving proper XHTML and worse, no one is running a standards compliant website. Perhaps even worse still, you probably shouldn’t even try to use an XHTML MIME type on your website either. Now I bet you didn’t know that.

The vast, vast majority of people whose blogs are served as MIME type “text/html” should be using the HTML 4.01 doctype rather than XHTML. The issues surrounding this problem are considered unfortunately rather technical so I will endeavour to write a lay person’s guide to the subject soon, covering the issues a bit more simply than they’re are in most places I know of.

In the meantime there is a very good article by WebDevout about this which is worth reading.

What The Plugin Does

XHTML to HTML is a simple output filter that translates XHTML documents into valid HTML 4.01.

Do I need to write in HTML now?

No, you don’t have to change a thing. All your carefully coded XHTML will translate into pristine HTML 4.01 seamlessly. Remember, Wordpress is an XHTML platform – all headers, plugins, themes and filters assume you will be using XHTML as the output Doctype. Whilst this is, technically, wrong (unless you use the right MIME type) you can continue to write in XHTML if you want to. However, you could alternatively switch to writing in HTML 4.01 instead. You do not have to write sloppy hard to read code, keep your tags lowercase if you like, close your tags a’ la XHTML, use a DOCTYPE etc. because that’s all valid HTML too!

Installation

1. Download the plugin using the link above and extract the ZIP archive onto your computer somewhere.
2. Copy the folder “XHTML-to-HTML” to your /wp-content/plugins/ folder
3. Activate the plugin in Wordpress
4. That’s it!

Development

The plugin really does very little, which is not a bad thing for an output filter. It has no bugs I’m aware of, but suggestions for improvements are always welcome.

1.

Microsoft browsers do not support XML (XHTML is a type of XML). IE7 has limited support but lower versions have none whatsoever. So, unless you’d like to banish that audience from your blog you can’t even consider trying to use XHTML properly – that is, by using the correct MIME type.