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xhtmldoctypew3cxml-attributexhtml-1.1

Why isn't my document validating as XHTML 1.1 STRICT?

While target="_blank" is deprecated, why is the W3C validator not giving an error about this ? You can paste and check this code int the validator:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>

<p>
<a href="http://www.stackoverflow.com" title="New window will open" target="_blank">Link opens in new window</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

Edit:

Does it mean that XHTML 1.1 supports target=”_blank”, but XHTML 1.0 strict does not? Or is it a bug in the W3C validator?

Solution

  • You are being validated as XHTML Transitional rather than Strict. If you manually override the doctype to XHTML 1.0 Strict you get this error:

    Error Line 11, Column 76: Attribute "target" exists, but can not be used for this element.

    …om" title="New window will open" target="_blank">Link opens in new window

    Use this doctype if you want to be strict:

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

    The transitional schemas still allow certain deprecated elements and attributes, I guess to help people transition in steps towards a stricter markup.

    EDIT:

    OK, so the original code was XHTML 1.1 of which there is just one single version (no Strict/Transitional), and according this FAQ the target attribute is indeed not allowed. So I guess this must be a bug in the validator.