HTML5 Charmod validation problems

**Glasspoole** · Aug 26, 2009 16:32

Hi,

in the html5 validator i get

Error: The encoding utf8 is not the preferred name of the character encoding in use. The preferred name is utf-8. (Charmod C024)

which means

Content and software that label text data MUST use one of the names required by the appropriate specification (e.g. the XML specification when editing XML text) and SHOULD use the MIME preferred name of a character encoding to label data in that character encoding.

An error is reported if an encoding label is not the MIME preferred name.

so what exactly does that mean?
My whole Debian is utf-8 and my html head is

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="de">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />

and saved as utf-8 in Dreamweaver.

regards from germany
Glasspoole

**Mittineague** · Aug 26, 2009 17:10

What Content-type charset HTTP header is the server using?

**Glasspoole** · Aug 26, 2009 17:47

Hm, know i wonder. Apache is sending utf8 and not UTF-8.
Does that make a difference?

Ok, i checked the server ip and i get UTF-8. I checked the adress from the Magento Shop and i get UTF-8. If i check the adress where im playing with html5 (ExpressionEngine) i get utf8. Ok, i also checked a single html file and i get UTF-8 and it validates.
Everything in ExpressionEngine is set to UTF-8 so its a EE error.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

**Glasspoole** · Aug 26, 2009 18:10

Ok, it was not ExpressionEngine, it was the php.ini. There i left the "-".
Little mistake, big impact

That brings me to the next questions.
Does it make i difference if i write "utf" or "UTF".
And is my MySQL configuration correct.
Cause there i have no "-" in the charset.

my.cnf:

Code:

[client]
default-character-set = utf8

[mysqld]
default-character-set = utf8
character-set-server = utf8
collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci
init_connect = 'SET collation_connection = utf8_unicode_ci'
init_connect = 'SET NAMES utf8'

[mysqldump]
default-character-set = utf8

[mysqlimport]
default-character-set = utf8

[mysql]
default-character-set = utf8

**Mittineague** · Aug 26, 2009 19:55

Good questtion that I wish I had the answer to.

As far as I can remember, I've used both "utf-8" and "UTF-8" in HTML and XML files and never got any complaints. Not that that means it was OK, but at least it didn't break anything outright.

It seems MySQL does indeed use
SET NAMES utf8
but I don't know if it recognizes that syntax in other areas.

This is one place where consistancy would be a nice thing to have.

**chris cressman** · Aug 26, 2009 21:03

Originally Posted by Glasspoole

in the html5 validator i get

If you're using the W3C validator, you can't use the shorthand meta element to declare character encoding (<meta charset="utf-8" />). I'm assuming the reason is because not all browsers will currently recognize this meta element. If you're using Henri's validator then I'm not sure - I'll take a closer look if that is the case.

**Glasspoole** · Aug 26, 2009 23:54

@chris cressman,
for html5 there is the html5 validator

The W3C validator is also not correct for XHTML (http://schneegans.de/sv/)

I had the hope that you can ask questions at the MySQL Performance Blog, but you can't. So we need a MySQL guru to answer the question where in the MySQL settings a "-" is needed and where not

**zcorpan** · Aug 27, 2009 00:15

Originally Posted by Glasspoole

Does it make i difference if i write "utf" or "UTF".

No (at least not in HTTP, HTML or XML).

Originally Posted by Glasspoole

And is my MySQL configuration correct.
Cause there i have no "-" in the charset.

The MySQL configuration uses keywords that are independent of the IANA encoding names. I would expect that "utf-8" does not work at all in the MySQL configuration file.

**zcorpan** · Aug 27, 2009 00:18

Originally Posted by chris cressman

If you're using the W3C validator, you can't use the shorthand meta element to declare character encoding (<meta charset="utf-8" />).

You can if you're using the HTML5 doctype or choose "HTML5" in the doctype override.

Originally Posted by chris cressman

I'm assuming the reason is because not all browsers will currently recognize this meta element.

They do.

**chris cressman** · Aug 27, 2009 07:14

Originally Posted by zcorpan

You can if you're using the HTML5 doctype or choose "HTML5" in the doctype override.

They do.

Thanks Simon, but I'm still getting two warnings when I use the shorthand declaration, and one of them says the character encoding cannot be determined and utf-8 is assumed. For now I'll just stick with the longer declaration or use Henri's validator (http://validator.nu/).

**zcorpan** · Aug 27, 2009 07:48

Originally Posted by chris cressman

Thanks Simon, but I'm still getting two warnings when I use the shorthand declaration, and one of them says the character encoding cannot be determined and utf-8 is assumed.

Ah. Seems like a known bug.

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=7135
http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=5992

**Glasspoole** · Aug 27, 2009 12:01

@chris, and the good thing about

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html>

is that every browser will be in standarts mode.

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