Blogger Templates Cannot Be Easily Validated, Using Public Diagnostic Tools

We see panic, exhibited by many blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I used the W3 Template Validator, and got hundreds of errors! Is my blog broken?

This blog owner, like many others, does not understand the differences between W3 Standard HTML / XHTML, and Blogger HTML / XML.

The unpleasant truth is that, ever since Blogger released the Layout class templates, in 2007, Blogger has been providing templates that can't be successfully validated using HTML / XHTML standards. Blogger has a lot of features that don't validate, according to public standards.

That's not to say that the W3 Template Validator, and similar online analysis tools and code validators won't be useful, in helping you proactively check your blog for problems.

If you've tweaked your template, and / or added various HTML based accessories, you may find a few informative entries, in a typical validation report.

Upon examining the validation report for this blog, I can find more than a few references to various accessories and tweaks that I've made in the past, which I can identify. Some of the 498 errors (as of today) can maybe be fixed - but many can't.

If you want to look for problems with your blog, start by creating a test blog, using the same template that you have. Then, run the validation of your choice against your test blog. The report that comes from your test blog, you can use as a baseline.

Take your baseline report, and compare it with the report for your working blog. Unless you've done a lot of customisation to your blog, you'll find a lot more errors identified on both reports, than not. You can (maybe, should) fix the problems which are unique to your working blog - and you may have to walk away from the others.

Like the frustrations caused by referer spam, which you learn to live with, I may have to ignore some coding imperfections. Your blog may be the same.

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The LightBox Image Display Option Stopped Working, Recently

Last week, the popular display option, Lightbox, used for showing full size images in Blogger blogs, stopped working.

Anxious blog owners reported that full size images are now being displayed in a normal browser window, with the browser back arrow required to return to the blog display - instead of the elegant black background overlay with the mysterious "X" which closes the overlay. The problem appears to affect all images in the blogs affected.

An immediate sampling of the forum problem reports suggested that it's likely that all Blogger blogs are affected. Since not all blogs may contain enough images, and be owned by people who are attentive enough, we are not seeing massive volumes of problem reports.

We did open a rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where we are gathering a good sample of the blogs involved. To date, no obvious affinity has been discovered, in the over 100 responses posted.

Today, we have a mysterious suggestion, posted in a forum discussion, which may provide a workaround for the problem.

We are advised to add a brief snippet of code to the template.

<script src='http://www.blogger.com/static/v1/jsbin/2321381434-lbx__fr.js' type='text/javascript'/>

The snippet in question is added to the very end of the template, using the "Edit HTML" option, in the dashboard Template wizard, after </body>, and before </html>.

</script>
</body>
<script src='http://www.blogger.com/static/v1/jsbin/2321381434-lbx__fr.js' type='text/javascript'></script>
</html>

I added this snippet of code to the template for this blog. I don't use a lot of images in this blog - but you may examine one previous post, where you will find a picture. If you click on that one picture, you will see the full size image displayed in Lightbox format - which was not the case, earlier today.

The code snippet in question is hosted in "blogger.com", so it should be safe. And, it's not difficult to add - or to remove. That said, I have no idea if it may conflict with other code - so anything is possible. It is marginally more reliable than third party code.

I've done no further testing of this fix, so I'll await your feedback. You may comment here - or in the rollup discussion.

A Template For Virginia USA, #5

For a few years, I have been making jokes about some Blogger blog owners, and their (perceived) need to keep a Classic (HTML based) template, on their blogs. Some blog owners continue to ask naive questions in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

How do I let my readers view 'Older Posts'?

or

How do I add a Pages menu?

or

How do I use Following, with the "Follow" link recently removed from the navbar?

Recently, in musing about some of the recent Blogger policy changes, such as the end to the Blogger FTP Publishing option, a formalised browser support policy, and the end of pre-Google (aka "legacy") Blogger accounts, I realised that one of the next changes, logically, would be a phasing out of support for HTML based templates. I think that this idea is probably long over due.

With the recently offered Layout, then Designer, and now Dynamic templates, there are so many features offered by Blogger that you are just plain missing out on, if you insist on using an HTML based template.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not suggesting that you need to upgrade your template, this month - or even this year. Even so, I believe that one day, possibly sooner than you would think, the day will come, and you'll see the latest Buzz article.

Time to upgrade your template!

My suspicion is that the few remaining owners of blogs, still using an HTML template, are smaller in number than those who objected to the forced installation of auto pagination, or those forced to migrate from FTP Publishing, or those who are currently objecting to the New Blogger GUI. And of those 3 changes, possibly only the implementation of auto pagination was simpler to execute.

Those of us who have migrated a blog from Classic (HTML) to Layout (XML) - or maybe Designer (XML) - know how simple most Classic template upgrades are.

• Click on the "Upgrade" button.
• Select an XML template.
• Use the "Page Elements" wizard (now the "Layout" menu entry), and start adding accessories.
• Occasionally, use the "View Classic Template" option, to retrieve some overlooked HTML code.

The GUI menus and wizards, too, will make a Classic to Designer upgrade almost transparent. Under the Classic Blogger GUI, there was a completely different set of links, menus, and wizards, for a Classic, as opposed to a Designer, template.

Under the New Blogger GUI, the main difference between a Classic and Designer template would be the absence of the Layout menu entry, for a Classic template. A Classic template only needs the "Template" menu entry, and the "Edit HTML" button in "Template" - just a clean subset of the existing menu structure.

Is this jumping the gun? If so, my apologies, in advance.

Time to upgrade your template!

But, is 5 years (less 3 weeks) not long enough, to wait?

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Dynamic Templates, As Part Of Blogger History

Recently, we've seen people who want to use a dynamic template on their blog - but are unwilling to put up with the limitations.

Why can't Google make its Dynamic View Template easy to customize?

and

Why can't I choose who I want reading my blog, and let my readers use a dynamic view?

and

Why should I publish my blog to a "Dynamic Template" - which appears to be Google speak for "It doesn't work at all."?

Not every Blogger blog owner realises why the dynamic templates work as they do, yet offer as few options.

To understand why dynamic templates work - or don't work - as they do, one should understand the history of Blogger blogs, and use of templates.