JasonK.net - Learn XHTML

XHTML Tutorial by Jason K

Note: This page is still a draft in progress.

Please do not copy without crediting. Every effort is made to emphasize good coding practices which will save much time and effort in the long run. Any and all comments/suggestions in regard to this document are appreciated.

Chapter 1 - The Very Basics

An XHTML file would minimally look like the following:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html>
   <head>
      <title>This is the page's title</title>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   </head>
   <body>
      <p>Page Content Goes here</p>
   </body>
</html>

The first two lines tell the validator that this is an XHTML file while the meta tag defines the data type. If you save the above code (in a file ending with a .htm or .html filename and make it accessible to the internet), you can validate it: validator.w3.org

If you've coded in html before, simply adhere to the following rules and you should be good to go:

Start with a DOCTYPE declaration.
Define the character set with a meta tag.
Follow XML rules, particularly you may not overlap tags.
All XHTML tags must be lower case.
Close all tags (even empty ones/).
Tag "attribute" values must be quoted.
No minimization: always explicitly declare attribute values.
Scripts need a type definition. <![CDATA[...]]>
Use "id" instead of the "name" attribute.

The following tags can be used within the body to describe your web-page.

Formatting Tags
Paragraph

comments are introduced by ""
Your XML Declaration is introduced by "<?" and occurs prior to the DOCTYPE declaration.
(Not to be confused with Processing Instructions such as PHP.)
The center tag is no longer defined, though alignment may still be defined like any other attribute: color, text decoration...

Chapter 2 - Cascading Style Sheets

The whole point of HTML has traditionally been to retain content, and leave the formatting up to the browser. Though the extensive use and expectations of the language have brought about many tools which describe formatting rather than content. XHTML attempts to retain the original intent and functionality of the markup language leaving the formatting up to Style Sheets, these are both more versitile and widely used making them well worth learning. There are three basic methods of Style Sheet implementation:

Inline
Defined for page
Defined separately (separate file)

Chapter 3 - Frames

Frames are discouraged as they oppose many modeling language pricipals. This chapter is mainly targeted at migrating older websites which may have been designed using frames.
The border and frameborder attributes are no longer available in the frameset tag, making the frames visible.
The Target attribute is also no longer supported.
basic tutorial
An extensive reference
A good reference with lots of info.

Resources: RFC 2854 - The 'text/html' Media Type

XHTML Tutorial by Jason K

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 - The Very Basics

Chapter 2 - Cascading Style Sheets

Chapter 3 - Frames