NAME

HTMLQuickCheck.pm -- a simple and fast HTML syntax checking package for perl 4 and perl 5

SYNOPSIS

    require 'HTMLQuickCheck.pm';

    &HTML'QuickCheck'OK($html_text) || die "Bad HTML: $HTML'QuickCheck'Error";

    or for perl 5:
    HTML::QuickCheck::OK($html_text) || 
            die "Bad HTML: $HTML::QuickCheck::Error";

DESCRIPTION

The objective of the package is to provide a fast and essential HTML check (esp. for CGI scripts where response time is important) to prevent a piece of user input HTML code from messing up the rest of a file, i.e., to minimize and localize any possible damage created by including a piece of user input HTML text in a dynamic document.

HTMLQuickCheck checks for unmatched < and >, unmatched tags and improper nesting, which could ruin the rest of the document. Attributes and elements with optional end tags are not checked, as they should not cause disasters with any decent browsers (they should ignore any unrecognized tags and attributes according to the standard). A piece of HTML that passes HTMLQuickCheck may not necessarily be valid HTML, but it would be very unlikely to screw others but itself. A valid piece of HTML that doesn't pass the HTMLQuickCheck is however very likely to screw many browsers(which are obviously broken in terms of strict conformance).

HTMLQuickCheck currently supports HTML 1.0, 2.x (draft), 3.0 (draft) and netscape extensions (1.1).

EXAMPLE

    htmlchk, a simple html checker:

    #!/usr/local/bin/perl
    require 'HTMLQuickCheck.pm';
    undef $/;
    print &HTML'QuickCheck'OK(<>) ? "HTML OK\n" : 
            "Bad HTML:\n", $HTML'QuickCheck'Error;
    __END__

    Usage: 
    htmlchk [html_file]

AUTHOR

Luke Y. Lu <ylu@mail.utexas.edu>

BUGS