VS mangles HTML

[GaryDean]

On one of our projects, using vs2005 professional, Visual Studio reformats
the html in an aspx page so that it is virtually impossible to work with -
although it still executes properly. For instance it takes well formed html
that is indented for readability and converts everything to uppercase and
removes all carriage returns.

it converts this...............
<table>
<tr>
<td> vAlign=top>
<aspanel id="LEFTPANEL" runat="server" Width="400px">
<table... . . .

to this..........
<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top><aspanel id="LEFTPANEL" runat="server"
Width="400px"><TABLE

The page is then full of errors saying that uppercase is not valid.

I don't recall this every happening before but it is happening on this
project. We don't know of any settings that have been changed.

TIA,
Gary

 

[j8qxe324#]

On one of our projects, using vs2005 professional, Visual Studio reformats
the html in an aspx page so that it is virtually impossible to work with -
although it still executes properly. For instance it takes well formed html
that is indented for readability and converts everything to uppercase and
removes all carriage returns.

it converts this...............
<table>
<tr>
<td> vAlign=top>
<aspanel id="LEFTPANEL" runat="server" Width="400px">
<table... . . .

to this..........
<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top><aspanel id="LEFTPANEL" runat="server"
Width="400px"><TABLE

The page is then full of errors saying that uppercase is not valid.

I don't recall this every happening before but it is happening on this
project. We don't know of any settings that have been changed.

TIA,
Gary

The errors flagging uppercase may be due to the HTML validation model
you have chosen. XHTML validation is much more strict (as it should
be). IE 6 validation is pretty forgiving.

 

[GaryDean]

Huh?

The errors flagging uppercase may be due to the HTML validation model
you have chosen. XHTML validation is much more strict (as it should
be). IE 6 validation is pretty forgiving.

 

[darrel]

Huh?

What doctype are you using?

-Darrel

 

[Lars]

Hi

The problem may be easy to solve if you are using information html coded not
forms in the aspx pages. Weather I use PHP or ASP.NEt I always write the
information pages in Dreamweaver to get a good design of the pages. Although
I exclude the header and footer parts in the HTML file see the example
below. Then I import the HTML page into the PHP or ASP.NET script. This way
when I update my homepage I only upload the html files.

<!-- Start of HTML file -->
<table align="center" width="100%">
<h1 align="center">Some Header</h1>
<tr><td><p>Some text</p></td></tr>
</table>
<!-- End of HTML file -->

Use the Method
Response.WriteFile("index.htm");

This way no HTML code gets mangled when edit the pages in ASP.NET. Visual
Studio is not the tool to write documents in but it is good for designing
and create web forms.

Lars

 

[GaryDean]

There is no "doctype" in my aspx page. It's an ordinary aspx page generated
by visual studio.
Gary

 

[GaryDean]

Believe me, thousands of people use visual studio to generate aspx pages.
I've done it thousands of times myself with no problem. This is obviously
an anomaly of some kind. Switchiung to Dreamweaver is probably not the
right solution for me to take.
Gary

 

[Steven Cheng]

Hi Gary,

As for the VS 2005 HTML designer, it has improved much for HTML formatting
comparing to VS 2003 though there may still exists some automatic changes
in html source of page. I think the problem you meet is probably a specific
issue. Have you tried editing the same page in some other box(with VS 2005
installed) or some other pages to see whether the same problem will occur?

For html editing, the general settings are in the "Tools-->options--> Text
Editor ->...." area. For a quick test in case there may have any changes of
your VS 2005 IDE settings, you can try reset the VS 2005 settings(or import
an existing one from another VS 2005 IDE) via the "Tools-->Import and
Export Settings Wizard..."

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead



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--------------------

 

[GaryDean]

Steven
I have went through all the options and I don't see a "reset VS 2005
options" button or checkbox. There is a "restore file associations" but
that is the only reset I see. It's still happenning and it is costing hours
of developer time as the page is almost impossible to work with. Also if I
type in <table> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <table> it gets converted to <TABLE>
<TBODY> ......

The <TBODY> is getting inserted into the html!!

Also I don't even see an option for "please make my html completely unusable



Gary

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

Please look at "Tools", "Options", "Text Editor", "HTML", "Format",
and hit the "Tag specific options" button.

You should be able to customize the actions you want there.

Also, in the validation section for HTML, you could choose a different type of validation.




Juan T. Llibre, asp.net MVP
asp.net faq : http://asp.net.do/faq/
foros de asp.net, en español : http://asp.net.do/foros/
======================================

 

[GaryDean]

settings same as our other vs2005 instances. Other instances are not
mangling the html.

Do you know of a setting that would remove all carriage returns and
indentations that make html readable and convert all tags to uppercase?
Gary

 

[Steven Cheng]

Hi Gary,

The "Import and Export Settings..." menu item is under "Tools" menu of the
VS IDE. Also, after you click it, there is an "Reset All Settings" option
in the popup dialog.

BTW, one possible problem for such html content reformatting is due to the
aspx page's html markup has some invalid character(or some wrong content
such as missing a end > tag or quot ). In such cases, the IDE will always
think the document incorrect/invalid and try to format it wihch cause the
document be formatted everytime the IDE has performed validation against
it. Therefore, you can also try checking the aspx page content(you can try
copy it into a new page and remove content step by step to isolate the
problem).

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


--------------------

From: "GaryDean" <[email protected]>
References: <#[email protected]>

 

[Lars]

HI

I'm evaluating VS2008 and the design of webpages isn't as good as other html
tools like Dreamweaver. I still suggest you write the forms in VS and the
information pages in Dreamweaver.

However I haven't seen VS2008 mangle my HTML (ASPX) pages at all. I can swap
between design and source view of the ASPX file. SInce I don't edit HTML
pages i VS I can't tell if VS2008 mangles HTML files. But it's not easy to
create HTML pages with VS.

And really, you shouldn't have to design or format any HTML tag. That should
be done in CSS files only. But there is one thing I need to find out for
this. That is how to read an HTML page from file and write it to a specific
place on the page. For example I want to put a file myFile.hml in a page
that is a subpage to a master page. The following writes the output at the
start of the returning html file.

protected void Load_Page(s............)
{
Response.WriteFile("~/MyFile.htm");
}

Does any one now of how to write Responce to the subpage



Lars