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As code-developers for the pre-eminent forum software on the internet, we at UBBDev take pride in developing UBB™ software to perform new functions, explore new limits, push the boundaries of what is expected in forum functionality, usability, and design.
To this end we bring you one of the first useful modifications produced for UBB v6.1.0, full XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliance in all public forum pages. What is the benefit to me as a site owner and someone considering whether or not to bother with it? Read on...

What :: Formerly known as HTML 5, XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language), applies rigorous syntax requirements to HTML. A W3C (http://www.w3.org) recomendation since January 26. 2000, it is a reformulation of HTML 4 as an XML 1.0 application. In plainer English, XHTML is HTML written according to the XML rules of well-formedness, it gives you the opportunity to write "well-formed" documents now, that work in all browsers and that are backward browser compatible.

It is intended to be used as a language for content that is both XML-conforming and, if some simple guidelines are followed, operates in HTML 4 conforming user agents. This not only allows parsers (the software that reads and understands the code you write) to become smaller and faster, it also enables the XML Browser to handle your code more predictably. Developers (as explained at the W3 ( http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#xhtml ) who migrate their content to XHTML 1.0 will realize the following benefits:

* XHTML documents are XML conforming. As such, they are readily viewed, edited, and validated with standard XML tools.
* XHTML documents can be written to to operate as well or better than they did before in existing HTML 4-conforming user agents as well as in new, XHTML 1.0 conforming user agents.
* XHTML documents can utilize applications (e.g. scripts and applets) that rely upon either the HTML Document Object Model or the XML Document Object Model [DOM].
* As the XHTML family evolves, documents conforming to XHTML 1.0 will be more likely to interoperate within and among various XHTML environments.

The XHTML family is the next step in the evolution of the Internet. By migrating to XHTML today, content developers can enter the XML world with all of its attendant benefits, while still remaining confident in their content's backward and future compatibility.

Why :: Upgrading your UBB™ to XHTML 1.0 standards will propel your site to the forefront of usability in information transfer.

"Some of the benefits of migrating to XHTML in general are ( http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#why ):

* Document developers and user agent designers are constantly discovering new ways to express their ideas through new markup. In XML, it is relatively easy to introduce new elements or additional element attributes. The XHTML family is designed to accommodate these extensions through XHTML modules and techniques for developing new XHTML-conforming modules (described in the forthcoming XHTML Modularization specification). These modules will permit the combination of existing and new feature sets when developing content and when designing new user agents.
* Alternate ways of accessing the Internet are constantly being introduced. Some estimates indicate that by the year 2002, 75% of Internet document viewing will be carried out on these alternate platforms. The XHTML family is designed with general user agent interoperability in mind. Through a new user agent and document profiling mechanism, servers, proxies, and user agents will be able to perform best effort content transformation. Ultimately, it will be possible to develop XHTML-conforming content that is usable by any XHTML-conforming user agent."

This is one way of saying that ensuring your site conforms to XHTML standards will prepare it to be usable on many more internet technologies coming, such as wireless handheld computers. I haven't used or seen a WAP-enabled page yet but I can imagine weather, travel, financial Web information might be useful on a wireless device. Imagine a user is playing a game and goes to your site to get the latest info through one of the new game consoles. Your travel, sports, or entertainment site would be viewable to the user on-the-go, at the sports or music event, or on a hide-away in the islands.

How ::

The following rules have been added to HTML for writing XHTML:

* Make sure all your tags are lower case.
* Close all your tags.
* In the case of tags that don't have a closing tag, like < IMG>, < INPUT>, or < BR>, add a slash to the end of the tag: < img />, < input />, or < br />.
* Nest tags correctly. No more < B>< P>text< /B>< /P>, but < p>< b>text< /b>< /p>.
* Put quotes around *all* attribute values. No more < P ALIGN=center> but < p align="center">.

You can spend a few days in your spare time doing this yourself, or you can take advantage of the fully XHTML 1.0 Transitional Compliant templates we have prepared for you. This would take care of ~90% of the work of the validation, availability of the changes necessary for complete validation is being worked out, as it involves changes to all of the ubb_*.cgi files and several of the wordlet files.

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