CSS Validator Web Service API
SOAP 1.2 validation interface documentation

Table of Contents

Validation Request Format

The documentation on how to create a custom request to the CSS validation service is available, with a table of all existing parameters and their values, in the User Manual.

SOAP format description

When called with parameter output=soap12, the validator will switch to its SOAP 1.2 interface. Below is a sample response, as well as a description of the most important elements of the response.

A WSDL 2 description file is lso available for this service.

sample SOAP 1.2 validation request

It is a simple HTTP GET call to a URI like:

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F&warning=0&profile=css2

sample SOAP 1.2 validation response

A SOAP response for the validation of a document (invalid) will look like this:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="utf-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
  <env:Body>
    <m:cssvalidationresponse 
       env:encodingStyle="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-encoding" 
       xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/2005/07/css-validator"> 
      <m:uri>http://www.w3.org/</m:uri> 
      <m:checkedby>http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/</m:checkedby>
      <m:csslevel>css2</m:csslevel>
      <m:date>2006.02.23T01:19:57Z</m:date>
      <m:validity>true</m:validity>
      <m:result>
        <m:errors xml:lang="en">
          <m:errorcount>0</m:errorcount>
        </m:errors>
        <m:warnings xml:lang="en">
          <m:warningcount>79</m:warningcount>
          <m:warninglist>
            <m:uri>http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/home.css</m:uri>
            <m:warning>
              <m:line>85</m:line>
              <m:level>0</m:level>
              <m:message>Properties for other media might not work for usermedium</m:message>
            </m:warning>
          </m:warninglist>
          <m:warninglist>
            <m:uri>http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/home-import.css</m:uri>
            <m:warning>
              <m:line>167</m:line>
              <m:level>0</m:level>
              <m:message>Properties for other media might not work for usermedium</m:message>
            </m:warning>
            <m:warning>
              <m:line>349</m:line>
              <m:level>0</m:level>
              <m:message>Properties for other media might not work for usermedium</m:message>
            </m:warning>
            <m:warning>
              <m:line>362</m:line>
              <m:level>0</m:level>
              <m:message>Properties for other media might not work for usermedium</m:message>
            </m:warning>
          </m:warninglist>
        </m:warnings>
      </m:result>
    </m:cssvalidationresponse>
  </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

SOAP1.2 response format reference

element description
cssvalidationresponse The main element of the validation response. Encloses all other information about the validation results.
uri the address of the document validated. In EARL terms, this is the TestSubject.
checkedby Location of the service which provided the validation result. In EARL terms, this is the Assertor.
csslevel The CSS level (or profile) in use during the validation.
date The actual date of the validation
validity Whether or not the document validated passed or not formal validation (boolean)
errors Encapsulates all data about errors encountered through the validation process
errorcount a child of errors, counts the number of errors listed
errorlist a child of errors, contains the list of errors (surprise!)
error a child of errorlist, contains the information on a single validation error.

Note: warnings, warningcount, warninglist and warning are similar to, respectively, errors, errorcount, errorlist and error.

SOAP1.2 atomic message (error or warning) format reference

As seen as the example above, the children of the error element, but also the warning element are line, level and message, defined below:

element description
line Within the source code of the validated document, refers to the line where the error was detected.
level The level of the warning, only the ones whose level is under or equal to the value specified in the request will be displayed.
message The actual error or warning message