Firefox not showing sidebar

I think validation will help.
The validator is breaking right now due to an incorrect character. It IS there – a tool I use can make it show up in FF – but I’m sure that it’s a validation issue, probably an unclosed div at the bottom of the sidebar ?

Thanks podz, I will try and figure out how to use a validator. I tried pulling each piece of code out individually to see if I could figure it out. But I had no luck. Is it just my sidebar.php that I need to run through the validator? If so, any helpful hints to someone who has never used a validator?

Hello,

I tried to run this through a validator and have no clue how to interpret the results. It says “Sorry, I am unable to validate this document because on line 438 it contained one or more bytes that I cannot interpret as utf-8 (in other words, the bytes found are not valid values in the specified Character Encoding). Please check both the content of the file and the character encoding indication.”

Does that mean the problem is in line 438? How do I see which line is 438? Is it as easy as counting down the screen? I’m completely lost with this and my “programming skills” don’t even come close to understanding the codex and validation instructions that I have found.

Podz, can you, or anyone else, help me figure out what I need to do to get this website functioning properly. Or help me to understand how I can fix it.

Thanks

Yes, the problem is there – delete that copyright sign copied from Word ??

Cheatsheet: when you get the above message for validating, chose another encoding (e.g. western european) instead of automatic detecting AND check the Show source box > Revalidate.

At least you can see the faulty line…

Moshu,

Thanks alot. I ran the validator again and it says I have 80 errors. It shows them all to me so now I can see what they are talking about. Now the task is figuring out what to do to them. ??

I found one place in my footer that had a copywrite symbol. Is that the one you are talking about? I deleted that but my sidebar still isn’t showing up.

Thanks!!!

I can see it very well in FF 1.0.7.
Based on many complains here – there must be something “not so perfect” in FF 1.5…

Moshu,

I agree totally. This problem didn’t pop up until I upgraded to 1.5.

So am I just screwed until there is a new update for Firefox?

Firefox isn’t the problem – your code structure is. Between the erroneous inline javascript attempts and all the side-by-side double quotations, it’s a wonder anything shows up. Attack each error one at a time – all 90 of them.

William,

Thanks for taking a look at my site. I appreciate the straight shooting, I really do. However, I don’t quite understand how to fix the 90 problems. I barely (and I’m not even sure that I do) understand how to decipher the validation.

First, I should ask which validator you are using and where is the best info to find out when it says “line 123” which file I need to edit within my site?

This could take me many, many hours to fix. Am I better off paying someone to do it? Is this a quick fix for someone who knows that they are doing?

Thanks!!

K3200, I appreciate your desire to learn and accepting my criticism (which was intended to be constructive). The validator I use is that of the W3C itself:

https://validator.w3.org

as included in the Web Developer extension for Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=Developer%20Tools&numpg=10&id=60

which hilariously shows this very page as failing validation. ?? The validator will, to a degree, explain what may be the problem and suggest solutions. Let me know if you need further help.