Minimal XHTML 1.1 Document Tests

Introduction

This is a small collection of XHTML tests I have written to test how browsers treat minimal XHTML 1.1 documents.

Example from XHTML 1.1
Valid variants
Combinations of variants as tests
Local file testing
Expected results

Example from XHTML 1.1

XHTML 1.1 has an example of a minimal XHTML 1.1 document. Here is that same document with only a few minor title and paragraph content changes: (posted here: Minimal XHTML 1.1 Document)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" >
  <head>
    <title>Minimal XHTML 1.1 Document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This is a minimal <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11">XHTML 1.1</a> document.</p>
  </body>
</html>

The XHTML 1.1 example document is a step better than the corresponding Minimal XHTML 1.0 Document in that it fully specifies the location of its DTD and thus works "as-is" with validating processors.

Valid variants

There are a few valid variants of this example that should also be tested:

With or without ?xml prolog.
XHTML 1.1 explicitly states that the XML declaration is not required in all XML documents and goes on to state that XHTML document authors are strongly encouraged to use XML declarations in all their documents. A strong encouragement is however, not a requirement and therefore the ?xml prolog is optional in XHTML 1.1 documents.
File extension ".html" or ".xml".
For our purposes we will assume that typical web servers are configured to serve .html or .htm files as "text/html", and to serve .xml files as "text/xml". XHTML 1.1 says nothing about the proper file extension or mimetype for XHTML 1.1 documents, so we look at XHTML 1.0. XHTML 1.0 Appendix C, section 11, says that XHTML documents may be labeled as text/html or text/xml or application/xml. It is left quite open ended as to which of those the author should choose. Hence it makes sense to at least test examples served as "text/html" (.html) and "text/xml" (.xml).

Combinations of variants as tests

Here are all four possible combinations of the abovementioned two variants, from "most html-like" to "most xml-like". (The assumption is that the prolog is "closer" to the document than the mime-type and therefore may have greater impact upon how the browser decides to treat the document.)

text/html without ?xml prolog: xhtml11withoutprolog.html (note: valid XHTML 1.1)
text/xml without ?xml prolog: xhtml11withoutprolog.xml (note: valid XHTML 1.1)
text/html with ?xml prolog: xhtml11withprolog.html (note: valid XHTML 1.1)
text/xml with ?xml prolog: xhtml11withprolog.xml (note: valid XHTML 1.1)

Local file testing

Try downloading (using the given file names) the above four tests (1-4) to your client machine and viewing them locally in your browser. See if it treats local files differently from those that it receives from the web.

Expected results

All four test documents are valid XHTML 1.1 documents, and therefore should be handled as XHTML - not as plain XML. Each document has little bit of text, and one hyperlink to the XHTML 1.1 specification. The hyperlink should be functional and rendered in the browser's default style for HTML hyperlinks. Here is what each document should have looked like (margins chosen to match popular browser conventions - actual styling may vary):

text/html without ?xml prolog:
Minimal XHTML 1.1 Document without ?xml prolog served as text/html
This is a minimal XHTML 1.1 document without ?xml prolog served as text/html.
text/xml without ?xml prolog:
Minimal XHTML 1.1 Document without ?xml prolog served as text/xml
This is a minimal XHTML 1.1 document without ?xml prolog served as text/xml.
text/html with ?xml prolog:
Minimal XHTML 1.1 Document with ?xml prolog served as text/html
This is a minimal XHTML 1.1 document with ?xml prolog served as text/html.
text/xml with ?xml prolog:
Minimal XHTML 1.1 Document with ?xml prolog served as text/xml
This is a minimal XHTML 1.1 document with ?xml prolog served as text/xml.

Last updated by Tantek Çelik 20010801.