Using Well-Formed HTML - EnterWorks_Process_Exchange_(EPX) - 10.6

Currently, all HTML work item viewers for EPX must be authored in well-formed HTML, which conforms to the rules of XML. The sample viewer TMWorkItem3.html, which is located in the <EPX>\tomcat\webapps\tm\apps directory provides a good illustration of a well-formed work item viewer.

Important: You may encounter problems with some HTML editors, such as Microsoft® FrontPage®. Numerous HTML end tags required by the EPX XML parser are dropped when saving an HTML file in FrontPage. If you use an HTML editor other than HTML Kit, you must make sure that the rules and restrictions described in this section have been addressed or your viewer may not function in EPX.

There are a several rules you should follow when writing well-formed HTML viewers for EPX:

• The simplest definition of a well-formed HTML document is that all tags in the document, whether HTML or user-defined, must contain a starting tag and an ending tag. Many standard HTML editors create unmatched tags, as follows:

These must be matched, as follows:

• All attributes must be name-valued paired, and the values must be surrounded by double quotes. For example, some regular HTML editors create:

In the example above, disable is an unmatched attribute. It must be a matched name/value attribute to be used in a work item viewer, as follows:

• The value attribute is required for all input types. The value attribute can be set to the empty string, value="", where applicable. (For example, a text input type may have an empty value string, but an option in a select list should have a value set.)

• Currently, when using the input type select, the only attributes preserved are name and value.

• Check boxes and radio buttons must have value attributes with unique values. For example:

• Check boxes and radio buttons do support default settings; the correct syntax is, for example:

or

For more information about well-formed HTML, refer to the Microsoft website.