TechNote (Archived)

Editing the Target Browser Check's Ignored Error list

Macromedia Dreamweaver's Target Browser Check feature enables users to test the HTML in their documents to see if any tags or attributes are unsupported by certain browsers. This TechNote is an introduction to the Target Browser Check function's Ignored Error List and will show how to edit or reset it. The image below shows the location of the Target Browser Check menu in Dreamweaver's document toolbar .

Note: The Target Browser Check is not to be confused with Dreamweaver's "Check Browser" JavaScript behavior which can be added to a web page to do browser detection.

Ignoring errors

A user may choose to ignore a Browser Check error so that it will no longer show up when running future Target Browser Checks. This may be useful if checking a file containing a certain tag attribute that you wish to use regardless of browser support, for example. When you choose to ignore an error, the error is added to Dreamweaver's Ignored Error List. Use either of the following methods to ignore an error.

Ignore the error in code view
1. Run a browser check by choosing Check Browser Support from the Target Browser Check menu in the Document toolbar.
2. Switch to Code View (View > Code) and locate the problem code (it will be underlined in red).
3. Right-click (Windows) or control-click (Macintosh) the code and choose Ignore Error from the context menu.
Ignore the error in the Results panel
1. Run a browser check by choosing Check Browser Support from the Target Browser Check menu in the Document toolbar.
2. Open the Results panel (Window > Results) and choose the Target Browser Check tab
3. Select the error you wish to ignore by the description or by the line.
4. Right-click (Windows) or control-click (Macintosh) the error and choose Ignore Error from the context menu. Only errors can be ignored. If you right-click a warning or informational message, the Ignore Error command is unavailable.

Editing the Ignored Error List

While it is easy to ignore errors, it is not as easy to get an error you chose to ignore back. Editing the Ignored Error List must be done manually in the Ignored Error List XML file. It is not necessary to quit Dreamweaver to make changes to this file. Follow the steps below to edit the Ignored Error List.

Open the Ignored Error List XML file. This file is named Exceptions.xml, and you can easily open it in Dreamweaver by choosing the Edit Ignored Error List command from the Target Browser Check menu in the Document toolbar.

The XML file can also be edited in any text editor. The customized Exceptions.xml file is located in the BrowserProfiles folder of the user-specific Dreamweaver Configuration folder.Note: This file and folder may not exist if no errors have been ignored.

A typical path on Windows is:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Macromedia\Dreamweaver MX 2004\Configuration\BrowserProfiles

A typical path on Macintosh is:
User folder:Library:Application Support:Macromedia:Dreamweaver MX 2004:Configuration:BrowserProfiles

Note: It may be a good idea to make a back up of this file before making any changes.
Delete any tags that you now wish Dreamweaver to report as errors. Tags can also be added or edited manually here (see examples below).
Save the file, making sure it is located in the original user directory.

Examples

The following examples show the formatting for tags that could be added to the Ignored Error List. All modifications to the Ignored Error List must occur within the opening and closing exceptions tags (<exceptions> and</exceptions>).

The formatting for a tag or attribute in the Ignored Error List XML file looks like the following. Each line is a separate tag, property, or attribute that has been added to the list. The different types of tags are organized below into topic headings - these topic headings do not exist in the actual Exceptions.xml file.

Tag

 <tag tag="applet"/>

Attribute

 <attribute tag="acronym" attribute="onMouseWheel"/><attribute tag="div" attribute="id"/><attribute tag="div" attribute="style"/><attribute tag="table" attribute="frame"/><attribute tag="table" attribute="vspace"/>

Attribute Value

 <attributeValue tag="table" attribute="frame"/><attributeValue tag="div" attribute="language"/>

CSS Property

 <cssProperty property="font-family"/><cssProperty property="height"/><cssProperty property="z-index"/><cssProperty property="left"/><cssProperty property="top"/>

CSS Value

 <cssValue property="font-family"/>

Below is an example of the full XML in a customized Exceptions.xml file:

 <exceptions><!--  Put tags in between <exceptions> and </exceptions> to prevent specific  types of browser target check errors from being underlined in code view.  Examples:<tag tag="applet"/><attribute tag="acronym" attribute="onMouseWheel"/><attributeValue tag="div" attribute="language"/><cssProperty property="font-family"/><cssValue property="font-family"/>  --><attribute tag="table" attribute="vspace"/><cssProperty property="height"/><attribute tag="div" attribute="style"/><attributeValue tag="table" attribute="frame"/><attribute tag="table" attribute="frame"/><cssProperty property="left"/><cssProperty property="top"/><attribute tag="div" attribute="id"/><cssProperty property="z-index"/></exceptions>

This TechNote only gives some basic examples for tag formatting in the Ignored Error List. Another useful approach to learning the tag formatting for the Exceptions.xml file is to add browser errors to the Ignored Error List and then look at the XML markup inside the custom Exceptions.xml file.

Dreamweaver MX

Dreamweaver MX does not have the feature to ignore an error and does not have an Ignored Error List file. The user can, however, edit or add to the existing Browser Profiles that are located in the Configuration folder. This method can also allow the developer to ignore errors about an unsupported tag by adding it to the browser profile.

Browser Profiles

Browser Profiles are the text-based files that Dreamweaver checks against when running a Target Browser Check. Each file corresponds to a specific browser and version. These files contain the information about browser support for various tags and attributes that Dreamweaver uses when running a browser check.

To see a full set of instructions for editing or creating new browser profiles, please see Customizing Macromedia Dreamweaver MX. This article gives detailed information on formatting for the tags in the Browser Profiles files.

Resetting the Ignored Error List

To reset the Ignored Error List, delete the Exceptions.xml file that contains the personal Ignored Error List. The file will be recreated by Dreamweaver the next time a tag is added to the Ignored Error List. Alternately, the XML file can be edited so that any modifications are removed and the file is returned to its default state.

The user could also replace the customized Exceptions.xml file with the default file which can always be found under the Dreamweaver program folder or application folder. This file does not get changed by Dreamweaver and should not be edited by theuser.

A typical path on Windows is:
C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Dreamweaver MX 2004\Configuration\BrowserProfiles

A typical path on Macintosh OS X is:
Hard Drive Name:Applications:Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004:Configuration:BrowserProfiles

Additional information

Please see "Checking for browser compatibility" in Dreamweaver Help to learn more about using the Check Target Browsers feature.

The following document lists issues with the Browser Target Check feature that were fixed in the Dreamweaver MX 2004 7.0.1 update: Resolved issues with Dreamweaver MX 2004 update (7.0.1). (Ref. 142251)