Epubcheck error -- Epubs and the "a id" tag

Stodder · 05-17-2012, 02:55 AM

Hi guys,

Does anyone know why the following markup in my input hmtl:

Code:

<a id="chapter3" style="page-break-before:always;"></a>
<h2>CHAPTER 3: The Villain Appears Here</h2>

Gives me the following error in epubcheck:

Code:

element "a" not allowed here; expected element "address", "blockquote", "del", "div", "dl", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", "h6", "hr", "ins", "noscript", "ns:svg", "ol", "p", "pre", "script", "table" or "ul" (with xmlns:ns="http://www.w3.org/2
000/svg")

The reason why I use the "a id" is because I have a handcoded TOC in the beginning of the html (my entire document is just one huge html that is later cut up by calibre) and the "a id" provides the anchors for my links in the TOC.

My TOC which is near the beginnign of my html:

Code:

<a id="TOC" style="page-break-before:always;"></a>
<h3>Table Of Contents</h3>
<p><br></p>
<p class="toc1">1 <a href="#chapter1">The Beginning Of The Story</a></p>
<p class="toc1">2 <a href="#chapter2">A Young Hero Given A Quest By Some Old Dude</a></p>
<p class="toc1">4 <a href="#chapter3">The Villain Appears Here</a></p>

Any help would be great

Stodder

kovidgoyal · 05-17-2012, 02:59 AM

You cannot have <a> as a child of <body>. Instead put the id on the <h2> tag

Stodder · 05-17-2012, 03:09 AM

Ahh, that's a great idea!
I always thought h tags with id tags were semantically incorrect.

Off to try that

! Hope it works

I know this is the calibre forum, not the kindle one, but could I ask whether doing the whole <a id=""> thing is also a bad idea in MOBI formats? I do it all the time and have never thought that it was a road to errors? Now I'm second guessing my html work that I've done for mobi formats

kovidgoyal · 05-17-2012, 03:10 AM

it doesn't matter in either mobi or epub. The only people it matters to are the guys that write epubcheck.

Stodder · 05-17-2012, 03:14 AM

Ah, well that's good to know. I guess the whole error in the first place is not really a big deal then?

But I might just do the h2 tag with id just to avoid epubcheck errors, because some retailers run epubcheck on files, right?

kovidgoyal · 05-17-2012, 03:18 AM

yes, putting the id on h2 is the correct way to do it.

Stodder · 05-17-2012, 03:23 AM

Well thanks for that, Kovid!

Off to tidy my work!

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05-17-2012, 02:59 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,317 Karma: 27111242 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You cannot have <a> as a child of <body>. Instead put the id on the <h2> tag

05-17-2012, 03:09 AM	#3
Stodder Connoisseur Posts: 75 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: ipad, kindle	Ahh, that's a great idea! I always thought h tags with id tags were semantically incorrect. Off to try that ! Hope it works I know this is the calibre forum, not the kindle one, but could I ask whether doing the whole <a id=""> thing is also a bad idea in MOBI formats? I do it all the time and have never thought that it was a road to errors? Now I'm second guessing my html work that I've done for mobi formats

05-17-2012, 03:10 AM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,317 Karma: 27111242 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	it doesn't matter in either mobi or epub. The only people it matters to are the guys that write epubcheck.

05-17-2012, 03:14 AM	#5
Stodder Connoisseur Posts: 75 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: ipad, kindle	Ah, well that's good to know. I guess the whole error in the first place is not really a big deal then? But I might just do the h2 tag with id just to avoid epubcheck errors, because some retailers run epubcheck on files, right?

05-17-2012, 03:18 AM	#6
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,317 Karma: 27111242 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	yes, putting the id on h2 is the correct way to do it.

05-17-2012, 03:23 AM	#7
Stodder Connoisseur Posts: 75 Karma: 12 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: ipad, kindle	Well thanks for that, Kovid! Off to tidy my work!

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