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Disable auto closing of (HTML etc.) tags?

  • 2 replies
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  • 152 views
  • Last reply by DTWD

DTWD
DTWD
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Is there a way to prevent Firefox trying to be helpful and close tags that aren't closed in code?

We are trying to trace a problem with code built from from about 10 different templates and finding where a missing tag is difficult when the browser keeps closing them. - The page is only "built" just before being delivered to the browser.

I appreciate I am in a minority, but I would rather my development browser fail to render the page instead helping by inserting unclosed tags, in this case in the wrong place hence why we noticed the problem.

Many thanks.

Is there a way to prevent Firefox trying to be helpful and close tags that aren't closed in code? We are trying to trace a problem with code built from from about 10 different templates and finding where a missing tag is difficult when the browser keeps closing them. - The page is only "built" just before being delivered to the browser. I appreciate I am in a minority, but I would rather my development browser fail to render the page instead helping by inserting unclosed tags, in this case in the wrong place hence why we noticed the problem. Many thanks.

Chosen solution

Are you using the Inspector? In order to build a DOM for you to view, Firefox does sometimes have to guess/decide the boundaries of different elements. So you're right: this view is not useful for your purposes, except that seeing the boundaries in the wrong places may provide important clues.

To see the raw source sent by the server, you can always use Ctrl+u or right-click > View Page Source (not View Selection Source, clear the selection in that case). It's usually ugly, but you could try using a validator to analyze it if pasting it into a syntax-highlighting editor doesn't help you resolve the issue.

Now... if you retrieve HTML in the background and insert it into the page, that is not in the original source. If you use the Network Monitor, you should be able to view the actual server responses to individual AJAX requests. See: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Tools/Network_Monitor

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jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Are you using the Inspector? In order to build a DOM for you to view, Firefox does sometimes have to guess/decide the boundaries of different elements. So you're right: this view is not useful for your purposes, except that seeing the boundaries in the wrong places may provide important clues.

To see the raw source sent by the server, you can always use Ctrl+u or right-click > View Page Source (not View Selection Source, clear the selection in that case). It's usually ugly, but you could try using a validator to analyze it if pasting it into a syntax-highlighting editor doesn't help you resolve the issue.

Now... if you retrieve HTML in the background and insert it into the page, that is not in the original source. If you use the Network Monitor, you should be able to view the actual server responses to individual AJAX requests. See: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Tools/Network_Monitor

DTWD
DTWD Question owner
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Thank you Jscher, being able to view the source like that is just what we need.

It would have been nice if the inspector had an option for it, but I can drop the code into an editor and work through it.

Thank you!