• New Zealand Government Web Standards 2.0

• New Zealand Government Web Standards 1.0
  • » 1. Images
  • » 2. Colour
  • » 3. Site Markup
    • 3.1 Documents validate to published formal grammars
    • 3.2 Use elements to convey document structure and mark up lists properly
    • 3.3 Do not use deprecated features of W3C technologies
    • 3.4 Relative rather than absolute units
    • Recommendation 3.1.1 Use appropriate mark-up language when it exists
    • Recommendation 3.1.2 Use W3C technologies when available
    • Recommendation 3.1.3 Provide abbreviations for header labels
  • » 4. Special Purpose Documents
  • » 5. Writing Content
  • » 6. Site Content
  • » 7. Page Layout
  • » 8. Navigation
  • » 9. Style Sheets
  • » 10. Dynamic Content
  • » 11. Tables
  • » 12. Frames
  • » 13. Scripting and Applets
  • » 14. Page Refreshing
  • » 15. Site Behaviour
  • » 16. Site Layout
  • » 17. Archiving
  • » 18. Quality Assurance
  • » 19. Data Tracking
  • » 20. Authentication
  • » 21. Security
  • » 22. Online Forms
  • » 23. Tendering and Contracting
  • » 30. Site Delivery
  • » 31. Operational
  • » 32. Web Strategy

3.3 Do not use deprecated features of W3C technologies

The Standard

3.3 Do not use deprecated features of W3C technologies.

Guide to this Standard

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is responsible for standardising Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, SVG, MathML. Deprecated features of these technologies are those that have been declared obsolete by the W3C, and will in time be phased out from devices that interpret them i.e., browsers.

This standard requires you to avoid deprecated features and to use recommended non-deprecated alternatives instead.

This standard covers the W3C WAI checkpoint 11.2 for NZ government agencies.

• Table showing deprecated elements
• Table showing deprecated attributes

Note at the above sites, the elements and attributes are themselves hyperlinks. Selecting these will direct to the detail of the selected element or attribute. If deprecated, it will say so and suggest an appropriate alternative.

Rationale for this Standard

• Using deprecated features, e.g. deprecated HTML elements or attributes, will not stop the HTML validating against current doctypes. However, it will stop HTML validating against future doctypes in which the phasing out is complete. Avoiding deprecated HTML in the first place, prevents you from spending time and money down the track, fixing HTML that has now become obsolete, or ending up with accessibility issues because your HTML no longer validates.