Google tracking failing XHTML validation

Robin Greene - October 28th, 2009

Came across an interesting problem today, whilst creating a template for a new website, I noticed that the Google analytics tracking code was failing XHTML validation.

<script type=”text/javascript” language=”javascript”>
if(typeof(urchinTracker)!=’function’)document.write(’<sc’+'ript src=”‘+’http’+(document.location.protocol==’https:’?’s://ssl’:'://www’)+’.google-analytics.com/urchin.js’+'”><’+'/sc’+'ript>’)
</script>

I later discovered that wrapping the script in CDATA tags allowed the script to parse and validate – happy days!

<script type=”text/javascript” language=”javascript”>
//<![CDATA[if(typeof(urchinTracker)!='function')document.write('<sc'+'ript src="'+'http'+(document.location.protocol=='https:'?'s://ssl':'://www')+'.google-analytics.com/urchin.js'+'"><'+'/sc'+'ript>')//]]>
</script>

Tags: code, google, tracking, validation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Developer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Google tracking failing XHTML validation”

Owen says:

October 28, 2009 at 5:43 pm

Wrapping it in comments also work ‘<!–’ and ‘// –>’
AdamA says:

October 28, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Does the page have an < ?xml tag at the top? If so then it's an *actual* XML document, (rather than just XHTML which isn't *necessarily* XML despite what the name might suggest), and therefore the script will need to go in a block. If it’s just an XHTML or HTML document then you can get away without the need for CDATA. I think.