v1.2.0 — Deterministic Validation & Diagnostics

HTMLForge v1.2.0 finalizes the validation pipeline and diagnostic model.

Highlights

• Deterministic multi-violation reporting per node
• Validators no longer short-circuit on failure
• Formalized 3-phase validation pipeline
• Stable rule ID registry
• CI-ready structured diagnostics

Why this matters

If HTML renders, it is correct — and now every violation is reported exactly once, for the correct node, with a stable rule identity.

This release strengthens correctness, transparency, and debuggability without adding heuristics or auto-fixing.

Stability

The validation architecture is now frozen for all v1.x releases.

v1.1.0 — Observability & Diagnostics

This release strengthens diagnostics, traceability, and tooling readiness without changing HTMLForge’s core behavior or API guarantees.

HTMLForge v1.1.0 makes validation explainable, machine-readable, and defensible.

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✨ What’s New

Structured Validation Diagnostics

• Deterministic ValidationReport model
• Rich Violation schema with:
  • rule (stable rule ID)
  • element
  • path (DOM-like location)
  • severity
  • spec metadata
• Machine-readable output:

  $report->toArray();
  $report->toJson();

Rule IDs & No-Overlap Guarantees

• Every validation emits a single canonical rule ID
• Introduced no-overlap invariant to prevent duplicate diagnostics
• Clear separation between:
  • structural rules
  • attribute rules
  • accessibility rules
  • policy rules

Validator Execution Discipline

• Validators refactored onto a shared AbstractTreeValidator
• Deterministic traversal with path tracking
• Inert and raw-text isolation enforced consistently

Improved HTML Validation Report Renderer

• Human-readable, browser-friendly error output
• Clear grouping by rule and element
• Stable structure suitable for CI artifacts

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🧪 Testing & Reliability

• Fresh PHPUnit test suite aligned to rule IDs
• Profile-aware regression coverage:
  • WCAG_A
  • WCAG_AA
  • WCAG_AAA
  • STRICT_HTML
  • CMS_SAFE
• Explicit invariant tests for duplicate-error prevention

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🧱 Stability & Compatibility

• No breaking changes
• v1.x API remains frozen
• Rendering behavior unchanged
• Validation remains strict by default

If HTML renders, it is still correct.

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📚 Documentation Updates

• RULES.md with canonical rule registry
• ELEMENT_REGISTRY.md generated from source
• Updated README and ROADMAP
• Clear separation between v1.0.x maintenance and v1.1+ evolution

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Philosophy Reminder

HTMLForge treats HTML as a language, not a suggestion.

This release improves how errors are explained, not how they are forgiven.

v1.0.0

Initial Stable Release

This is the first public, production-ready release of HTMLForge.
v1.0.0 establishes the core architecture, validation model, and rendering guarantees that future releases will build on.

The API is now frozen for the v1.x series.

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✨ What’s included

Standards-first core

• Deterministic HTML AST with predictable rendering
• Complete HTML5 element registry
• Separate rendering modes for full documents and fragments

Structural and semantic validation

• Content model validation for:

  • Document structure
  • Void elements
  • Raw-text elements
  • Inert content

• Attribute validation with support for:

  • Global attributes
  • data-*
  • aria-*

• URL, ID reference, and language attribute validation

Accessibility validation (WCAG-aware)

• Accessible name enforcement (implicit, explicit, ARIA-based)
• Form label validation
• Heading outline validation
• Landmark validation
• ARIA role validation

Validation profiles

• WCAG_A
• WCAG_AA
• WCAG_AAA
• STRICT_HTML
• CMS_SAFE

Developer tooling

• ValidationReport with HTML renderer for browser-friendly error output
• PHPUnit regression test matrix per validation profile

Security and safety

• Inline event handlers blocked in strict profiles

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🧱 Core design decisions

These are intentional and now locked in:

• No auto-fixing of invalid HTML
• No silent, browser-like error recovery
• No framework or CMS assumptions in the core
• Validation failures never throw during rendering

HTMLForge tells you what’s wrong. It does not guess what you meant.

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🚀 Release status

• First stable, production-ready release
• API frozen for v1.x
• Safe to adopt for long-term tooling, CMS integrations, and build pipelines