Marqui (The company) has been blogging a bit more than usual lately, I guess because someone else has joined up on the team and decided to chime in. They linked to an article by one of their bloggers in a recent post that I feel I should comment on.
The Marqui CMS, does not seem to be able to guarantee out-of-the-box valid HTML output without some intervention from the user. Once again, Marqui does not take responsibility for the page templates code but only for effectively managing the body content inside each page.
The Marqui CMS should not take responsibility for valid (X)HTML without some intervention from the user. I wouldn't expect it to. What I would expect, is that intervention from a web developer be left alone, and like a comment on the article by Robin mentioned, the CMS should not push it's users to use code that does not validate. This is where the CMS falls short.
My DOCTYPE of choice is XHTML Transitional and the code outputted by Marqui fails validation. It uses uppercase tags for elements, all forms are in tables, I can not choose between <BR> and <br /> etc. I think the major pain that Marqui has presented me is it's implementation of forms. When I design a form using the system I am left to the mercy of what it decides to output. I cannot use legends or fieldsets, and for each form it includes JavaScript for a calendar control that may or may not be included on the page. (I assume all bases must be covered, and it's a C
With this said, I've been told that Marqui is currently looking into resolving the issues we have encountered. They are actively developing a solution that will give web developers the freedom to code their sites however they see fit. I didn't have to ask if they were, they brought it up to me in a conference call while we were discussing another (and much more complicated) situation.
I deal with a few vendors when it comes to web solutions, and I have to say, Marqui is pretty much the only one I trust to make good on their promises.
Disclaimer: I am NOT paid to blog for Marqui.