Deprecated HTML Scanner — Find Obsolete HTML Elements and Attributes

Deprecated HTML scanner that automatically detects outdated HTML elements and attributes on any website. Identify code quality issues, improve SEO rankings, and ensure your web pages follow modern HTML5 standards. Built with strict cost controls to prevent accidental overuse.

Use Cases

• SEO auditing — Find deprecated HTML tags that search engines may penalize or ignore
• Code quality checks — Identify legacy HTML that needs modernization during refactoring
• Accessibility compliance — Detect outdated elements that may cause accessibility issues
• Website migrations — Scan sites before migration to identify technical debt
• Client reporting — Generate automated reports showing deprecated code issues
• CI/CD integration — Add HTML quality checks to your deployment pipeline

Cost Protection Features

This actor includes multiple safeguards to prevent accidental overuse and unexpected charges:

Safeguard	Default	Hard Limit	Description
maxUrls	100	1,000	Maximum URLs processed per run
timeoutSecs	300 (5 min)	3,600 (1 hour)	Total actor runtime limit
requestTimeoutSecs	30	120	Per-request timeout

The actor will:

• Stop gracefully when any limit is reached
• Log warnings when limits are approached
• Never exceed the hard limits regardless of input

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
url	string	-	Single URL to scan for deprecated HTML
urls	array	-	List of URLs to scan (one per line)
maxUrls	integer	100	Maximum URLs to process (hard max: 1000)
timeoutSecs	integer	300	Actor timeout in seconds (hard max: 3600)
requestTimeoutSecs	integer	30	Per-request timeout in seconds
includeWarnings	boolean	true	Include warnings for discouraged patterns
scanAttributes	boolean	true	Scan for deprecated HTML attributes

Example Input

{
    "urls": [
        "https://example.com",
        "https://example.com/about",
        "https://example.com/contact"
    ],
    "maxUrls": 50,
    "timeoutSecs": 180,
    "includeWarnings": true,
    "scanAttributes": true
}

Output

The actor stores results in a dataset. Each entry contains:

{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "status": "success",
    "totalIssues": 5,
    "deprecatedElements": [
        {
            "type": "deprecated_element",
            "element": "center",
            "recommendation": "Use CSS text-align: center instead",
            "count": 3
        },
        {
            "type": "deprecated_element",
            "element": "font",
            "recommendation": "Use CSS for styling",
            "count": 2
        }
    ],
    "deprecatedAttributes": [
        {
            "type": "deprecated_attribute",
            "attribute": "bgcolor",
            "element": "body",
            "recommendation": "Use CSS background-color",
            "count": 1
        }
    ],
    "warnings": [
        {
            "type": "warning",
            "attribute": "style",
            "count": 15,
            "recommendation": "Inline styles - consider using external CSS"
        }
    ],
    "error": null,
    "scannedAt": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
    "processingTimeMs": 245
}

Field	Type	Description
url	string	The URL that was scanned
status	string	Scan status: success, error, timeout
totalIssues	integer	Total deprecated elements + attributes + warnings
deprecatedElements	array	List of deprecated HTML elements found
deprecatedAttributes	array	List of deprecated HTML attributes found
warnings	array	Discouraged patterns (inline styles, event handlers)
error	string	Error message if scan failed
scannedAt	string	ISO timestamp of the scan
processingTimeMs	integer	Processing time in milliseconds

Deprecated Elements Detected

The scanner detects these obsolete HTML elements:

• <font>, <center>, <big>, <strike>, <tt> — Use CSS instead
• <marquee>, <blink> — Use CSS animations
• <frame>, <frameset>, <noframes> — Use modern layouts or iframes
• <applet> — Use <object> or <embed>
• <acronym> — Use <abbr>
• <dir> — Use <ul> with CSS
• And 20+ more obsolete elements

Deprecated Attributes Detected

The scanner detects these obsolete HTML attributes:

• bgcolor, background, text, link, vlink, alink — Use CSS colors
• align, valign — Use CSS flexbox or grid
• border, cellpadding, cellspacing — Use CSS borders and spacing
• hspace, vspace, marginwidth, marginheight — Use CSS margins
• width, height (except on <img>, <video>, <canvas>) — Use CSS
• And 10+ more obsolete attributes

How It Works

1. Accepts single URL or batch of URLs as input
2. Enforces cost limits (maxUrls, timeout) before processing
3. Fetches each page with configurable request timeout
4. Parses HTML using BeautifulSoup with lxml parser
5. Scans for deprecated elements, attributes, and warning patterns
6. Consolidates results by element/attribute type with counts
7. Pushes results to dataset immediately (streaming output)
8. Stops gracefully when limits are reached

FAQ

How do I prevent accidental high charges? The actor has built-in safeguards: default 100 URL limit, 5-minute timeout, and hard limits that cannot be exceeded. Always set maxUrls and timeoutSecs appropriate for your needs.

Can I scan JavaScript-rendered pages? This actor uses HTTP requests and parses static HTML. For JavaScript-heavy SPAs, you would need a browser-based actor using Playwright.

What counts as a "warning" vs "deprecated"? Deprecated elements/attributes are officially obsolete in HTML5. Warnings are for patterns that work but are discouraged (like inline styles or onclick handlers).

How are duplicate URLs handled? URLs are automatically deduplicated before processing. Trailing slashes are normalized.

What happens if a page times out? The actor records a timeout status for that URL and continues with the next one. It won't crash or waste time on slow pages.

Integrations

Connect Deprecated HTML Scanner with other apps and services using Apify integrations. You can integrate with Make, Zapier, Slack, Airbyte, GitHub, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and many more. You can also use webhooks to trigger actions whenever results are available.