MVC 3 Razor View Engine - script blocks appear before DOCTYPE - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

I have a very strange problem. I have migrated my views from Webforms view engine to Razor. I am finding now that when the html for my page is rendered, it doesn't render the DOCTYPE at the top (as it should), but rather renders some javascript script blocks before the DOCTYPE tag. I have no clue what is causing this. The result it that the browser displays the page in Quirks mode. This manifests by my font-size in my tables not conforming to the font-size set for the body tag.
I must also mention that I am using Telerik MVC extensions version 2011Q1.
Below is a portion of the page source from the beginning of the html page to the end of the head tag. Any help on why this is happening will be appreciated.
<script type="text/javascript" src="/asset.axd?id=PQEAAB-LCAAAAAAABADsvQdgHEmWJSYvbcp7f0r1StfgdKEIgGATJNiQQBDswYjN5pLsHWlHIymrKoHKZVZlXWYWQMztnbz33nvvvffee--997o7nU4n99__P1xmZAFs9s5K2smeIYCqyB8_fnwfPyJ-8Uezjx597xd_tPro0Uevp3WxapuPRh-d82dL-uynf9E6r6-3d8f3x7vjn8Z31UePdn7JSL5t8zKvi7fjabVYVEv7_W73-zZ_106qd7bBXrfBRV3M7Lf3zLfS-fgyK4tZ1ua2wX709XxWtMXywra638MimzQtDdG2-PSXfP-XfH_00bTlRu_auz-dXWYNU4EaXNKnezu7uzTwe7v36YMpkerep_fpl48etfU6_yX_TwAAAP__IQbpFT0BAAA%3d"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
jQuery(document).ready(function(){
if (!jQuery.telerik) jQuery.telerik = {};
jQuery.telerik.cultureInfo={"shortDate":"dd/MM/yyyy","longDate":"dd MMMM yyyy","longTime":"HH:mm:ss","shortTime":"HH:mm","fullDateTime":"dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss","sortableDateTime":"yyyy\u0027-\u0027MM\u0027-\u0027dd\u0027T\u0027HH\u0027:\u0027mm\u0027:\u0027ss","universalSortableDateTime":"yyyy\u0027-\u0027MM\u0027-\u0027dd HH\u0027:\u0027mm\u0027:\u0027ss\u0027Z\u0027","generalDateShortTime":"dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm","generalDateTime":"dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss","monthDay":"dd MMMM","monthYear":"MMMM yyyy","days":["Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday"],"abbrDays":["Sun","Mon","Tue","Wed","Thu","Fri","Sat"],"abbrMonths":["Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec",""],"months":["January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December",""],"am":"AM","pm":"PM","dateSeparator":"/","timeSeparator":":","firstDayOfWeek":1,"currencydecimaldigits":2,"currencydecimalseparator":".","currencygroupseparator":",","currencygroupsize":3,"currencynegative":1,"currencypositive":0,"currencysymbol":"£","numericdecimaldigits":2,"numericdecimalseparator":".","numericgroupseparator":",","numericgroupsize":3,"numericnegative":1,"percentdecimaldigits":2,"percentdecimalseparator":".","percentgroupseparator":",","percentgroupsize":3,"percentnegative":0,"percentpositive":0,"percentsymbol":"%"};
jQuery('#CoursesGrid').tGrid({columns:[{"title":"Id","member":"Id","type":"Number","editor":null},{"title":"Course Title:","member":"Title","type":"String","editor":null},{"title":"Completion Category","member":"CompletionCategory","type":"String","editor":null},{"title":"Expiry Months (0 to 100):","member":"ExpiryMonths","type":"Number","editor":null},{"title":"Commands","commands":[{"name":"edit","buttonType":"Image"},{"name":"delete","buttonType":"Image"}]}], plugins:["editing"], editing:{"mode":"InForm","editor":"\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\r\n \u003cfieldset class=\"editfieldset\"\u003e\r\n \u003clegend class=\"titlelegend\"\u003eCourse Details\u003c/legend\u003e\r\n \u003col\u003e\r\n \u003cli\u003e\r\n \u003clabel for=\"Title\"\u003eCourse Title:\u003c/label\u003e \r\n \u003cinput id=\"Title\" name=\"Title\" type=\"text\" value=\"\" /\u003e \r\n \u003cspan class=\"field-validation-valid\" id=\"Title_validationMessage\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e \r\n \u003c/li\u003e\r\n \u003cli\u003e\r\n \u003clabel for=\"Description\"\u003eDescription:\u003c/label\u003e \r\n \u003ctextarea cols=\"20\" id=\"Description\" name=\"Description\" rows=\"2\"\u003e\r\n\u003c/textarea\u003e \r\n \u003cspan class=\"field-validation-valid\" id=\"Description_validationMessage\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e \r\n \u003c/li\u003e\r\n \u003cli\u003e\r\n \u003clabel for=\"ExpiryMonths\"\u003eExpiry Months (0 to 100):\u003c/label\u003e \r\n \u003cdiv class=\"t-widget t-numerictextbox\"\u003e\u003cinput class=\"t-input\" id=\"ExpiryMonths\" name=\"ExpiryMonths\" style=\"width:100%\" value=\"0\" /\u003e\u003ca class=\"t-link t-icon t-arrow-up\" href=\"#\" tabindex=\"-1\" title=\"Increase value\"\u003eIncrement\u003c/a\u003e\u003ca class=\"t-link t-icon t-arrow-down\" href=\"#\" tabindex=\"-1\" title=\"Decrease value\"\u003eDecrement\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cscript type=\"text/javascript\"\u003e\r\n\tjQuery(\u0027#ExpiryMonths\u0027).tTextBox({val:0, step:1, minValue:-2147483648, maxValue:2147483647, digits:0, groupSize:3, negative:1, text:\u0027Enter value\u0027, type:\u0027numeric\u0027});\r\n\u003c/script\u003e\r\n \r\n \u003cspan class=\"field-validation-valid\" id=\"ExpiryMonths_validationMessage\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e \r\n \u003c/li\u003e\r\n \u003c/ol\u003e\r\n \u003c/fieldset\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n","defaultDataItem":{"Id":0,"Title":null,"Description":null,"CompletionCategory":null,"ReminderId":0,"ExpiryMonths":0,"Deleted":false,"ScheduledCourses":[]}}, dataKeys:{"Id":"id"}, validationMetadata:{"Fields":[{"FieldName":"Title","ReplaceValidationMessageContents":true,"ValidationMessageId":"Title_validationMessage","ValidationRules":[{"ErrorMessage":"Course Title is required.","ValidationParameters":{},"ValidationType":"required"}]},{"FieldName":"Description","ReplaceValidationMessageContents":true,"ValidationMessageId":"Description_validationMessage","ValidationRules":[]},{"FieldName":"ExpiryMonths","ReplaceValidationMessageContents":true,"ValidationMessageId":"ExpiryMonths_validationMessage","ValidationRules":[{"ErrorMessage":"The Expiry Months (0 to 100): field is required.","ValidationParameters":{},"ValidationType":"required"},{"ErrorMessage":"The field Expiry Months (0 to 100): must be a number.","ValidationParameters":{},"ValidationType":"number"}]}],"FormId":"CoursesGridform"}, pageSize:0, sortMode:'single', ajax:{"selectUrl":"/Course/_IndexAjax","insertUrl":"/Course/_InsertAjax","updateUrl":"/Course/_UpdateAjax","deleteUrl":"/Course/_DeleteAjax"}, localization:{"addNew":"Add new record","delete":"Delete","cancel":"Cancel","update":"Update","insert":"Insert","edit":"Edit","select":"Select","page":"Page ","displayingItems":"Displaying items {0} - {1} of {2}","pageOf":"of {0}","filter":"Filter","filterAnd":"And","filterClear":"Clear Filter","filterDateEq":"Is equal to","filterDateGe":"Is after or equal to","filterDateGt":"Is after","filterDateLe":"Is before or equal to","filterDateLt":"Is before","filterDateNe":"Is not equal to","filterNumberEq":"Is equal to","filterNumberGe":"Is greater than or equal to","filterNumberGt":"Is greater than","filterNumberLe":"Is less than or equal to","filterNumberLt":"Is less than","filterNumberNe":"Is not equal to","filterShowRows":"Show rows with value that","filterStringEndsWith":"Ends with","filterStringEq":"Is equal to","filterStringNe":"Is not equal to","filterStringStartsWith":"Starts with","filterStringSubstringOf":"Contains","groupHint":"Drag a column header and drop it here to group by that column","filterEnumEq":"Is equal to","filterEnumNe":"Is not equal to","deleteConfirmation":"Are you sure you want to delete this record?","filterSelectValue":"-Select value-","filterBoolIsFalse":"is false","filterBoolIsTrue":"is true","noRecords":"No records to display.","cancelChanges":"Cancel changes","saveChanges":"Save changes","refresh":"Refresh","sortedAsc":"sorted ascending","sortedDesc":"sorted descending","unGroup":"ungroup"}, noRecordsTemplate:'No records to display.'});
jQuery('#TabStrip').tTabStrip();});
//]]>
</script>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1">
<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Vigilaris Solutions</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/Content/Themes/Shared/vway-backend.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/Content/Themes/Green/branding.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/Content/Themes/Shared/StatusBar.css.css" type="text/css" />
<link type="text/css" href="/asset.axd?id=lAAAAB-LCAAAAAAABADsvQdgHEmWJSYvbcp7f0r1StfgdKEIgGATJNiQQBDswYjN5pLsHWlHIymrKoHKZVZlXWYWQMztnbz33nvvvffee--997o7nU4n99__P1xmZAFs9s5K2smeIYCqyB8_fnwfPyJ-8Uezjx597xd_tPro0Ucn1bLNl-1Ho4_O-bMlfdbmZV4Xb8fTarGoluNp09DX1UePdn7JKGxwVSxn1VXzwDXZ_SXf_yXfH300bbnVu_aufHNJf-7t7O6Od8f3du_TB1PC4N6n9-mXjx619Tr_Jf9PAAAA__9JtaUdlAAAAA%3d%3d" rel="stylesheet"/>
</head>

Answer 1

Okay. I have resolved the problem. It is, in fact, a Telerik related issue. The issue is as follows:
In my layout view, my migrated razor view engine script registrar code looked as follows:
#{Html.Telerik().ScriptRegistrar()
.Globalization(true)
.DefaultGroup(g => g.Combined(true).Compress(true))
.Render();
}
This is a code block approach and results in the javascript script blocks being rendered right at the beginning of the page source before the DOCTYPE declaration, thus causing the browser to go into quirks mode (uggglllyyy!).
So, I changed the Telerik code in my layout view to the following:
#(Html.Telerik().ScriptRegistrar()
.Globalization(true)
.DefaultGroup(g => g.Combined(true).Compress(true))
)
The script blocks now correctly get rendered at the end of the page source and the browser no longer operates in quirks mode.
I really hope this can help other developers.

Answer 2

This is caused by something writing those scripts directly to the output stream (Response.Write). Razor uses Writer property of ViewContext for output before flushing everything to Response.

Answer 3

i take it you are using the Telerik MVC Components, more specifically the tabs?
check your view templates, specifically _Layout.cshtml and ensure you arent calling the telerik library before your markup.