[Workshop Summits] Microformats Workshop

Microformats
Workshop
Emily Lewis

The Workshop Summits January 15, 2010
Environments for Humans
Some rights reserved.

• I’m a web designer for Pitney Bowes
Business Insight
• I love web standards, semantic
markup and CSS, accessibility, usability
and microformats
• I write about web design (and other
topics) at A Blog Not Limited
• I just wrote Microformats Made Simple

2 Microformats Workshop The Workshop Summits

Today, you’ll learn:
• What are microformats
• Beneﬁts of microformats
• How to enrich your content with some common
microformats
• Where you can see microformats in action
• Lots of resources to help you publish
microformats


What are microformats?


Microformats Wiki: What Are Microformats

Microformats enable the
publishing and sharing of higher
ﬁdelity information on the web.
Designed for humans ﬁrst and machines
second, microformats are a set of simple,
open data formats built upon existing and
widely adopted standards.


Microformats Wiki: What Are Microformats

Smart
content
Building blocks that
enable users to own,
control, move and share Markup, with
their data on the web. more meaning


Sounds complicated.
Let’s make it easier.


Microformats are sets of
HTML attributes and values
that are applied to common
web content to describe that
content and give it more
meaning.


Formal microformats
• hCalendar: event information
• hCard: contact information
• rel-license: license links
• rel-nofollow: restricting increased page rank for links
• rel-tag: tag links
• VoteLinks: for, against and abstain links
• XFN: distributed social networks
• XOXO: outline content

And even more drafts
• hAtom: syndicated • hProduct: consumer
content products
• hAudio: audio content • hRecipe: food and
beverage recipes
• hListing: open,
distributed listings • hResume: Résumés
and C.V.s
• hMedia: video, images
and audio media • hReview: reviews
• hNews: journalistic • xFolk: bookmarks
news


Formal vs. draft speciﬁcations
Formal microformats are those that are
stable and unlikely to change.

Draft microformats are relatively far
along in the speciﬁcation process, but
haven’t been formally completed. They are
subject to change.


THE BASICS
Use existing standards
• (X)HTML
• rel
• class
• rev

• vCard: hCard
• iCalendar: hCalendar
• Atom: hAtom
• Other microformats and naming principles

THE BASICS
Emphasize semantics
• Core purpose is meaning
• POSH - Plain Old Semantic HTML
• “Self-describing” - Chris Mills
• <p> for paragraph content
• <ul>, <ol>, <dl> for list content
• <h1>-<h6> for heading content


THE BASICS
Address a speciﬁc “problem”
• Common, real-world web content
• People
• Organizations
• Events
• Blog posts
• Reviews
• Tags


THE BASICS
Intentionally simple
• Easy to learn and use
• Based on current human behavior on the web
• Aimed at 80% of use-cases; the most common


THE BASICS
Humans ﬁrst, machines second
• Human-readable content
• From a user’s perspective, web content published with
microformats is indistinguishable from that published
without.

• “Invisible” metadata for machines
• Search engines, user agents, applications, etc.
• Allows human-readable content to be extracted and used
for a wide range of purposes.


Why?


THE BENEFITS
Semantics
• Meaning for machines
• Content published with microformats is parsable. It can
be extracted and indexed, downloaded, searched for,
saved, cross-referenced and combined.
• Web site becomes an API, enabling sharing and re-use of
content


THE BENEFITS
User experience enhancements
• More meaningful search results
• Google Rich Snippets
• Download to address book
• Download to calendar


Google Rich Snippets:
More meaningful search


DEMO: Google Rich Snippets
Visit http://google.com and search for “coffee san francisco”


DEMO: Google Rich Snippets
Scroll down to see how the Rich Snippet displays hReview
information*
*NOTE: Google is still rolling out this feature, so not all search users will see Rich Snippets


THE BENEFITS
Minimal investment
• Easy to learn
• Easy to implement
• No need for special software
• No need to learn new technologies


THE BENEFITS
Encourages standards
• Web standards
• Valid, semantic markup
• Standard workﬂows and processes for development
teams
• Consistent markup
• Standard naming conventions for styling


A BIT OF HISTORY
Enrich content with semantics
• Early 2000s
• Semantic, structural markup
• Separate CSS for presentation
• 2003-04
• XFN
• rel-license
• rel-tag
• VoteLinks

AND TODAY
6,137,400,000+ published
• 1,660,000,000 - hCard • 807,000,000 - hAtom
• 44,100,000 - hCalendar • 452,000,000 - XFN
• 60,600,000 - hReview • 768,000,000 - adr
• 108,000,000 - hResume • 148,000,000 - geo

Yahoo! SearchMonkey results as of 12/17/09


AND TODAY
Everyone’s doing it
• XFN: Twitter Flickr Huffduffer Digg LinkedIn Plaxo
Technorati Last.fm Google Social Graph API Ident Engine

• rel-license: Creative Commons Yahoo! CC Search
Google "Usage Rights" search

• hCard: Google Rich Snippets Google Maps Yahoo! Local
Google Proﬁles Twitter Last.fm MySpace

• hCalendar: Yahoo! Upcoming MapQuest Local Facebook
Last.fm Eventful


AND TODAY
Everyone’s doing it
• hResume: LinkedIn SimplyHired Stack Overﬂow

• hReview: Google Rich Snippets Yelp Yahoo! Local Technorati
New York Times Travel Cork’d

• hListing: Every Car Listed RealEstate.com dealtagger

• hRecipe: Food Network Williams Sonoma Recipes

Microformats Wiki: Examples in the Wild


Let’s get started!


Elemental microformats
• Single attribute-value pair
• Often used as building blocks for other microformats


ELEMENTALS
rel-tag
Describes the relationship of links containing tags
(keywords) to your content:
<a href="/tags/microformats/"
rel="tag">microformats</a>

The rel="tag" attribute-value pair indicates the link
destination (href) is to a page that tells what the
current page - or part of the current page - is about.


ELEMENTALS
What can you do with rel-tag?
• Context-speciﬁc search
• Technorati's Tags
• Operator Plug-in for Firefox


Operator Plug-in:
Contextual search in
action


DEMO: Operator Plug-in
Using Firefox, visit https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/ﬁrefox/addon/
4106 and install the plug-in (“Add to Firefox”)


Using Firefox with plug-in installed, visit http://ablognotlimited.com/
s/130 and scroll down to see tags for this post


Select “Tagspaces” from Operator toolbar


ELEMENTALS
rel-me
Assigned to links to sites that represent you online:

<a href="http://ablognotlimited.com" rel="me">
A Blog Not Limited</a>


ELEMENTALS
What can you do with rel-me?
• Identity consolidation
• Ident Engine
• Huffduffer


blog

portfolio


Ident Engine:
Identity consolidation
in action


DEMO: Ident Engine
Visit http://identengine.com/identity-discovery.htm and enter URL
of a proﬁle page


DEMO: Ident Engine


Huffduffer:
Simpliﬁed account
creation


DEMO: Huffduffer
Visit http://huffduffer.com/signup/ and, if you don’t already have an
account, submit your details using a web site with rel-me (i.e.
Twitter proﬁle)


DEMO: Huffduffer


ELEMENTALS
XFN
me is just one of the values for the XFN microformat

XFN is used to describe social relationships among
people


ELEMENTALS
XFN
Relationship XFN rel Values
Friendship (one value) contact acquaintance friend

Professional (one or both values) colleague co-worker

Family (one value) kin spouse child parent sibling

Romantic (any or all values) muse crush date sweetheart

Physical met

Geographic (one value) neighbor co-resident

Identity me


ELEMENTALS
XFN
For links to other people’s identities online, you can
apply XFN to indicate your social relationship with
that person:

<a href="http://www.christopherschmitt.com/"
rel="colleague muse">


Moving into compounds


Compound microformats
• Several attribute-value pairs (properties and sub-
properties)
• Utilize other microformats as building blocks


COMPOUNDS
hCard
Adds semantics to contact information for people,
places and organizations/companies.
Contact information published with hCard can be
transformed into an electronic business card.
• H2VX Contacts Conversion Service
• Tails Export Plug-in for Firefox
• Oomph Microformats Toolkit


Oomph:
Electronic business card
action


DEMO: Oomph Microformats Toolkit
Visit http://visitmix.com/labs/oomph/2.0/client/style/ﬁrstrun.html
and click the glowing icon in the upper left corner


Options to export contact’s electronic business card


COMPOUNDS
hCard in 3 easy steps
1. Identify content
2. POSHify
http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCard-POSH.html

3. Add hCard
http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCard-Final.html


1
Start with Content
Do you have contact information for a person, place or
STEP

organization?

Emily Lewis
A Blog Not Limited
Albuquerque, NM 87106
emily@ablognotlimited.com


2
Add POSH http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCard-POSH.html
STEP
Apply valid, semantic markup
<dl>
   <dt>Emily Lewis</dt>
      <dd>
         <ul>
            <li><a href="http://www.ablognotlimited.com">
A Blog Not Limited</a></li>
            <li>Albuquerque, <abbr title="New Mexico">NM</
abbr> 87106</li>
            <li><a href="mailto:emily@ablognotlimited.com">
emily@ablognotlimited.com</a></li>
         </ul>
      </dd>
</dl>


3
Add hCard
STEP
Add the root vcard to an element containing all of the contact
information
Then, add the relevant hCard properties and sub-properties via
the class attribute
Web Content class Value
• Name (ﬁrst and last) • fn
• Web site • url
• Address • adr
• City • locality
• State/province • region
• ZIP code • postal-code
• Email address • email


COMPOUNDS
Final hCard http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCard-Final.html

<dl class="vcard">
   <dt class="fn">Emily Lewis</dt>
      <dd>
         <ul>
            <li><a href="http://www.ablognotlimited.com"
class="url">
            <li class="adr"><span
class="locality">Albuquerque</span>, <abbr title="New
Mexico" class="region">NM</abbr> <span class="postal-
code">87106</span></li>
            <li><a href="mailto:emily@ablognotlimited.com"
class="email">emily@ablognotlimited.com</a></li>
         </ul>
      </dd>
</dl>


A CLOSER LOOK
Non-semantic elements
<li class="adr">
<span class="locality">Albuquerque</span>,
<abbr title="New Mexico" class="region">NM</abbr>
<span class="postal-code">87106</span>
</li>


A CLOSER LOOK
Don’t forget about validation!
• W3C Markup Validation Service
• Optimus Microformats Transformer


DEMO: Markup validation
Visit http://validator.w3.org/ and enter URL for page with hCard


DEMO: Markup validation
If there are errors, ﬁx them!


DEMO: Optimus validation
Visit http://microformatique.com/optimus/ and enter URL for page
with hCard


DEMO: Optimus validation
If there are errors, ﬁx them!


Also worth noting
• Markup doesn't matter, but it should be POSH
• Attribute values are case-sensitive
• Root properties cannot be combined with
sub-properties
• You don't need additional class values for
styling, but you can use them


COMPOUNDS
hCalendar
Adds semantics to event information.
Event information published with hCalendar can be
extracted and imported into users' calendars
• H2VX Events Conversion Service
• Tails Export Plug-in for Firefox
• Oomph Microformats Toolkit


H2VX:
Electronic calendar
in action


DEMO: H2VX
Visit http://h2vx.com/ics/ and enter URL for page with hCalendar
(i.e. http://environmentsforhumans.com/workshop-summits/)


DEMO: H2VX
Select “Download” to add .ics to your electronic calendar


DEMO: H2VX
Or select “Subscribe”


DEMO: H2VX
Use with your own site


COMPOUNDS
hCalendar in 3 easy steps
1. Identify content
2. POSHify
http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCalendar-POSH.html

3. Add hCalendar
http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCalendar-Final.html


1
Start with Content
Do you have event information?
STEP

010 b rating d
SX SWi 2 c e cele n behin
n feren passio
ay co ty and
A 5-d eativi media
r
the c olest new
the coologies 0
techn , 201
12-16 enter
• March e ntion
C
n Conv
• Austi


2
Add POSH http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCalendar-POSH.html
STEP
Apply valid, semantic markup
<h1><a href="http://sxsw.com/interactive">SXSWi 2010</a></h1>

<p>A 5-day conference celebrating the creativity and passion
behind the coolest new media technologies.</p>

<ul>

<li>March 12-16, 2010</li>

<li>Austin Convention Center</li>
</ul>


3
Add hCalendar
STEP
Add the root vevent to an element containing all of the event
information
Then, add the relevant hCalendar properties and sub-properties
via the class attribute
Web Content class Value
• Event name • summary
• Web site • url
• Description • description
• Type of event • category
• Start date • dtstart
• End date • dtend
• Location • location


COMPOUNDS
Final hCalendar http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCalendar-Final.html

<div class="vevent">

<h1 class="summary"><a href="http://sxsw.com/interactive"
class="url">SXSWi 2010</a></h1>

<p class="description">A 5-day <span
class="category">conference</span> celebrating the creativity
and passion behind the coolest new media technologies.</p>

<ul>

<li><span class="dtstart"><span class="value-title"
title="2010-03-12"> </span>March 12</span>-<span
class="dtend"><span class="value-title" title="2010-03-16"> </
span>16, 2009</span></li>

<li class="location">Austin Convention Center</li>

</ul>
</div>

A CLOSER LOOK
Non-semantic elements
<div class="vevent"> ... </div>

<p class="description">A 5-day <span
class="category">conference</span> celebrating the
creativity and passion behind the coolest new media
technologies.</p>

<li><span class="dtstart"><span class="value-title"
title="2010-03-12"> </span>March 12</span>-<span
class="dtend"><span class="value-title"
title="2010-03-16"> </span>16, 2009</span></li>


A CLOSER LOOK
Value class pattern
Offers authors several options for marking up date-
time information, including the empty <span>
method:
<span class="dtstart"><span class="value-title"
title="2010-03-12"> </span>March 12</span>

• Machine-readable date information is the title
attribute value
• Screen-readers won’t read the title value
• No tooltip

For ev
moreen
seman
t
power ic
!

Combining microformats


COMBINING MICROFORMATS
hCard with rel-me http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCard-relMe.html

<dl class="vcard">
   <dt class="fn">Emily Lewis</dt>
      <dd>
         <ul>
            <li><a href="http://www.ablognotlimited.com"
class="url" rel="me">
            <li class="adr"><span
class="locality">Albuquerque</span>, <abbr title="New
Mexico" class="region">NM</abbr> <span class="postal-
            <li><a href="mailto:emily@ablognotlimited.com"
class="email">emily@ablognotlimited.com</a></li>
         </ul>
      </dd>
</dl>


COMBINING MICROFORMATS
hCalendar with hCard
http://www.emilylewisdesign.com/MicroformatsWorkshop/hCalendar-hCard.html

<div class="vevent">
...

<li class="location vcard"><a href="http://
www.austinconventioncenter.com/" class="fn org url">Austin
Convention Center</a>

<ul class="adr">

<li class="street-address">500 East Cesar Chavez
Street</li>

<li><span class="locality">Austin</span>, <abbr
title="Texas" class="region">TX</abbr> <span class="postal-

</ul>

</li>
...
</div>


Resources


RESOURCES
My new book!
Available for sale on Amazon

Want a preview? Check out
Rough Cuts excerpts


RESOURCES
My blog tutorials
Getting Semantic With Microformats:
• rel-home, rel-tag, rel-license
• XFN
• hCard
• hCalendar
• hAtom
• hResume
• Themes & Issues

87
• Value class pattern Microformats Workshop The Workshop Summits

RESOURCES
Great stuff from other folks
• Microformats Wiki
• A good resource once you understand the basics
• Microformats: Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0 by
John Allsopp
• microformatique
• Follow @microformats
• Send questions to @microformateers


RESOURCES
Authoring tools
• hCard Creator
• hCalendar Creator
• hReview Creator
• XFN Creator
• Jeffrey Zeldman's Web Standards Advisor
Dreamweaver plug-in


RESOURCES
Additional reading
• Microformats Role Play
• Discovering Magic
• The Value Class Pattern
• More on developing naming conventions,
Microformats and HTML5
• Styling hReview Microformats
• Styling XFN and rel-license links
• Styling hCard

Questions?


[Workshop Summits] Microformats Workshop

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