[uf-discuss] hReview for Stocks

[Tantek Ç elik]

On 2/1/06 12:04 PM, "Sujata Ramchandran" <sramchandran at aol.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
>   This is my initial foray in to the world of microformats.

Welcome Sujata!


> I have been asked
> to provide some additional fields within hReview

Who has asked you for this?  That might help understand what the problem is
that you are solving.


> that can be used for Stocks.

Did you have a chance to look at the hReview FAQ?

http://microformats.org/wiki/hreview-faq

In particular, item #9


> Here's what I am suggesting based on the parameters that I have been given.

Could you provide the parameters that you have been given?


> <div class="hreview">
> <span class="item ticker" title="TWX"/>
> <span class="item exchange" title="NYSE"/>
> <span class="item country" title="USA"/>
> <span class="item expiration" title="20050518T2300-0700"/>


There are a few microformat and hReview fundamentals being violated here.

1. Visible data.  The ticker symbol, exchange, country should be visible in
the text as the reviwer would write them.

2. Use XHTML 1.0 following Appendix C - Compatibility.  Empty <span/>
elements are not compatible XHTML 1.0.

3. There may only be one "item" per "hreview".  I thought this would be
obvious from the spec, but it apparently isn't, and it should be made
explicit.  I have added this as an issue to hreview-issues:

 http://microformats.org/wiki/hreview-issues

4. Simplicity / Solve a specific problem.  We try to keep each individual
microformat simple and to solve a specific problem.  For hReview, the
specific problem is reviews.  Adding stock-ticker-specific semantics to a
review format is neither keeping it simple, nor keeping it specific.

5. Modularity. It looks like what you're actually trying to do (perhaps
should be trying to do) is to invent a new microformat for talking about a
stock (ticker, exchange, country, expiration).  If that's what you are
trying to do, please take a look at the microformats process:

 http://microformats.org/wiki/process

and go through the steps of gathering research to see if there is sufficient
reason / usage patterns to create a microformat for stocks.


> <span class="item type" title="product"/>
> <span class="reviewer fn" title="Reviewer Name"/>
> <span class="dtreviewed" title="20050418T2300-0700"/>

More violations of #1 and #2 above.


>   Stock review would goes here.
>   <div class="item vcard"
>       <span class="fn" title="Infocrossing"/>
>       <a class="url"
> href="http://finance.aol.com/usw/quotes/quotesandnews?sym=twx&amp;exch=USA"
> <http://finance.aol.com/usw/quotes/quotesandnews?sym=ifox&amp;exch=USA> >
>          <strong>Time Warner</strong>
>       </a>
>  </div>

This makes it look like there is a *product* being reviewed, and that
*product* is Time Warner.

That might make sense for the AOL executives who made the purchasing
decision to buy Time Warner, but I don't think that's what you intended.

> This is what the new fields indicate
> 
> item ticker - Stock ticker symbol
> item exchange - Stock exchange
> item country - Country of the exchange (needed to map to the exch field in the
> url)
> item expiration - Time for which the review is valid.

See above about microformats process.

Before creating or defining a new microformat you must do some research and
document it on the wiki.

Thanks,

Tantek