[uf-new] Navigation Menu and "Standard Web Page" microformats

[Edward O'Connor]

Paul R. Bohman wrote:

> I've been looking around to try to find an existing microformat for
> navigation menus and other "standard web page" items, but so far I've
> been unsuccessful. Does such a microformat exist?
[...]
> Is there a microformat (or perhaps more accurately a "metaformat") to
> describe the basic structure of common web pages?

To the extent that any microformat covers "basic structure of common
pages," it would be hAtom, which is useful not just for blogs and other
such sites, but for any episodic content where each entry has a title,
date, and body.

For instance, I marked up http://federali.st/ in hAtom.

Now, that being said, I think a more generic attempt to make a
microformat for "basic structure of common pages" might run awry of the
process, because there usually is a standard element or compound of
standard elements that do the trick.

In those cases where there aren't current elements or element compounds,
I don't think a microformat is necessary where you could simply base
your choice of class names, structure, etc., on the new elements
introduced by HTML5:

> header

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-header

> navigation

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-nav
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#menus

> content

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-section

> footer

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-footer

> * sidebar

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-section

> * ad (advertisers would probably object to this, as it would allow
> easy scripting to remove ads, but it still could be a useful
> designation for users at least)

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#the-section

> * help

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#link-type6

I've been doing this a lot lately -- I write up the idiomatic HTML5 for
something, then convert new elements into some kind of
backwards-compatible analogue, e.g. menu -> ol.menu, figure ->
div.figure, etc.


Ted

-- 
Edward O'Connor
hober0 at gmail.com

Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem.