[uf-new] hAudio proposal: ITEM/TRACK

[Manu Sporny]

The problem:

We need some sort of "container" to hold track/song information in an
hAudio album. The contents of this "container" will be another hAudio
chunk or text (which will be the FN of an hAudio object).

There are two proposals that are on the table right now. The end result
and semantics for hAudio are the same, the only thing that we are
discussing is the name of that "container".

TRACK or ITEM

Using TRACK means creating a new Microformat property that, while
specific, is not re-using ITEM. There is also contention over whether
this accurately describes a part of an album.

Using ITEM means that we will be changing the current definition of ITEM:

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"item - hReview - The item that the object exists for. For example, a
review about Coca-Cola would list "Coca-Cola" as the item."[1]

"item info:: This required field MUST have at a minimum the name ("fn" -
the formatted text corresponding to the name, except for an event item
which MUST have the "summary" property inside the respective hCalendar
"vevent") of the item (an hReview describes only one item), SHOULD
provide at least one URI ("url") for the item, and MAY provide at least
one URL to a photo or depiction ("photo") of the item. For items of type
person or business, the item info (fn, url, photo) MUST be encapsulated
in an hCard. For items of type event, the item info SHOULD be
encapsulated in an hCalendar "vevent". Non-URL unique item IDs (e.g.
ISBNs, UPCs) MAY be represented as a URN ("url") for the item.
Encapsulated microformats (e.g. hCard and hCalendar events for now) may
be set on the item itself (e.g. class="item vcard"). However, when using
item info subproperties ("fn", "url", "photo"), they MUST be nested
inside the item element."[2]

"item info:: This required field MUST have at a minimum the name ("fn" -
the formatted text corresponding to the name) of the item , SHOULD
provide at least one URI ("url") for the item, and MAY provide at least
one URL to a photo or depiction ("photo") of the item. For items of type
person or business, the item info (fn, url, photo) SHOULD be
encapsulated in an hCard. Unique item IDs (e.g. ISBNs, UPCs) MAY be
represented as a URN ("url") for the item."[3]

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However, it seems that there is support from a number of people to
re-use ITEM because it achieves two things (moves hAudio forward AND
simultaneously creates a generic "bag/hset/container" concept for
Microformats... something that we've been attempting to do for over a year.

We don't want to break backwards compatability, so we have to work with
the current definitions of item for hReview and hListing by defining
ITEM as the following, which can be used across all Microformats:

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ITEM - A generic method that Microformats use for unordered containment
of other Microformat properties or objects. This property MUST have, at
a minimum, the name of the item. The name of the item can be specified
using either:

  a) plain-text, if the property contains only the name of the item.
  b) "fn", if the property contains multiple Microformat properties.

ITEM MAY contain other properties/Microformats, but anything other than
FN must be defined by the Microformat that is using ITEM.

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The above definition doesn't require hReview or hListing to change at
all. It also means that we can use it like so in hAudio:

Single track, with known album (same as putting text in the ‘album’
field of an ID3 tag):
<span class="haudio">
    <span class="fn">Nagasaki Nightmare</span>
    <span class="album">Best Before 1984</span>
    <span class="contributor">Crass</span>
</span>

Single track, album unknown:
<span class="haudio">
    <span class="fn">Nagasaki Nightmare</span>
    <span class="contributor">Crass</span>
</span>

Album:
<span class="haudio">
    <span class="fn album">Best Before 1984</span>
    <span class="contributor">Crass</span>
</span>

Album with a couple of tracks, simple example:
<span class="haudio">
    <span class="fn album">Best Before 1984</span>
    <span class="contributor">Crass</span>
    <span class="item">Nagasaki Nightmare</span>
    <span class="item">Hokkaido Dream</span>
    <span class="item">Tokyo Groove</span>
</span>

Album with a couple of tracks, more detailed:
<span class="haudio">
    <span class="fn album">Best Before 1984</span>
    <span class="contributor">Crass</span>
    <span class="item haudio"><span class="fn">Nagasaki Nightmare</span>
– <abbr class="duration" title="P268T">4:46</abbr></span>
    <span class="item haudio"><span class="fn">Nagasaki Nightmare</span>
– <abbr class="duration" title="P268T">4:46</abbr></span>
    <span class="item haudio"><span class="fn">Nagasaki Nightmare</span>
– <abbr class="duration" title="P268T">4:46</abbr></span>
</span>

-- manu

PS: Andy, Martin - I'm just as frustrated with this approach as I'm sure
both of you are, especially since it was deemed that we couldn't change
TITLE from hCard... but now we're changing the meaning, quite blatantly,
for ITEM.

[1] http://microformats.org/wiki/existing-classes
[2] http://microformats.org/wiki/hreview#Field_details
[3] http://microformats.org/wiki/hlisting#Item_Metadata