hcard-feedback

hCard feedback

General feedback about hCard may be provided here, and the editor(s) will do their best to try to accomodate such feedback. The more specific the feedback the better chance it will be handled. For specific issues with the spec (as opposed to general problems and feedback), please use the hCard issues page.

Feedback may (and probably will) be edited and rewritten for better terseness, clarity, calmness, rationality, and as neutral a point of view as possible. Use the provided template and add your feedback to the end of the Feedback section. Write your feedback well. — Tantek

Feedback

• 2006-11-15 raised by Lachy in #whatwg (an IRC channel on freenode about The WHATWG).
  1. I think the whole hCard specification needs to be restructured.
  2. It's incredibly difficult to work out what each class name means and how to use them properly.

• 2006-11-15 raised by hsivonen in #whatwg.
  1. Without knowing iCalendar or vCard, it is totally non-obvious to see what hCards or hCalendars would be conforming. The normative part is extremely short and doesn't seem to establish clear enough a mapping between the microformats and the RFCs.
     • This (and Lachy's 2nd feedback point above) should be addressed by clarifying the mapping with better use of the hCard profile which does clearly map the class names to vCard properties and the sections of the vCard specification that defines them. - Tantek

• 2006-11-15 raised by Hixie in #whatwg (and agreed by Lachy and hsivonen).
  1. The hCard spec basically reads as a brainstorm, not a normative spec.

• 2006-11-17 raised by Lachlan Hunt.
  1. Semantic XHTML Design Princples: This section should go. Guidelines for how to write a microformats specification do not belong in the spec itself.
  2. Format - More Semantic Equivalents: Explanations of how to use each property correctly should be given with each and every property, not just list a few at the top before the properties have even been defined.
  3. Singlular vs. Plural: It is unclear what is meant by singular vs. plural properties. Ordinarily, a plural is word that refers to multiple objects, but in this spec, it's being used to designate a property that can be used more than once. It doesn't make sense because the property itself isn't a plural. Besides, this section should go. The number of times a property can be used should be listed with each individual property description.
  4. Plural Properties Singularized: What the...? After attempting to read that paragraph several times, I still can't comprehend what on earth it's trying to say.
  5. Human vs. Machine Readable: This title only makes some sense for the use of the abbr element. Everything in this section should be moved to a Conformance Requirements section, which explains how to extract values from the markup. It should also use RFC 2119 terminology that describes exactly what a UA has to do. Presently, it's written to informatively, rather than normatively (particularly for the abbr element).
  6. Property List: This section is almost useless, it's effectively written like an index of properties but doesn't link to or help define, in any way whatsoever, what the actual meaning of a property is, nor how to use it. For every single property, all of the following information should be listed
     • Property name
     • Expansion (e.g. it's not clear from this section what fn stands for. First Name? Family Name? Full Name? Flight Number?)
     • Definition. (e.g. either copy the definition directly from vCard or provide a short summary, and also a link to the relevant vCard section. Saying just "See section #.#.# of RFC 2426.", as done in the profile, is not so easy to do.)
     • Usage
       • Contexts in which this property may be used
       • Content model (e.g. list of sub properties, expected elements, text, or whatever)
       • Syntax of the value (i.e. plain text, number, URI, etc.)
       • Elements this property may be used on
     • How to interpret the value (may link to relevant section in Conformance Requirements)
  • I second all of the above. Andy Mabbett 07:15, 17 Nov 2006 (PST)
• 2006-12-04 raised by Joshie Surber .
  1. What is the point of class="adr" when we have the <address> element?.

Template

Please use this format (copy and paste this to the end of the list to add your feedback):

• YYYY-MM-DD raised by YOURNAME.
  1. Here is the first general feedback I have.
  2. Here is the second general feedback I have.

Related Pages

• hCard
• hCard cheatsheet - hCard properties
• hCard creator (feedback) - create your own hCard.
• hCard authoring - learn how to add hCard markup to your existing contact info.
• hCard examples - example usage of various classes within hCard.
• hCard examples in the wild - an on-going list of websites which use hCards.
• hcard-supporting-user-profiles - sites with user profiles marked up with hCard - a very common example.
• hCard FAQ - if you have any questions about hCard, check here.
• hCard implementations - websites or tools which either generate or parse hCards.
• hCard parsing - normative details of how to parse hCards.
• hCards and pages - semantic distinctions between different hCards on a page, and how to identify each
• hcard-user-interface - techniques and issues surrounding user-interfaces to author, publish, and display hCards.
• hCard profile - the XMDP profile for hCard
• hCard singular properties - an explanation of the list of singular properties in hCard.
• hCard tests - a wiki page with actual embedded hCards to try parsing.
• hCard advocacy - encourage others to use hCard
• hCard "to do" - jobs to do

The hCard specification is a work in progress. As additional aspects are discussed, understood, and written, they will be added. These thoughts, issues, and questions are kept in separate pages.

• hCard brainstorming - brainstorms and other explorations relating to hCard.
  • hcard-parsing-brainstorming - brainstorming specific to parsing of hCard
  • geo brainstorming
• hCard feedback - general feedback (as opposed to specific issues).
• hCard issues - specific issues with the specification.
• vCard errata - corrections to the vCard specification, which underlies hCard.
• vCard suggestions - suggested improvements to the vCard specification.