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Microformats Wiki

Hello! Welcome to the microformats wiki. If you haven't already done so, please see the introduction page.

Please read how-to-play before making any edits.

Please read process before proposing any new microformats.

Getting Started

What are microformats? What can you do with them?

The about page, latest news, plus recent press, presentations, books, podcasts, and screencasts are also good places for some background information. Our cheatsheets are handy if you need a quick reminder about a particular microformat. We even have a spell-check dictionary of microformat-related terms.

Frequently asked questions about this wiki and microformats in general are answered in the FAQ, and there is a glossary.

Want to learn more in person? Check out microformats events.

Definition

One popular definition from our mailing list (see also: mailing-lists) is "simple conventions for embedding semantics in HTML to enable decentralized development." More precisely, microformats can be defined as:

simple conventions
for embedding semantic markup
for a specific problem domain
in human-readable (X)HTML/XML documents, Atom/RSS feeds, and "plain" XML
that normalize existing content usage patterns
using brief, descriptive class names
often based on existing interoperable standards
to enable decentralized development
of resources, tools, and services

Simply put: "Microformats are a codification of convention." -- Aaron Gustafson

"Or do you just use your browser to browse? That's so 20th century." -- Mark Pilgrim

How to contribute

Do you want to help take microformats to the next level? You can:

Specifications

Microformats open standards specifications (see also: implementations, examples-in-the-wild)

Drafts

Design Patterns

Design patterns are common uses of markup across microformats.

Exploratory Discussions

Per the microformats process: research and analysis of real-world examples, existing formats, and brainstorming to motivate the microformat. Please check rejected-formats before making additions.

Examples

Tools, Test Cases and Additional Research

The first place to look for examples, code, and test cases is in the pages for each individual microformat. There are only a few cross-cutting tools and services that need to process more than one microformat. This section is intended for editors, parsers, validators, test cases, and other information relevant across multiple microformats.

shared work areas

microformats wiki translations in other languages

You may read and edit microformats articles in many other languages:

See also other-languages, and how-to-start-a-new-translation.