[uf-discuss] Custom Fields Microformat?

[Brian Suda]

you should certainly look into XOXO.
http://microformats.org/wiki/xoxo

With an OL/UL, you can next a DL inside an LI.

This represent arbitrary XML attributes as a DL, but it could also
work as some custom fields. There is already several programming
libraries that can easily import/export XOXO data.

-brian

On 11/25/06, Manuel Simoni <msimoni at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've dabbled a lot with RDF and XHTML 2.0's Metainformation Module,
> but I've come to the conclusion that custom fields, as present in a
> wide variety of systems, from Linux file systems with extended
> attributes to Google Base, are good enough most of the time.
>
> I think that a microformat could bring together the many different
> variations of custom fields in use today, specifically in the blog and
> CMS scene, and could offer a lot of value to the emerging Data Web.
> So, here it goes...
>
>
> Custom fields are user-defined name/value pairs added to a weblog or
> CMS entry. For example, a user employing his CMS as a bug-tracker
> could add "reporter", "priority" and "related-bugs" fields.
>
> Many blogging and CMS platforms provide custom fields, including
> Wordpress (built-in), Drupal (Content Construction Kit (CCK) plug-in),
> Movable Type (CustomFields and RightFields plug-ins), and TextPattern
> (built-in).
>
> I have analyzed the existing custom field rendering of Wordpress and
> Drupal/CCK and have found that they could easily be unified using just
> three classes:
> - hcustomfield encloses a field,
> - hcustomfield-name encloses the name of a field,
> - hcustomfield-value encloses each value of a field.
> (This structure is used for expository purposes only, and is not meant
> as an attempt for a final microformat.)
>
> Here is Wordpress' default rendering of custom fields:
> <ul class="post-meta">
>   <li>
>     <span class="post-meta-key">Priority: </span>
>     low
>   </li>
> </ul>
>
> Adapted to hcustomfield-* classes:
> <ul>
>   <li class="hcustomfield">
>     <span class="hcustomfield-name">Priority</span>:
>     <span class="hcustomfield-value">low</span>
>   </li>
> </ul>
>
> Here is Drupal/CCK's default rendering of custom fields:
> <div class="field field-type-text field-field-priority">
>   <h3 class="field-label">Priority</h3>
>   <div class="field-items">
>     <div class="field-item">low</div>
>   </div>
> </div>
>
> Adapted to hcustomfield-* classes:
> <div class="hcustomfield">
>   <h3 class="hcustomfield-name">Priority</h3>
>   <div>
>     <div class="hcustomfield-value">low</div>
>   </div>
> </div>
>
> The hcustomfield-* classes make a unified extraction algorithm
> possible, and require only minimally invasive changes to existing
> rendering code.
>
> Some notes:
> - Between systems, there is no agreement on field naming and namespace
> conventions.
> - All systems allow strings (HTML?) and some allow <a href="...">
> references as field values.
> - Some systems allow multi-valued fields while others allow only
> single-valued fields.
>
> Here's a full example:
> <div>
>   <div class="hcustomfield">
>     <span class="hcustomfield-name">multi-valued field</span>:
>     <span class="hcustomfield-value">value 1</span>
>     <span class="hcustomfield-value">value 2</span>
>   </div>
>   <div class="hcustomfield">
>     <span class="hcustomfield-name">field with a link</span>:
>     <span class="hcustomfield-value"><a href="/foo">a link</a></span>
>   </div>
> </div>
>
> What do you think?
>
> Manuel
>
> --
> Manuel Simoni
> http://manuel.typepad.com
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>


-- 
brian suda
http://suda.co.uk