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OFF - OpenFriendFormat 0.1

OFF (OpenFriendFormat) is an extension of the XFN (XHTML Friends Network) microformat

Draft Specification

Authors

• Anthony Romano

Editors

• Anthony Romano
• Chris Nolan

Copyright

Public Domain Contribution Requirement. Since the author(s) released this work into the public domain, in order to maintain this work's public domain status, all contributors to this page agree to release their contributions to this page to the public domain as well. Contributors may indicate their agreement by adding the public domain release template to their user page per the Voluntary Public Domain Declarations instructions. Unreleased contributions may be reverted/removed.

Patents

This specification is subject to a royalty free patent policy, e.g. per the W3C Patent Policy, and IETF RFC3667 & RFC3668.

Abstract

OFF allows for the standardization and transparency of the user experience between importation and exportation of contacts from various social networks. OFF allows for social networks to implement a standardized way of exporting their contacts and discovering new relationships between new and existing users. It also allows for sites to generate documents detailing the relationship between people on differet social networks

Consuming

To consume OFF parse it as standard XHTML. A FOSS PHP library is in the works in order to facilitate parsing.

Generating

Single Instance Generators

Single instance generators generate an OFF document for a user on one particular site and one site only. There is no knowledge of other profiles or friends outside that site. These OFF documents can then be used by developers to index the site or users to export their contacts.

Aggregate Generators

The point of an aggregate generator is that given, for example, user dominatus on Digg, returns a list of all other known profiles and friends that exist for this user. In this way, developers of new social networks can use aggregate generators in order to discover friendships for people signing up and suggest new relationships when possible. Aggregate generators should also be able to support the ability to search all networks given a particular handle.

Format

OFF consists of an unordered list with embedded XFN (XHTML Friends Network) links. It also allows for embedded avatars inside the list items as well. Any valid XFN links are also valid in OFF.

Structure Module

 body, head, html, title

List Module

 ul, li

Hypertext Module

 a

Image Module

 img

Properties on Elements

Required Properties

All ul elements should have a class "OFF" to allow for styling of the microformat. Furthermore, all ul's should have an id that is in the format group# and counts up starting at 0 (i.e. group0, group1, group2).

Adding an OpenID

To add an OpenID add an XFN link inside an li element and give the li element a class name of openid

Adding an Avatar

To add an avatar for a user put an img tag with a source to the avatar and a class name of avatar inside the li element after the XFN.

Examples

Single Instance Example

<ul class='OFF' id='group0'>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/dominatus' rel='me'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/minamhere' rel='contact'>minamhere</a></li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/nodono01' rel='contact'>nodono01</a></li>
</ul>

Aggregation Example with One Group

<ul class='OFF' id='group0'>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/dominatus' rel='me'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/minamhere' rel='contact'>minamhere</a></li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/nodono01' rel='contact'>nodono01</a></li>
<li><a href='http://del.icio.us/dominatus' rel='me'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://del.icio.us/ashafer' rel='contact'>ashafer</a></li>
<li><a href='http://del.icio.us/minamhere' rel='contact'>minamhere</a></li>
<li><a href='http://digg.com/users/dominatus/profile' rel='me'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://digg.com/users/bonzodurer3/profile' rel='contact'>bonzodurer3</a></li>
<li><a href='http://digg.com/users/dmar875/profile' rel='contact'>dmar875</a></li>
<li><a href='http://myspace.com/dominatusx' rel='me'>dominatusx</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.myspace.com/16867710' rel='contact'>rhiannon </a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.myspace.com/134345434' rel='contact'>Dana</a></li>
</ul>

Aggregation Example with Multiple Groups

<ul class='OFF' id='group0'>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/dominatus' rel='me'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/minamhere' rel='contact'>minamhere</a></li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/nodono01' rel='contact'>nodono01</a></li>
<li><a href='http://del.icio.us/dominatus' rel='me'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://del.icio.us/ashafer' rel='contact'>ashafer</a></li>
<li><a href='http://del.icio.us/minamhere' rel='contact'>minamhere</a></li>
<li><a href='http://digg.com/users/dominatus/profile' rel='me'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://digg.com/users/minamhere/profile' rel='contact'>minamhere</a></li>
<li><a href='http://digg.com/users/dmar875/profile' rel='contact'>dmar875</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class='contacts' id='group1'>
<li><a href='http://myspace.com/dominatusx' rel='me'>dominatusx</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.myspace.com/16867710' rel='contact'>rhiannon </a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.myspace.com/134345434' rel='contact'>Dana</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class='contacts' id='group2'>
<li><a href='http://www.last.fm/user/dominatus' rel='me'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://www.last.fm/user/scottso' rel='contact'>scottso</a></li>
</ul>

Example with OpenID

<ul class='OFF' id='group0'>
<li class='openid'><a href='http://dominatus.myopenid.com' rel='me'>Anthony Romano</a></li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/dominatus' rel='me'><img class='avatar' src='http://assets3.twitter.com/images/default_profile_image_normal.gif?1187395531'>dominatus</a></li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/minamhere' rel='contact'>minamhere</a></li>
</ul>

Example with Avatar

<ul class='OFF' id='group0'>
<li>
<a href='http://twitter.com/dominatus' rel='me'>dominatus</a>
<img class='avatar' src='http://assets3.twitter.com/images/default_profile_image_normal.gif?1187395531'>
</li>
<li><a href='http://twitter.com/minamhere' rel='contact'>minamhere</a></li>
</ul>

Parameters to Generate OFF

• account : This is the account name of the user in question.
• network : The network parameter specifies which network the account name is associated with. We will provide a list of recommended network names for popular networks so that switching between different aggregaters is seamless for developers. The network parameter also supports an "all" value, which should search all indexed networks for that handle. The network parameter is not necessary for single instance generators.
• scope : The scope parameter specifies what should be returned. It can be set to self to return just the users other online profiles, friends to return just the users online contacts, or all to provide both.

Recommended Network Names

The network parameter, which is only used for aggregate generators, should accept a network parameter. Only the "all" value is required and should return all networks aggregated. The other values are not enforced but recommended for aggregater portability. Some recommended values are:

• openid
• facebook
• myspace
• digg
• twitter
• delicious
• livejournal

Implementations

This section is informative.

• Tabber has written a aggregate generator test site

References

• XHTML 1.0 SE
• FOO Camp 2004 Simple Semantic Formats presentation, 2004-09-10
• HTML reformatted version of RFC2426
• CSS1
• XHTML 1.1

External Links

• OpenFriendFormat Home Page