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It is premature and unwise to write a draft proposal a microformat without first performing the requisite backround research. Please see the [[process]] document. -[http://tantek.com/log/ Tantek] | It is premature and unwise to write a draft proposal a microformat without first performing the requisite backround research. Please see the [[process]] document. The background research page (e.g. "blog-description-format") is also an inappropriate place to begin a draft proposal. -[http://tantek.com/log/ Tantek] | ||
Revision as of 06:47, 23 July 2005
Blog description format
Discussion Participants
Editors
Authors
Purpose
A microformat to describe the contents of a (we)blog. It provides a specific set of information to categorize a (we)blog. Enables easier search for humans and efficient collection of information by machines.
Examples
NOTE: Background research for a format should use *real* examples found on the Web, rather than hypothetical examples (note example.org URLs) - Tantek
Example 1:
<div class="blogformat" xml:lang="de"> <img class="logo" src="http://example.org/logo.gif" alt="" /> <a class="bookmark" href="http://example.org/blog" title="Blog title">Blog name</a> <!-- Topics covered by the blog --> <ul class="categories"> <li><a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tags/Webstandards">Webstandards</a></li> <li><a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tags/css">CSS</a></li> <li><a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tags/xhtml">XHTML</a></li> </ul> <ul class="feeds"><!-- List of available news feeds --> <li><a rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="URL">Atom1.0</a></li> <li><a rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://example.org/rss-2.0">RSS 2.0</a></li> </ul> <!-- Describes the topics of the blog --> <p class="description">Webstandards, CSS, XHTML and topics releated to web development.</p> </div>
Example 2:
<div class="blogformat" xml:lang="en"> <p><img class="logo" alt="" src="http://rbach.priv.at/Misc/2005/Smiley.gif" /> <a class="author" href="http://example.org/jdoe">My</a> <a class="bookmark" href="http://example.org/blog" title="John Doe's Blog">blog</a> about <span class="description"> <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tags/web+standards">Web standards</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tags/css">CSS</a>, <a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tags/xhtml">XHTML</a> and topics releated to web development.</span></p> <p>There are <a rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://example.org/feeds/atom">Atom</a> and <a rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://example.org/feeds/rss">RSS 2.0</a> feeds available.</p> </div>
Note: Other code examples can be found here. These examples include both a code listing and a rendered version.
Additional description and code examples (in German language) can be found here.
PREMATURE
It is premature and unwise to write a draft proposal a microformat without first performing the requisite backround research. Please see the process document. The background research page (e.g. "blog-description-format") is also an inappropriate place to begin a draft proposal. -Tantek
Early draft
A very early draft featuring some of the used tags an attributes and their meaning.
Text in italics is used as reference to the comments below.
Blog information container
Status: REQUIRED
The blog information container element contains all other elements of the blog description.
It must have a class attribute which includes the value blogformat
.
Language
Status: REQUIRED (langmust)
The blog information container element or an ancestor element (langanc) of it must include
a language code using the xml:lang
attribute to indicate the language used for the blog.
If the document type used by the author allows the usage of the lang
attribute, it must be used to specify the language code.
The value must be equal to the one used for xml:lang
. (langequ)
Example 1:
<!-- A blog written in English as spoken in the US --> <div class="blogformat" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"> <!-- child elements --> </div>
Example 2:
<!-- A blog written in French --> <div class="blogformat" lang="fr" xml:lang="fr"> <!-- child elements --> </div>
Blog URI
Status: REQUIRED
The blog URI element must be an <a>
element and must contain a rel
attribute which includes the value bookmark
.
It must link to the blog's mainpage using an absolute URI (absuri).
This element should provide the name of the blog in its title
attribute.
If no title
attribute is provided agents (agents) must use the text value of the blog URI element (meta).
Blog description and topics
Status: REQUIRED
It contains the main categories covered by the blog.
The categories are marked up within anchors (cat) that (may) refer to technorati-tags.
Example:
<a rel="tag" href="http://technorati.com/tags/xhtml">XHTML</a>
In addition authors can write up a short introduction.
Author information
Status: RECOMMENDED
Information about the author should be provided.
The author information element must have a class attribute which includes the value author
. This element should provide the name of the author
in its title
attribute.
Example:
<span class="author" title="John Doe">John's</span> Blog.
If no title
attribute is provided agents (agents) must use the text value of the author information element (meta).
The author information element may be an <a>
element which links
to the author's page using an absolute URI (absuri).
Example:
<a class="author" title="John Doe" href="http://example.org/~johnd/">John's</a> Blog.
Feeds
Status: REQUIRED
It's essential as every (we)blog provides at least one feed (e.g. RSS). Machines could readout headlines and excerpts.
It's possible to provide more than one feed.
Image
Status: OPTIONAL
To be done.
Comments
- (langmust): IMO a language must be specified. If we would say "If no language is specified the default is English", many non-english blogs would appear as English ones because of people who forgot to add
(xml:)lang
. --RobertBachmann - (langmust): It's a must among others for issues of searching. --BjoernSeibert
- (langanc): There are XHTML documents which already have their language specified in the <html> tag. In this case it would be redundant to require having it twice. --RobertBachmann
- (langequ): See http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2005-July/000440.html. --RobertBachmann
- (absuri): As long as we are parsing blog information from the original URI, handling relative URIs isn't a big problem. I think we should recommend the use of absolute URIs ("absolute URIs should be used") but I'm not sure if we should require them. --RobertBachmann
- (agent): Is agent the right term? --RobertBachmann
- (meta): Perhaps agent would want to extract information from
<head>
if no information can be found within "blogformat"<link rel="author" href="http://example.org/~jdoe" />
<meta name="author" value="John Doe" />
<title>John Doe's Blog</title>
- (cat): May, should or must they be within anchors. What are the options where they can point to? --BjoernSeibert
Issues
Area of application
"blog description format" is targeted on blogs. But could't we use it for other online media? Instead of "blog author" we could say "publisher".
For example the fictitious online web magazine "LA Dog Magazine" may also be described using "blog description format". --RobertBachmann