Microformats???

[tomyknoker]

Hi Guys,

I have read all the info on Microformats, but wanted more opinions from you guys... What exactly is the benefit for the end user in using them on a site? From the look of it, it's all new <tags> are newer browser's et up to know what the <tags> mean?

[djr33]

Hmm... I really have no idea what you are talking about. Hopefully someone else will... I dunno.

[tomyknoker]

lol yea no one seems to know much about them but they seem cool (I think!?) http://microformats.org/

[djr33]

Interesting. I don't quite get it. LOOKS like they rely some on things like firefox extensions.... I dunno. I don't really see any specific examples on the page you linked to (and subpages...)

[Twey]

Ah, that's interesting.
Interesting. I don't quite get it. LOOKS like they rely some on things like firefox extensions....No, the idea is to create a standardised format for presenting certain information, such that an automated processor can retrieve the data and metadata from any conforming site. It's not software or a new technology; simply a standardised way to use existing technology.

/EDIT: Ooh, post 70,000. Yay DD.

[boxxertrumps]

Call Me Ignorant, But What Are Microformats? Why Do The Rel Attributes Have Significance?

[djr33]

70,000, Twey? ;) Just a bit ahead of yourself. Ha.

I'm still totally lost. I get the "let's fix it all and create a standard thing"... but I don't see any examples of what the point is, etc.

[Twey]

70,000, Twey? ;) Just a bit ahead of yourself. Ha.Not mine, the forum's :) I don't know if that's an accurate figure (pruning may have happened) but it's a nice round figure anyway, so I thought I'd celebrate it. :)
I'm still totally lost. I get the "let's fix it all and create a standard thing"... but I don't see any examples of what the point is, etc.Parsers can be created with a minimum of effort. An average shopping list may look like this:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: bold;">Vegetables
<ul>
<li>Carrots</li>
<li class="done-element">Peas</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>This is a nightmare to parse without a fully-fledged browser, and unless you know the exact design of the page, it may never even work out that that's a shopping list. The point of these "microformats" is that a standard for shopping lists could be defined that requires a shopping list to look like so:
<ol class="shopping-list">
<li class="category">Vegetables
<ul class="items">
<li>Carrots</li>
<li class="done">Peas</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>A shopping list parser can then extract the required information from the page very easily; even if it has no idea how the page is laid out, it knows just to pay attention to <ol> elements with a class of "shopping-list", it knows that any item with a class of "done" should be shown as being ticked or crossed off the list in some manner, that any item with a class of "category" should be shown as a category, and that it will contain a list of items in that category...

[djr33]

So.... microformats are specific ways in which to format certain types of information so that the use of which is global and interpretation/parsing/reading of can be simple/constant?

[Twey]

Pretty much, yes, from what I gather from that (admittedly remarkably vague) site.

[djr33]

And the site is just some random people hoping it will catch on, I suppose.

Seems like an ok idea, but seems more like it will just make annoying rules and specific formats that will make things long and tedious, as well as terrible to memorize (with the example of a grocery list.... that's something simple.. what about when it comes to the right way to organize the inventory of a store... etc.).

The other problem is also with consistancy... who decides what works and what doesn't.


My (rather unbased) feeling toward this is that the IDEA of creating a system in which everything is clear and orderly makes sense, so do so with your own stuff, but there doesn't seem to be much need (yet; until it is more widely used-- and explained) to use the 'official' format or whatever that is suggested by the site.

If you are searching a string, such as that of html, you clearly do want to be able to find something. In a recent thread, parsing html as a string to find the title was easy. Split at <title> and </title>
(http://www.dynamicdrive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16567)
However, in a couple other things I have done, it is MUST harder to have PHP look for and correctly identify other items that appear to be clear to use, such as those that happen to be part of a table cell, with nothing too distinctive in the nearby code (though it appears on the page as such, like Email: [new cell] name@something.com).

[Twey]

DOM parsers make the job a lot easier.

[BLiZZaRD]

And the site is just some random people hoping it will catch on, I suppose.

Seems like an ok idea, but seems more like it will just make annoying rules and specific formats that will make things long and tedious, as well as terrible to memorize (with the example of a grocery list.... that's something simple.. what about when it comes to the right way to organize the inventory of a store... etc.).


Some one once had a similar discussion about C++ as well :p