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.