Microformats burst onto the scene a couple of years ago and are fast becoming an essential tool for all professional web designers and developers. Imagine being able to integrate all of your web-based contact details, tagged articles, and geographical information seamlessly in web and desktop applications, without having to add anything extra to your websites except a little specialized HTML markup. Microformats provide a more formalized technology for adding commonly used semantics (such as contact details, location, and reviews) to today's Web. Unlike XML or the semantic Web, microformats use ubiquitous technologies like HTML and XHTML, existing developer skills, and current web tools, and, perhaps most important, they work in all of today's web browsers. This book is a comprehensive guide to microformats. It explores why, in Bill Gates's words, We need microformats; how microformats work; and the kinds of problems microformats help solve. the book covers every current microformat, with complete details of the syntax, semantics, and uses of each, along with real-world examples and a comprehensive survey of the tools available for working with them. the book also features case studies detailing how major web content publishers such as yahoo put microformats to work in their web applications. Written by one of the Web's best-known educators, John Allsopp, Microformats: Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0 will help you painlessly get up to speed with this exciting technology. In this book you'll learn How to take best advantage of the built-in semantics of XHTML and HTML How to extend the semantics of HTML using microformats and open up a world of new possibilities with web applications Every aspect of all the common microformats currently in use How microformats help your websites and applications easily integrate with web applications like Google Maps, as well as desktop applications like iCal, outlook, and entourage What innovative publishers and services, big and small, are doing right now with microformats Summary of Contents PART ONE: INTRODUCING MICROFORMATS Chapter 1: What Are Microformats? Chapter 2: The State of the Art in Microformats PART TWO: USING MICROFORMATS Chapter 3: Structural and Semantic HTML Chapter 4: Link-Based Microformats: rel-license, rel-tag rel-nofollow, and VoteLinks Chapter 5: Microformat to Describe Relationships Between People: XFN Chapter 6: Location Microformats: geo and adr Chapter 7: Contact Information Microformat: hCard Chapter 8: Event Microformat: hCalendar Chapter 9: Review and Resume Microformats: hReview and hResume Chapter 10: Syndicated Content Microformat: hAtom. PART THREE: CASE STUDIES Chapter 11: Case Study: Cork'd Chapter 12: Case Study: Yahoo PART FOUR: DEVELOPING MICROFORMATS Chapter 13: The Process of Developing Microformats PART FIVE: APPENDIXES Appendix A: Microformat Specification Reference Appendix B: Microformat Design Patterns Appendix C: People, Tools, Services, and Publishers

There has never been a better time to develop and use web sites. The data on the web is generally better presented, more accessible, and easier to find than ever before. This is down to more responsible web development using web standards, better support for those standards in browsers, and exciting new advances such as Microformats. Microformats are a method of defining and describing (X)HTML data so that is easily machine readable as well as human readable, making it more powerful. For example, you could use the hCard Microformat to mark up personal details on your web site, and then use a simple program to create a business card from that data, and transfer it to your e-mail program, address book, or mobile phone. What's even better is that you don't need anything proprietary or complicated to use Microformats. All you need to do is add extra semantics to your (X)HTML via existing means such as specialized IDs and classes. They are already in use on the web, through sites like Flickr, Upcoming.org, and Yahoo, and software such as WordPress and Text Pattern. In this book, noted web developer and long time WaSP member John Allsop teaches all you need to know about the technology: what Microformats are currently available and how to use them; the general principles of how they work, so you'll be able to understand and use future Microformat; how to use Microformats with web sites and software that already support them; and how to create your own. The focus is kept on practical examples as much as possible throughout. The end of the book features a chapter full of anecdotes from many professional web designers and developers already using Microformats in their work today--what worked, what didn't, things to watch for--so you can learn from their experiences.

A noted Web developer and long time WaSP member teaches readers all they need to know about Microformats technology. The focus is kept on practical examples as much as possible throughout. The end of the book features a chapter full of anecdotes from many professional Web designers and developers already using Microformats in their work today.