Using Microformats and RDFa As Embeddable Data Formats
Apress eBooks · 2008
The central problem that we will study in this chapter is how to embed information in web pages in a way that is easy to understand by both humans and computer programs. The solution that we will consider in depth is microformats, little chunks of structured data that are seamlessly embedded in web pages. (X)HTML is designed primarily to produce a human user interface (via a web browser). However, by carefully following certain conventions (ones that constitute microformats), you can produce (X)HTML out of which data can be unambiguously extracted. The consequence is that it is relatively easy to write computer programs to parse microformats so that the data can be reused in other contexts—giving rise to plenty of mashup possibilities. Moreover, having data embedded right in the context of a user interface is helpful. A user can decide what to do with this data (how to “operate” on a given piece of data) while in the context of normal browsing.