Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245561 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Successful software developer, long standing web development speaker,
writer evangelist and expert, John has spent the last 15 years working with
and developing for the web. As the head developer of the leading cross
platform CSS development tool Style Master, and developer and publisher of
renowned training courses and learning resources on CSS and standards based
development, John is widely recognized as a leader in these fields.

As a presenter and educator, John speaks frequently at conferences around
Australia and the world. His idiosyncratic blog Dog or Higher covers a
broad range of subjects, particularly in technology and innovation, and is
widely read and referenced.

He is also a co-founder of the Web Directions conference series.

John's true claim to fame, and source of some embarrassment is (semi
publicly) coining the term "Web 2.0" some months before O'Reilly. John
apologizes unreservedly for helping to inflict this term on the world.

When not bathed in the glow of various computer screens, John is a
volunteer surf lifesaver at Sydney's famous Bondi Beach, where he lives
with his wife and young daughter, who are the light of his life.

Customer Reviews

The technology that will bring order out of chaos to the internet.
When I started reading this book, I was in two minds as to why the book need to cover CSS. After all I'd seen much of it before in great books like 'HTML Dog' by Patrick Griffiths. But along the way I was surprised to find a few new titbits to add to my repertoire (attribute selectors) and the axis, scope and header attributes of HTML tables.
Then it dawned on my why coverage made so much sense after all. Microformats are one of the cornerstones of the 'semantic web'. The author highlighted some statistical analysis of the way folks have used class names to style their page contents, and certain names like 'header' and 'footer' stood out. These have no 'semantic' meaning, only a positional layout reference. If you construct you page with 'semantic' building blocks, such as a div with a class of 'hCard' and nested elements with appropriate class names for properties (similar to vCard - Outlook contact), you provide not only the infrustructure to style your pages using the powerful CSS descendant selector syntax, and can achieve the same effects, whilst at the same time opening up a host of opportunities for things like Mashups, more intelligent indexing capabilities/dedicated bots capable of extracting data out of your pages into search engines. I believe it won't be long when local search pages will become order of the day and you'll be able to do things like only give results within a 50 mile radius to where I am.
There is a great discussion on Cork'd and the other spin off things that have evolved out of their innovative use of Microformats.
Along the way you'll learn about microformats like geo, adr, hCard, hCalendar (similar to Outlook Calendar), hReview, hResume (think LinkedIn) and hAtom (syndication)
I was also very impressed with 'Operator', Micahel Kaplay's Firefox plugin. Thanks John for sharing this. I'll be demonstrating it to all my tech friends. :). A most enjoyable, thought-provoking and engaging read. I thoroughly recommend this book.