If that Backup Tool intrigues you, or something else I’ve mentioned regarding hAtom, or just microformats in general, then head over to my instructions on how to markup up New Blogger templates in hAtom.

While 100% hAtom support under Blogger is impossible, we can get close. What is the use of that? Well, doing this will allow you to use the Backup Tool for one thing. Most other hAtom-related tools mentioned on this blog will also work with the results of these changes. Plus, it’s just generally an all-around good idea. (These instructions will work with most templates on the New Blogger, but if you cannot complete any steps for some reason, just skip them and it may still mostly work.) So, here’s how:

1. Go to the ‘Edit HTML’ section under the ‘Template’ tab.
2. Find the code that looks something like this:
   
<b:includable id='post' var='post'>
<div class='post uncustomized-post-template'>

   and replace it with this:
   
<b:includable id='post' var='post'>
<div class='post uncustomized-post-template hentry' expr:id='"post-" + data:post.id'>

3. Find the code that looks something like this:
   
<h3 class='post-title'>

   and replace it with this:
   
<h3 class='post-title entry-title'>

4. Find the code that looks something like this:
   
<a expr:href='data:post.url'><data:post.title/></a>

   and replace it with this:
   
<a rel='bookmark permalink' expr:href='data:post.url'><data:post.title/></a>

5. Find the code that looks something like this:
   
<div class='post-body'>

   and replace it with this:
   
<div class='post-body entry-content'>

6. Find the code that looks something like this:
   
<span class='post-author'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/> <data:post.author/>
</b:if>
</span>

   and replace it with this:
   
<span class='post-author author vcard'>
<b:if cond='data:top.showAuthor'>
<data:top.authorLabel/> <span class='fn'><data:post.author/></span>
</b:if>
</span>

7. Find the code that looks something like this:
   
<a class='timestamp-link' expr:href='data:post.url' title='permanent link'><data:post.timestamp/></a>

   and replace it with this:
   
<a class='timestamp-link updated published' rel='bookmark permalink' expr:href='data:post.url' title='permanent link'><data:post.timestamp/></a>

8. Find the code that looks something like this:
   
<a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>1 <data:top.commentLabel/><b:else/><data:post.numComments/> <data:top.commentLabelPlural/></b:if></a>

   and replace it with this:
   
<a class='comment-link' rel="comments" expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>1 <data:top.commentLabel/><b:else/><data:post.numComments/> <data:top.commentLabelPlural/></b:if></a>
<b:loop values='data:post.feedLinks' var='f'><span style="display:none;">There is an <a expr:href='data:f.url + "?alt=rss"' rel='alternate comments'>RSS Feed</a> for comments on this post.</span></b:loop>

9. Save your template.

This backup tool will crawl your blog for hAtom or XOXO Blog Format content and put it all together in one file that you can save to your hard drive for backup purposes.

If you do not use the New Blogger you will have to have an archive list in your sidebar that has the class archive-list on it. With the New Blogger if you have an archive widget it should just work.

Please note that no template is ever 100% hAtom compatible on Blogger. There are those that come really close, but datetime-design-pattern dates cannot be generated on Blogger and thus the ‘updated’ field is always invalid.

The XOXO Blog Format has been updated to be compatible with hAtom 0.1. The Basic Blogger Template and the template for this blog have also been updated. Please note that the new template is not quite valid hAtom, since the ‘updated’ field is just your Blogger post timestamp format and not proper datetime-design-pattern. This will be fixed as soon as a way to output properly-formatted dates from a Blogger blog is found or the hAtom spec is changed. All applicable XOXO Data Tools either have been updated or will be updated shortly.