What is the point of getting that profile section in your sidebar marked up as an hCard? There are a number of reasons. Your blog will be compatible with the features of the new Operator Firefox Extension. If you ping Pingerati (or you’re indexed by Technorati), people will be able to find you on the hCard Search Engine. There are, obviously, other reasons as well.
What’s that? Blogger doesn’t output this markup by default, and you don’t want to learn the codes? No problem! Use my new hCard Profile Wizard and follow the easy two-step process to include an hCard-compatible profile in your blog!
Now having translated most of my hacks to the new Blogger, it is time to unveil the templates. I myself will likely be switching soon, and my template will be based on the code here published. The features are similar to the first set, but optomised for the new Blogger.
To install one of these templates, just cut-n-paste the code into the ‘Edit HTML’ section of your blog and save. Confirm deletion of widgets (Yes, unfortunately, you lose you widgets. You can make them again).
Templates
For templates for the new Blogger see the updated post.
Due to some of the feedback I’ve been getting from hack implementors recently I have decided to roll out my own set of templates for Blogger, implementing various and sundry features that different persons have expressed interest in. These templates are all loosely based on the Blogger Minima concept, with some inspiration from my blog also. They have been written from scratch, however, and all have the following features:
So, if you’re looking for a new template, or just want some of these features or some of those that follow, this is for you.
If anyone wants another version of this template created (ie, some combination of the hacks, or for another hack) feel free to contact me. If anyone has any ideas or feedback at all concerning the usefulness of / look of these templates, again, I have an open ear. I would ask that you keep your comments positive. ‘This Sucks!’ is not all that helpful to me, even if that’s how you feel 😉
Notes to advanced users: Hopefully these templates will also be useful to you in examining my code, etc. To remove peek-a-boo from comments or backlinks in any of the above templates, simply remove the onclick handler from the appropriate link. It should also be mentioned that these templates all support both versions of blogger comment permalinks. If you have any questions about the features on these templates I’m just an email/comment away!
XOXO is the most abstract and extensible of all the microformats. While what it can be used for certainly is not infinite, and there are some things it should not be used for, it can certainly be used for a great many varying applications. This post intends to be a discussion of some examples of such use cases.
No Available Microformat
If you want to mark up a part of a webpage in a structured way, either because you feel that a reason for someone wanting to write code to parse the data is probable, or because you wish to write such code yourself, you should first check the microformats list for an existing microformat dealing with your data type. If no suitable microformat exists, XOXO may be the answer. Be careful however, if your particular usage can be generalised into something common across the web that would benefit from standardised markup you may have a candidate for suggesting a new microformat.
XOXO can usually easily be styled using CSS to look the same as a non-XOXO page. This combined with the ease of parsing the format makes it very useful in most cases where data needs to be parseable but there is no existing microformat available. It is reccomended to use ‘standard’ fields (fields not included in the optional DL-list element) wherever possible, however whether or not to use anchor tags when there is no HREF is debateable.
Extending Existing Microformats
XOXO can also be easily used to extend existing microformats. For example, the XOXO Blog Format complies fully with the hAtom microformat, but also adds options for more data to be encapsulated. XOXO is very useful for this because its markup can easily be made to comply with most other microformats, meaning that parsers of the microformat in question will be able to handle it just fine, while XOXO parsers will be able to extract the extra data as well. In addition to this, if the extra data provided by the XOXO extension is stored in ‘Alternate-A fields’, and not in ‘DL-fields’, most microformat parsers can be easily modified to support the extra fields without strict XOXO compliance.
When not to use XOXO
There are a couple reasons not to use XOXO to mark up your data.
- If there is an existing microformat that will serve your purpose as it is (check the microformats list)
- If your use case qualifies for the creation of a new microformat