phpMicroformats - PHP class library for microformats as hCard and hCalendar
About phpMicroformats
phpMicroformats is a PHP class library that helps to generate valid microformats for e.g. calendar events (hCalendar) or vcards (hCard). It is released under GPL license.
About Microformats
Microformats are specific enriched html structures that both helps humans and computers to understand the content. There are formats for calendar events called hCalendar - based on vCalendar format - and vcards - based on vCard format - and more.
The advantage of using microformats is that it is easier for humans to understand but also for computers to interpret and understand. Since it is using wildly accepted standards as (x)html enriched with some specific but limited classes, it can be easily implemented.
Advantages
- Based on wildly accedpted standards as xhtml
- Defines specific formats for limitd domains as e.g. calendar data or vcards
- Helps to classifiy and structure data for both humans and computers
- Will help computers to better understand the content of websites
- Can be integrated and used easily with full backward compatibility.
Disadvantages
- Maybe a bit more work to encode the data in the required formats.
- Up to now only a few formats are set up for limited domains.
- Not officially used by search engines spiders up to now.
Requirements for phpMicroformats
There are no requirements except PHP 4.x.
Usage of phpMicroformats
- Download phpMicroformats and copy the class phpMicroformats.class.php to your webserver.
- Experiment with the microformat examples available: Generate your first hCalendar or hCard entry.
