As a first step to better understand the different layers of adding microformats to my site (what is currently done by the theme, what by plugins etc.), I decided to start with: what is supposed to go where?
I made a post-it map on my wall to create an overview for myself. The map corresponds to the front page of my blog.
Green is content, pink is h- elements, blue u- elements, and yellow p- elements, with the little square ones covering dt- and rel’s. All this is based on the information provided on the http://microformats.org/wiki/Main_Page, and not on what my site actually does. So next step is a comparison of what I expect to be there from this map, to what is actually there. This map is also a useful step to see how to add microformats to the u-design theme for myself.
Earlier this week I discussed microformats with Elmine. Microformats make your website machine readable, allowing other computers and applications to e.g. find out where my contact information is, and the metadata from my postings.
It was a discussion that branched off a conversation on online representation and marketing. I currently use the Sempress theme on this blog as it does microformats pretty well as far as I can tell, but it doesn’t look all that nice. Previously I had used the microformats plugin in a regular theme, but that didn’t work really well (the plugin is not at fault, it’s a best effort)
Ideally I’d like to add microformats to other sites I use, not just this blog. That means I’d like to add it to a generic theme like U-design. As I think it would be less effort to add microformats to U-design, than make Sempress look better and more generic for my sites. Elmine approached the creators of U-design, but microformats are not on their list of priorities. They do already support schema.org out of the box.
The steps I think I need to make:
Map-out visually where I want to use which microformats where and how. [UPDATE: done]
Then take a much closer look at the code of the existing Microformats plugin as well as the functions.php file of the Sempress theme
to see how the first hooks into existing themes, and how the second shapes the microformats to be added to the html of the page.
Determine if one or the other is usable with U-design as is, or alternatively which parts to re-use / adapt
Read Mapping Microformats To This Site by Ton Zijlstra (zylstra.org)
This is an interesting visual exercise.
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