{"id":21165,"date":"2020-01-30T15:43:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T15:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/microformat"},"modified":"2026-09-29T12:49:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:49:49","slug":"microformat","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/microformat","title":{"rendered":"Microformat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad alignright wp-image-14638 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/50-2.jpg\" alt=\"Microformat, a convention for publishing structured data in HTML\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>microformat<\/strong> is a convention for expressing structured data within HTML through recognizable class names. It adds machine-readable meaning to information that remains visible to people, such as an organization&#8217;s contact details, a blog entry, an event, or a product.<\/p>\n<p>Microformats reuse normal <strong>elements and attributes<\/strong> from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/html\">HTML<\/a>. They are not a separate language and do not require an external data file: semantic markup is embedded in the page content so compatible applications can identify its entities and properties.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Origins of microformats<\/h2>\n<p>Microformats emerged in the early 2000s as a community initiative for publishing structured information with <strong>simple, reusable patterns<\/strong>. The approach built on formats already used on the Web and addressed practical cases without introducing an entirely new technology.<\/p>\n<p>The first specifications, now known as microformats1, included vocabularies such as hCard for people and organizations and hCalendar for events. Their <strong>later evolution<\/strong> produced <a href=\"https:\/\/microformats.org\/wiki\/microformats2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">microformats2<\/a>, a more consistent syntax that uses shared prefixes and names such as <code>h-card<\/code> and <code>h-event<\/code>.<\/p>\n<h2>Microformats2 syntax<\/h2>\n<p>The system combines a root class, which identifies the object type, with property classes that describe its data. Their prefixes allow a parser to recognize its <strong>semantic role<\/strong> without relying on visual design or CSS classes created only for presentation.<\/p>\n<p>The main microformats2 prefixes are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><code>h-<\/code>:<\/strong> Identifies the complete object, such as <code>h-card<\/code>, <code>h-entry<\/code>, or <code>h-event<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><code>p-<\/code>:<\/strong> Marks a plain-text property such as a name, category, or location.<\/li>\n<li><strong><code>u-<\/code>:<\/strong> Indicates a URL, email address, or linked resource.<\/li>\n<li><strong><code>dt-<\/code>:<\/strong> Represents a date, time, or time interval.<\/li>\n<li><strong><code>e-<\/code>:<\/strong> Contains embedded HTML text, such as the full body of a post.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An <strong>author card<\/strong> can use <code>h-card<\/code> on its container, <code>p-name<\/code> for the name, and <code>u-url<\/code> for the author&#8217;s page. The content remains valid HTML and can be styled with CSS like any other element.<\/p>\n<h2>Core vocabularies<\/h2>\n<p>Vocabularies define property sets for common objects. The current version preserves the purpose of the historical formats while using a <strong>current syntax<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><code>h-card<\/code>:<\/strong> Describes a person, organization, or place through properties such as name, photograph, URL, email, or address.<\/li>\n<li><strong><code>h-entry<\/code>:<\/strong> Represents a dated publication such as a blog post, note, or reply.<\/li>\n<li><strong><code>h-event<\/code>:<\/strong> Structures an event with a name, date, location, description, and link.<\/li>\n<li><strong><code>h-product<\/code>:<\/strong> Identifies a product and supports data such as its name, photograph, description, brand, or price.<\/li>\n<li><strong><code>h-review<\/code>:<\/strong> Expresses a review associated with its author, the reviewed item, and a rating when applicable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The vocabulary should match the <strong>published entity<\/strong>. A page may contain several objects and connect them through nested properties, but classes that do not correspond to visible content produce ambiguous data.<\/p>\n<h2>Data extraction<\/h2>\n<p>A <strong>microformats parser<\/strong> scans the document, locates root classes, and extracts their properties according to shared rules. The output can be transformed into JSON so an application can reuse contacts, events, posts, or other data without interpreting every page design separately.<\/p>\n<p>The community maintains a list of compatible <a href=\"https:\/\/microformats.org\/wiki\/parsers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">parsers<\/a> for different languages. Extraction also depends on rules for <strong>implied values<\/strong>, nested content, and URL resolution, so the markup should be tested with a parser and its output reviewed rather than judged only by the page&#8217;s appearance.<\/p>\n<h2>Relationship with Schema.org<\/h2>\n<p>Microformats belong to the <strong>structured-data ecosystem<\/strong>, but they are not equivalent to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/schema-markup\">Schema Markup<\/a>. Microformats2 uses HTML classes and community vocabularies focused on common publishing objects. Schema.org provides a much broader vocabulary that can be expressed through JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa.<\/p>\n<p>Both approaches can describe entities, although their <strong>actual compatibility<\/strong> depends on the consumer. A browser, social tool, or reader may process microformats, while a search engine may document particular formats for its rich results. Publishing a microformat does not by itself guarantee a special search presentation.<\/p>\n<h2>Current use<\/h2>\n<p>Microformats remain present in blogs, profiles, commenting systems, and open-web tools. They are especially useful when an application wants to provide visible, extractable information with <strong>little additional markup<\/strong>, or when it needs to interoperate with software that already recognizes microformats2.<\/p>\n<p>An implementation should maintain an <strong>exact correspondence<\/strong> between properties and the content users can see. Using current vocabularies, avoiding inconsistent hidden data, and validating the output make it easier for other services to reuse the information without losing its context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A microformat adds structured data to HTML through class names. Learn about microformats2 prefixes, vocabularies, parsers, and its relation to Schema.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":81089,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1239,1397],"class_list":["post-21165","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-search-results","encyclopedia-tag-seo-elements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/21165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=21165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}