Microformat.net, a .net based flexible Microformat Parser

COMMENTED FEATURE: Add Strong key to assembelies

vikram2101 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:20:19 GMT

Add a strong key to the assembelies so that they can be installed in the GAC
Comments: ** Comment from web user: vikram2101 **

why would you want to install it into the gac?

NEW POST: Let me know what you think

vikram2101 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:15:51 GMT

hey, i got the source. i can't get it to build. it keep asking for a a repository username /password.

Source code checked in

Kinlan — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:38:00 GMT

Added a simple regex to the encoder.

Source code checked in

Kinlan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:28:17 GMT

Added the start of encoding and decoding support.

CREATED ISSUE: Duplicated Machine Values when class value contains two or more microformat elements

Kinlan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:00:07 GMT

When a class contains something along the lines of class="fn n" the MachineValue and HumanValue are the same which is corrent, however when the HumanValue and MachineValue is accessed on the parent element, the data values are output twice which is incorrect. It should only display it once. This is because like InnerText on DOM expressions the data is only in the stream once.

Source code checked in

Kinlan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:35:42 GMT

Changes to fix some parsing issues. and add more tests. Added rel-licence support in the app.config.

CREATED ISSUE: is not considered.

Kinlan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:53:43 GMT

The base address of a page or XML feed is not considered when parsing an input stream, this means that any URL that is relative will not output a correct microformat object.

CREATED ISSUE: If an anchor contains no inner text, but contains an "Alt" value the data is not returned.

Kinlan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:52:05 GMT

When parsing anchors, or any microformat, if an image is found, the alt text is not even considered. This must be parsed and returned correctly.

CREATED FEATURE: Microformat Writer

Kinlan — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:38:13 GMT

It would be great if we could write the microformat back out to xHtml or into an RSS feed.

This could be achieved using a Microformat Writer that can write to any stream. The writer would take a Microformat object and wrap it spans/divs et.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Kinlan — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:34:40 GMT

Project Description
The Microformat.net project is a framework to help developers take advantage of the information that is stored as microformats on web pages and XML feeds.

The framework is completly flexible. Each microformat that you want to parse on a web page *you* configure, this means that as and when new microformats are introduced or existing formats are changed you only need to update the configuration file to take advantage of the new information.

This project is at a fairly mature stage at the moment. The framework parses microformats and nested structures. It can be used to parse custom structures in HTML that are not nessicarily a microformat.

Microformats will be parsed using stream readers so to minimise the memory footprint taken to parse microformats.

A MicroformatReader will be provided that allows developers of the framework to use Stream Reader semantics to obtain valid Microformats from an input stream. This offers a excellent level of flexibilty because it allows the input to be from any Stream based datasource. There is no intention to provide a DOM based microformat parser.

Only Microformats specified in the application configuration will be considered when parsing the input stream. Microformat Configuration Documentation.

Release 4

Release 4 is NOW AVAILABLE. There are many more fixes and enhancements to this project... This is a lot more stable than release 3. And it includes an installer so that you don't have to compile the DLL yourself for you to use it in your applications.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Kinlan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:32:13 GMT

Project Description
The Microformat.net project is a framework to help developers take advantage of the information that is stored as microformats on web pages and XML feeds.

The framework is completly flexible. Each microformat that you want to parse on a web page *you* configure, this means that as and when new microformats are introduced or existing formats are changed you only need to update the configuration file to take advantage of the new information.

This project is at a very early stage at the moment and the code that is released only parses the presence of a microformat and not the internal content.

Microformats will be parsed using stream readers so to minimise the memory footprint taken to parse microformats.

A MicroformatReader will be provided that allows developers of the framework to use Stream Reader semantics to obtain valid Microformats from an input stream. This offers a excellent level of flexibilty because it allows the input to be from any Stream based datasource. There is no intention to provide a DOM based microformat parser.

Only Microformats specified in the application configuration will be considered when parsing the input stream. Microformat Configuration Documentation.

Release 4

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Kinlan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:31:18 GMT

Project Description
The Microformat.net project is a framework to help developers take advantage of the information that is stored as microformats on web pages and XML feeds.

The framework is completly flexible. Each microformat that you want to parse on a web page *you* configure, this means that as and when new microformats are introduced or existing formats are changed you only need to update the configuration file to take advantage of the new information.

This project is at a very early stage at the moment and the code that is released only parses the presence of a microformat and not the internal content.

Microformats will be parsed using stream readers so to minimise the memory footprint taken to parse microformats.

A MicroformatReader will be provided that allows developers of the framework to use Stream Reader semantics to obtain valid Microformats from an input stream. This offers a excellent level of flexibilty because it allows the input to be from any Stream based datasource. There is no intention to provide a DOM based microformat parser.

Only Microformats specified in the application configuration will be considered when parsing the input stream. Microformat Configuration Documentation.

Release 4

Latest Release News

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Kinlan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:56:56 GMT

Project Description
The Microformat.net project is a framework to help developers take advantage of the information that is stored as microformats on web pages and XML feeds.

The framework is completly flexible. Each microformat that you want to parse on a web page *you* configure, this means that as and when new microformats are introduced or existing formats are changed you only need to update the configuration file to take advantage of the new information.

This project is at a very early stage at the moment and the code that is released only parses the presence of a microformat and not the internal content.

Microformats will be parsed using stream readers so to minimise the memory footprint taken to parse microformats.

A MicroformatReader will be provided that allows developers of the framework to use Stream Reader semantics to obtain valid Microformats from an input stream. This offers a excellent level of flexibilty because it allows the input to be from any Stream based datasource. There is no intention to provide a DOM based microformat parser.

Only Microformats specified in the application configuration will be considered when parsing the input stream. Microformat Configuration Documentation.

Release 4

Latest Release News

{rss:url="http://www.codeplex.com/microformat/Project/ProjectRss.aspx?ProjectRSSFeed=codeplex%3a%2f%2frelease%2fmicroformat", max="3"}

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Kinlan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:55:55 GMT

Project Description
The Microformat.net project is a framework to help developers take advantage of the information that is stored as microformats on web pages and XML feeds.

The framework is completly flexible. Each microformat that you want to parse on a web page *you* configure, this means that as and when new microformats are introduced or existing formats are changed you only need to update the configuration file to take advantage of the new information.

This project is at a very early stage at the moment and the code that is released only parses the presence of a microformat and not the internal content.

Microformats will be parsed using stream readers so to minimise the memory footprint taken to parse microformats.

A MicroformatReader will be provided that allows developers of the framework to use Stream Reader semantics to obtain valid Microformats from an input stream. This offers a excellent level of flexibilty because it allows the input to be from any Stream based datasource. There is no intention to provide a DOM based microformat parser.

Only Microformats specified in the application configuration will be considered when parsing the input stream. Microformat Configuration Documentation.

Release 4

Latest Release News

NEWS FEED

CREATED RELEASE: Iteration 4

Sunday, September 09, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

This is the 4th Iteration of the Microformat.net project.

This release will contain fixes to the current implementation. It will not introduce any more new functionality.

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 3 (Sep 07, 2007)

Friday, September 07, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

! First useable Release
This iteration will be the first proper release of the project. It will let developers using the framework to be able to configure microformats that they want to consume and be able to interact with the entity model once the data is parsed.

This version has only some basic microformats defined in the configuration. A more comprehensive suite will be documented and released shortly.

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 3

Friday, September 07, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 3

Friday, September 07, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

This iteration will be the first proper release of the project. It will let developers using the framework to be able to configure microformats that they want to consume and be able to interact with the entity model once the data is parsed.

This version has only some basic microformats defined in the configuration. A more comprehensive suite will be documented and released shortly.

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 3

Friday, September 07, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 3

Friday, September 07, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 2 (Sep 06, 2007)

Thursday, September 06, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

Iteration 2 will deliver a codebase that has support for the detection of microformats with a basic API in place that will allow developers of the framework to start building applications that will consume microformats.

This iteration will not support data held inside the microformats, yet the framwork should remain static with no breaking changes.

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 2 (Sep 06, 2007)

Thursday, September 06, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 2

Thursday, September 06, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

CREATED RELEASE: Iteration 2

Thursday, September 06, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

RELEASED: Iteration 1 (Aug 30, 2007)

Thursday, August 30, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

# A basic project structure will be decided, basic guidelines for development will be implemented.
# User stories will be developed.

This Release will contain no code.

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 1 (Aug 30, 2007)

Thursday, August 30, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

# A basic project structure will be decided, basic guidelines for development will be implemented.
# User stories will be developed.

This Release will contain no code.

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 1 (Aug 30, 2007)

Thursday, August 30, 2007 | From microformat Release Rss Feed

# A basic project structure will be decided, basic guidelines for development will be implemented.
# User stories will be developed.

This Release will contain no code.

NEWS FEED

NEW POST: Let me know what you think

Kinlan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:49:18 GMT

Hi,

I am the main developer on this project. I am very interested in feedback and what you think of the framework.

Please feel free to let me know about bugs, feature requests and things you would like to see added to the framework.

If you are using the framework let me know and I can promote the usage from here.

Cheers,
Paul Kinlan.

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 4 - Full Release. (Sep 14, 2007)

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:03:46 GMT

This is the 4th Iteration of the Microformat.net project.

This release will contains many fixes to the current implementation and a lot of unit tests based on the tests on Microformat.org

The API has remained fairly static, but the XML Parser has completly changed.

A new windows forms based reference application is included. This takes a WebRequest Response Stream as input and returns a list of valid micorformats.

Please let me know of any issues you encounter so I can resolve them ASAP.

I have also provided a sample App.Config that I will maintain with any changes to the specs.

RELEASED: Iteration 4 - Full Release. (Sep 14, 2007)

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:03:46 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 4 - Full Release. (Sep 14, 2007)

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:02:36 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: Iteration 4 - Full Release. (Sep 14, 2007)

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:53:40 GMT

UPDATED WIKI: Microformat Configuration

Kinlan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:44:42 GMT

Sample Configuration

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="MicroformatsSection" type="Microformats.ConfigurationSections.MicroformatConfigSection, Microformat.net, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=56e50f59d03f15a7"/>
  </configSections>
  <MicroformatsSection>
    <Microformats>
      <Microformat name="tag" type="rel-tag" rootType="rel" root="tag" dataType="System.Uri" />
      <Microformat name="hCard" type="hCard" rootType="class" root="vcard" dataType="System.String">
        <Fields>
          <Field name="fn" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
          <Field name="n" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" >
            <Fields>
              <Field name="honorific-suffix" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="honorific-prefix" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="given-name" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="family-name" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="additional-name" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
            </Fields>
          </Field>
          <Field name="tel" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" >
            <Fields>
              <Field name="type" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="value" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />              
            </Fields>
          </Field>
          <Field name="bday" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="nickname" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="title" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="role" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="geo" rootType="class" dataType="Microformat" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="org" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular">
            <Fields>
              <Field name="organization-name" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
              <Field name="organization-unit" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>                        
            </Fields>
          </Field>
          <Field name="url" rootType="class" dataType="System.Uri" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="note" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="uid" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="email" rootType="class" dataType="System.Uri" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="photo" rootType="class" dataType="System.Uri" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="logo" rootType="class" dataType="System.Uri" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="adr" rootType="class" dataType="Microformat" plurality="Plural"/>
        </Fields>
      </Microformat>
      <Microformat name="name" type="adr" rootType="class" root="adr" dataType="System.String">
        <Fields>
          <Field name="type" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Plural"/>
          <Field name="post-office-box" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="extended-address" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="street-address" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="locality" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="region" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="postal-code" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="country-name" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
        </Fields>
      </Microformat>
      <Microformat name="geo" type="geo" rootType="class" root="geo" dataType="System.String">
        <Fields>
          <Field name="longitude" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>
          <Field name="latitude" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>          
        </Fields>
      </Microformat>
    </Microformats>
  </MicroformatsSection>
</configuration>

Section Configuration

TODO

Microformats Collection Element

The MicroformatCollectionElement is a container of MicroformatElements. Each MicroformatElement contains the definition of the Microformat the you wish to parse.

Microformat Element

The MicroformatElement defines the structure of a Microformat. This configuration is used by the parser so that it can determine the data that it should take from an input stream or Ignore.

The MicroformatElement contains a collection of fields contained by a FieldCollectionElement.

Fields Collection Element

The FieldCollectionElement is a container of FieldElements. Each FieldElement contains the definition of the value data that the framework should parse.

Field Element

The FieldElement defines what data the parser should look for in the input stream. Take the following field declaration as an example <Field name="bday" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular"/>.

The name attribute is the exact representation of the attibute value that the parser looks for in the input stream (i.e. If an html element is as follows: <li class="bday">03-06-1960</li> the parser will include the data in the associated Microformat).

The rootType attribute defines the attribute that the parser will look for the specified name value on an sgml element ((i.e. If an html element is as follows: <li class="bday">03-06-1960</li> the parser will search the class attibute for the field defined by the name).

The dataType attribute tells the parser how to read the values out of the input stream.
Current dataType values are:

Microformat - defines a nested microformat
System.String - the parser will treat data as a string
System.Uri - the parser will treat data as a Uri

The plurality attribute informs the parser how to treat data.
Warning: specifiying a pluraity of Singular does not yet ignore multiple instances of the field

Nested Elements

Each FieldElement can contain a nested collection of field elements via a FieldCollectionElement. This is exemplified by the "n" element in the hCard definintion:

 <Field name="n" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" >
            <Fields>
              <Field name="honorific-suffix" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="honorific-prefix" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="given-name" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="family-name" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
              <Field name="additional-name" rootType="class" dataType="System.String" plurality="Singular" />
            </Fields>
          </Field>

The "n" element says to the parser that all the fields beneath can only be parsed if they are nested underneath the n element in the input stream:
This would parse:

<html>
<body>
<span class="vcard"><span class="fn n"><span class="given-name">Paul</span><span class="family-name">Kinlan</span></span></span>
</body>
<html>

This wont parse:

<html>
<body>
<span class="vcard"><span class="fn n">Paul Kinlan</span><span class="given-name">Paul</span><span class="family-name">Kinlan</span></span>
</body>
<html>

Notice the differences above, in the second example the given-name and family name are outside the "n" elements tree.

Nested Microformats

Each Microformat configuration can point to another configured microformat. A nested microformat must be configured, before it is refernced inside another microformat. For example, take the hCard Microformat, it contains two nested microformats, GEO (Geographic Reference points) and ADR (Address information). They are configured referenced in the hCard as a field with a dataType of "Microformat" (<Field name="adr" rootType="class" dataType="Microformat" plurality="Plural"/>). The framework will reconise that it needs to then find the Microformat called ADR and then resolve all the ADR fields into the hCard format.
Warning: It is possible to create an infinite loop of nested formats, with both Microformats refering to each other.