mBookmarks microformat
The mBookmark microformat is a simple standard created to display hierarchical bookmarks collections in XHTML. Why use mBookmark? Other than the usual arguments for microformats (see About microformats), the mBookmark microformat makes it easy to display bookmarks in a web browser and make it look nice using XHTML and CSS. The mBookmark microformat is different from xFolk in that the bookmarks are arranged hierarchically (as opposed to xFolk’s emphasis on tags) and can contain much more metadata.
Format
The mBookmark microformat has two basic items. The bookmark item represents a browser bookmark. It contains a title, url, and metadata. A bookmark item must contain a title and an url. Metadata is optional. Listed below is a list of the elements of a bookmark item.
The other item in the mBookmark microformat is the folder item. The folder represents the arrangement and grouping of multiple bookmarks. The folder also contains a title and metadata, but no URL. Again, metadata is optional. Folders contain bookmark elements.
The metadata elements listed below do represent the entirety of possible elements. There are only two requirements for custom metabata elements. Metadata elements not mentioned in this document must not conflict with any other elements (i.e. no title element in metadata) and must be optional.
- Bookmark:
- Title
- URL
- Metadata:
- Description/Notes
- Rating
- Tags
- id
- Date Added
- Date Modified
- Date Visited
- Title
- Metadata:
- Description/Notes
- Tags
- Date Added
- Date Modified
- Date Visited
- id
XHTML format:
<div class="bookmarks">
<div class="bookmark">
<a href="URL" class="url title">TITLE</a>
<div class="meta">
<div class="desc">DESCRIPTION/NOTES</div>
<abbr class="rating" title="RATING">RATING REPRESENTATION</p>
<p class="tags">Tags</p>
<p class="id">id</p>
<abbr class="date_*" title="ISO 8601 DATE">DATE *</abbr>
</div>
</div>
<div class="folder">
<h1 class="title">TITLE</h1>
<div class="meta"></div>
<div class="bookmark">...</div>
</div>
</div>
Example:
Acknowledgements
Inspiration
The elements of the mBookmark microformat originated from work for a personal desire. The original XHTML was re-engineered into a microformat based on the the arguments at microformats.org. It was influenced by a prior bookmark microformat called xFolk. The actual format of mBookmark is based loosely on the XBEL XML format.