hReview Microformat

Roger Costello

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Reviews are Important

Before purchasing a product I like to find out what other people think of it.
- Before purchasing a book I check its reviews on amazon.com
- Before hiring a company to paint my house I search the Web for opinions (reviews) of the company
- Before going to see a movie I look at the movie reviews on movies.yahoo.com to see what other people think of the movie
Reviews are important. They give us an indication of the likely quality and value of things, thereby facilitating (hopefully) better decisions.

Purpose of the hReview Microformat

The hReview Microformat enables Web tools to detect that a Web page contains a review (of a product, event, business, etc) and extract the pieces of the review, such as:
- The item being reviewed
- The review (description)
- The rating (e.g., four stars out of five)

Best of Breed

The compound Microformats we examined earlier (hCard and hCalendar) are 1:1 mappings of preexisting specifications (vCard and vCalendar, respectively).
hReview is different. It is not a 1:1 mapping of a specification. Rather, the Microformat community examined the various types of reviews that are used on the Web today and distilled the properties common to all reviews.

hReview Properties

dtreviewed: date/time the review was written.
summary: a short synopsis of the review, the title of the review.
reviewer: the hCard of the person who is doing the review.
item: the thing (product, event, business, etc.) being reviewed. This property contains these subproperties (which all come from hCard):
- fn: the formatted name of the thing being reviewed (e.g., if the thing being reviewed is a book, then fn is the book title; if the thing being reviewed is a movie then fn is the name of the movie).
- url: the URL to the thing being reviewed (e.g., if the thing being reviewed is a company that paints houses, then url is the URL to their Web site).
- photo: a URL to a photo of the thing being reviewed (e.g., if the thing being reviewed is a book, then photo is the URL to a photo of the book).

hReview Properties (cont.)

rating: a rating of the thing being reviewed. The default rating scale is 1.0 - 5.0, where 1.0 represents the lowest rating and 5.0 represents the highest rating. There are two optional subproperties - worst and best - for use when a different rating scale is desired.
type: the kind of thing being reviewed. Legal values are:
- product, event, business, person, place, website, url.
description: the full text of the opinion of the reviewer.
rel=tag: use the rel-tag Microformat to associate a tag with the thing being reviewed.

hReview Properties (cont.)

permalink: a permalink is a long-lived URL. If the review is embedded within a Web page that is continually being updated, a permalink is a permanent link to the review (the URL persists even if the review is moved off the Web page). Web tools that index reviews may use this property as a unique ID.
rel=license: use the rel-license Microformat to associate a license with the review.
version: use to indicate the version of the hReview specification being used. This tutorial is describing version 0.3

Optional/Mandatory Properties

The root classname is "hreview" and it is, of course, required.
The formatted name (fn) subproperty of the item property is required (i.e., both item and fn are required).
Everything else is optional.

hReview Profile URL

http://microformats.org/wiki/hreview-profile

Example: Book Review

Example: markup this HTML text using the hReview properties:

<body>
<h1>Review of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a></h1>
<p><span class="stars">* * * * *</span> <span class="title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
March 22, 2002</p>
<p>Reviewer: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/...">Michael Wischmeyer</a></p>
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>
...
</body>

View example01 (no hReview) in a browser.

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

<div class="hreview">
<h1 class="item">Review of
<a class="fn url photo" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">An Introduction to Mathematics</a>
</h1>
<p>
<abbr class="rating stars" title="5">* * * * *</abbr>
<span class="summary title">Insightful and Provocative</span>,
<span class="dtreviewed">March 22, 2002</span>
</p>
<p class="reviewer">Reviewer:
<span class="vcard">
<a class="url fn n" href="http://www.amazon.com/...">
<span class="given-name">Michael</span>
<span class="family-name">Wischmeyer</span>
</a>
</span>
</p>
<div class="description">
<p>"The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment."</p>

Rating Property

Example: markup this HTML text:

I give the movie a rating of 3 stars out of 5.

Here is the marked up text:

I give the movie a rating of <span class="rating">3</span> stars out of 5.

Rating Property (cont.)

Example: markup this HTML text using the hReview properties:

The Phantom Gourmet rates the restaurant as follows:
<ul>
<li>Food: 9/10</li>
<li>Service: 6/10</li>
<li>Ambience: 9.5/10</li>
</ul>

Here is the marked up text:

The Phantom Gourmet rates the restaurant as follows:
<ul>
<li class="rating">Food: <span class="value">9</span>/<span class="best">10</span></li>
<li class="rating">Service: <span class="value">6</span>/<span class="best">10</span></li>
<li class="rating">Ambience: <span class="value">9.5</span>/<span class="best">10</span></li>
</ul>

Rating Property (cont.)

Notice in the last example the use of the "value" subproperty. It is a subproperty that can be used with any (compound) Microformat. It is being used to identify which part within
<li class="rating">...</li> is to be used as the value of "rating".

hReview Creator

There is an online tool to help you automatically generate an hReview: hReview Creator
Go to the Web site and type in your review information.
Now you can take the XHTML it generates and copy and paste it into a (X)HTML document.
Thus, you can instantly add an hReview to your Web page!

Technorati Microformats Search

Technorati is a search tool that indexes Web pages that contain Microformats (hCard, hCalendar, hReview): http://kitchen.technorati.com/search

Pingerati Browser Button

At http://pingerati.net/ is a link that will add an entry ("Ping this!") to your browser's Favorites list.
When you want to publish to Technorati a Web page that contains Microformats simply click on Ping this!

hReview Implementations

Here is a list of hReview implementations: http://microformats.org/wiki/hreview-implementations

Homepage

Homepage

08 March 2007

The hReview Microformat

hReview Microformat

Roger Costello

Reviews are Important

Purpose of the hReview Microformat

Best of Breed

hReview Properties

hReview Properties (cont.)

hReview Properties (cont.)

Optional/Mandatory Properties

hReview Profile URL

Example: Book Review

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Revised Book Review (with hReview)

Rating Property

Rating Property (cont.)

Rating Property (cont.)

hReview Creator

Technorati Microformats Search

Pingerati Browser Button

hReview Implementations

Homepage