General Meta Data Profile, 1.5

About

This document defines meta data properties to be used in semantic documents. These properties describe the nature of the relationship between the source document and the associated data.

To use these properties in an HTML-based document, you must define this resource as a profile in your document. This is done by adding the URL of this profile to the profile attribute of the head element. For example, the head start tag may look like this: <head profile="http://www.webdevout.net/profile/1.5/">.

The top-level properties listed below, other than “rel”, may be used to provide inline meta data for the document. In HTML-based documents, the property name is used in the name attribute of meta elements, and the value of the property is used in the content attribute.

The properties under “rel” may be used to describe relationships with whole documents. In HTML-based documents, the property name may be used in the rel or rev attributes of linking elements (link and a).

In addition to the properties listed under “rel”, all HTML 4 link types are available to documents using this profile.

The meta data properties available for a document are not necessarily limited to the properties defined in this profile. If the document language allows it, multiple meta data profiles may be used for a single document. The document language may also have a default set of available properties which may be used in addition to those defined here. In the case that the default properties provided by the document language conflict with the properties defined in this profile, the default properties should take precedence.

Profile

author
A name of or identifier for an individual or group which participated in the formation of the document's content.
A copyright statement for the document.
created
A timestamp representing when the document was first created. The format for the timestamp is the same as the standardized HTML dates and times format.
date
A timestamp representing when the document was last modified. If the document hasn't been modified since its initial creation, the timestamp should represent when the document was created. The format for the timestamp is the same as the standardized HTML dates and times format.
description
A brief summary of the document's content.
generator
A name of or identifier for a tool used to automatically generate source code in the document.
keywords
A comma-separated list of topics covered by the document.
location
The name or address of a geographical location significant to the document. For example, it may be the address of the company headquarters or the site location of a featured news story.
modified
A timestamp representing when the document was last modified. If the document hasn't been modified since its initial creation, the timestamp should represent when the document was created. The format for the timestamp is the same as the standardized HTML dates and times format.
robots
A comma-separated list of identifiers which indicate some desired behavior for automated agents. Acceptable values are described in the Robots META tag specification.
rel
archives
A document which serves as a collection of sibling or child documents that have been filed away due to age.
author
Information about an individual or group which participated in the formation of the document's content.
child
A document whose topic is bounded by the broader scope of the current document.
comments
A document which contains public discussion about the current document.
contact
A document which provides a means to contact the author of the current document.
enclosure
A document which provides additional information on a topic in the current document and which is expected to be very large or otherwise require special handling by the user agent.
external
A document whose author is not affiliated with the current document.
feed
A document which provides a summary of the content on the current page and possibly sibling pages. It is expected that the linked document is in a common syndication format such as RSS or Atom.
first
The first child document of the current document's parent in a logical series. Note that this is equivalent to HTML's start property.
icon
A document which provides a graphical branding for the current document.
last
The last child document of the current document's parent in a logical series.
license
Information about a license describing legally acceptable use of the document.
meta
A document which provides meta data about the current document.
nofollow
A document whose link may have been added to the current document by an unaffiliated source and whose topic has not been confirmed by the current document's author to have relevance with the current document.
p3pv1
A document which serves as a P3P policy reference file for the current document.
parent
A document whose topic's broader scope bounds the current document.
pingback
A resource which may be requested with an XML-RPC message when a document has recently linked to the current document. See the Pingback specification for details.
prefetch
A document which is likely to be requested after the current document, although it may not necessarily be the next document in a structural sequence.
profile
A document which provides definitions for meta data properties which may be used in the current document.
A document which provides additional information on a topic in the current document.
A document which provides a means to search information on the current document and other neighboring documents.
sidebar
A document which should be read in conjunction with the current document. The user agent is suggested to provide a way to view the two documents simultanously, such as in a sidebar pane.
self
The current document. The value should be an absolute path to the document. This may be useful in scenarios where the original URI of the current document is lost in transit.
shortcut
This modifies an attached link type to relate to links made to the current document, rather than the current document itself. For example, shortcut icon would refer to a document which provides a graphical branding for a link to the current document. Due to potential complications with this link type modifier, authors are generally discouraged from using it except where necessary to direct legacy user agents to the appropriate information.
sibling
A document, other than the current document, whose topic is bounded by the broader scope of the document whose topic likewise bounds the current document. A sibling is a child of the current document's parent, not including the current document.
source
A document which provides content cited by the current document. Note that HTML-based languages already have their own native elements and attributes for citing sources.
tag
A document which serves as a collection of resources related to a particular topic of the current document. The portion of the URI value after the last / character and before any following ? character, # character, or end of the URI, whichever is first, should be the name of the relevant topic. The URI value should contain at least one / character. For example, for the URI http://www.webdevout.net/tidings/category/web-development, it is inferred that “web-development” is the topic of the resource collection.
up
A document whose topic's broader scope bounds the current document.
via
A document which provides content cited by the current document. Note that HTML-based languages already have their own native elements and attributes for citing sources.
vote-abstain
A document whose author is indifferent in regard to the content of the current document or otherwise abstains from expressing an opinion toward it. In HTML-based languages, this link type is only available for the rev attribute, indicating that the author of the current document is indifferent in regard to the content of the linked document or otherwise abstains from expressing an opinion toward it. For compatibility reasons, this link type must not be used with the rel attribute in HTML-based languages.
vote-against
A document whose author disagrees with the content of the current document. In HTML-based languages, this link type is only available for the rev attribute, indicating that the author of the current document disagrees with the content of the linked document. For compatibility reasons, this link type must not be used with the rel attribute in HTML-based languages.
vote-for
A document whose author agrees with the content of the current document. In HTML-based languages, this link type is only available for the rev attribute, indicating that the author of the current document agrees with the content of the linked document. For compatibility reasons, this link type must not be used with the rel attribute in HTML-based languages.