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I work on a large scale, high volume, public facing web application. The successful operation of the application is very important to the business, and so there are a number of MI tools that run against it.
One of these MI tools essentially looks at the html that is sent to the browser for each page request (I've simplified it quite a lot, but for the purpose of this question, its a tool that does some analysis on the html)
For this MI tool to get the data it needs, we put meta data in the head element. Currently we do it as html comments:
<!doctype html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en" class="">
<head>
<!-- details = 52:AS6[rxSdsMd4RgYXJgeabsRAVBZ:0406139009] -->
<!-- policy id = 1234567890 -->
<!-- party id = 0987654321 -->
<!-- email address = [email protected] -->
<!-- error = 49 -->
<!-- subsessionid = bffd5bc0-a03e-42e5-a531-50529dae57e3-->
...
And the tool simply looks for a given meta data comment with a regex
As this data is meta data, I'd like to change it to html meta tags because it feels semantically correct. Something like this:
<!doctype html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en" class="">
<head>
<meta name="details" content="52:AS6[rxSdsMd4RgYXJgeabsRAVBZ:0406139009]" />
<meta name="policyId" content="1234567890" />
<meta name="partyId" content="0987654321" />
<meta name="emailAddress" content="[email protected]" />
<meta name="error" content="49" />
<meta name="subsessionid" content="bffd5bc0-a03e-42e5-a531-50529dae57e3" />
...
This feels more semantic, and I can get the MI tool to work with it no problem - just a case of changing the regexes. However it now gives me a problem with the w3c validator. It wont validate because the meta names I'm using are not recognised. I get the error "Bad value details for attribute name on element meta: Keyword details is not registered." and it suggests I register these name values on the WHATWG wiki.
Whilst I could do this it doesn't feel right. Some of my meta tags are 'generic' (such as error and emailAddress) so I could probably find an already registered name value and use that. However, most of them are industry/organisation specific. It feels wrong to register a public name value called subsessionid or partyId as these are specific to my organisation and the application.
So, the question is - what is considered best practice in this case? Should I leave them as html comments? Should I use meta tags as above and not worry that w3c validation fails? (though that is increasingly important to the organisation) Should I attempt to register my meta name values on WHATWG wiki, but knowing they are not very generic? Or is there another solution?
Appreciate your thoughts, cheers
Nathan
Edited to show the the final solution:
The full answer I'm going with is as follows. Its based on Rich Bradshaws answer, so his is the accepted one, but this is what I'm going with for completeness:
<!doctype html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en" class="">
<head>
<meta name="application-name" content="Our app name"
data-details="52:AS6[rxSdsMd4RgYXJgeabsRAVBZ:0406139009]"
data-policyId="1234567890"
data-partyId="0987654321"
data-emailAddress="[email protected]"
data-error="49"
data-subsessionid="bffd5bc0-a03e-42e5-a531-50529dae57e3"
/>
...
This validates, so all boxes ticked :)
397
<meta> tags always go inside the <head> element, and are typically used to specify character set, page description, keywords, author of the document, and viewport settings. Metadata will not be displayed on the page, but is machine parsable.
To add meta tags to a web page, you need to edit the <head> section of the HTML file. There are two methods you can use to edit HTML files: If the file already exists on your website, you can download it using an FTP client and then edit it using your preferred text editor.
Metadata is data that describes data, and HTML has an "official" way of adding metadata to a document — the <meta> element.
Meta tags are important because they impact how your site appears in the SERPs and how many people will be inclined to click through to your website. They will therefore impact your traffic and engagement rates, which can impact your SEO and rankings. Meta tags are an important part of a solid SEO strategy.
How to define metadata about an HTML document in HTML5 ? The metadata means the information about data. The <meta> tag in HTML provides information about HTML Document or in simple words, it provides important information about a document.
meta tags live within the head tag of the HTML document. The head tag is used for configurating the HTML file. You use the head tag to add a title to the webpage, link to a CSS stylesheet, and define more information about the HTML document.
Identification and tracking of different versions of datasets This is an alphabetical list of many best practices for metadata. This guide from the United States Geographical Survey includes tips for writing high quality metadata, detailed information for creating a title in metadata, and selecting informative keywords.
To summarise, all HTML documents need to include at least the following three meta tags: <meta charset="UTF-8">, to specify the character set. <meta name="description>", to add a clear description of the site and the services the site provides to readers/customers.
W3C validation is meaningless. HTML != XML, so there isn't any schema to validate it. No browser will choke because you added a meta element with an unregistered name. If you really are worried, you could use the data attribute on a meta element like:
<meta data-details="52:AS6[rxSdsMd4RgYXJgeabsRAVBZ:0406139009]" data-policyId="0123456789" />
at least then you know no future spec will give meaning to your data.
For more info read: http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/elements.html#custom-data-attribute
158
While your example may work, note that the keyword application-name is for Web applications only.
For usual webpages not being web applications, or if no application-name shall be given, see some alternatives:
data-* attributes in the head
No need for a meta element.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head
data-details="52:AS6[rxSdsMd4RgYXJgeabsRAVBZ:0406139009]"
data-policyId="1234567890"
data-partyId="0987654321"
data-emailAddress="[email protected]"
data-error="49"
data-subsessionid="bffd5bc0-a03e-42e5-a531-50529dae57e3">
</head>
You could create a vocabulary, but that’s not required for local use.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head itemscope>
<meta itemprop="details" content="52:AS6[rxSdsMd4RgYXJgeabsRAVBZ:0406139009]" />
<meta itemprop="policyId" content="1234567890" />
<meta itemprop="partyId" content="0987654321" />
<link itemprop="emailAddress" href="mailto:[email protected]" /> <!-- or use a meta element if you don’t want to provide a full URI with "mailto:" scheme -->
<meta itemprop="error" content="49" />
<meta itemprop="subsessionid" content="bffd5bc0-a03e-42e5-a531-50529dae57e3" />
</head>
script
The script element can be used for data blocks. You can choose any format that suits your needs. Example with plain text:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/plain">
details = 52:AS6[rxSdsMd4RgYXJgeabsRAVBZ:0406139009]
policyId = 1234567890
partyId = 0987654321
emailAddress = [email protected]
error = 49
subsessionid = bffd5bc0-a03e-42e5-a531-50529dae57e3
</script>
</head>
What if you try using the data- format to add a custom attribute to them, something like data-type or data-name and omitting the real name attribute or maybe setting it all to "abstract" or something (I donno if the validator will give problems for repeated meta names):
<meta data-name="details" content="52:AS6[rxSdsMd4RgYXJgeabsRAVBZ:0406139009]" />
So you could reference to that data-name to work with your meta stuff...
http://html5doctor.com/html5-custom-data-attributes/
4
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