Let's create Structured Data with correct syntax and semantics, every single time. Good structured data helps enhance a website's search result appearance.
Google Search works hard to understand the content of a page. You can help us by providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page . . .
Let's say you have a Rails app. If you put this in a controller:
@public_law = Organization.new(
name: 'Public.Law',
founder: Person.new(name: 'Robb Shecter'),
founding_date: Date.new(2009, 3, 6),
founding_location: Place.new(address: 'Portland, OR'),
email: '[email protected]',
url: 'https://www.public.law',
logo: 'https://www.public.law/favicon-196x196.png',
same_as: [
'https://twitter.com/law_is_code',
'https://www.facebook.com/PublicDotLaw'
]
)
...and this in a template:
<%= @public_law %>
...you'll get this in the HTML:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Public.Law",
"email": "[email protected]",
"url": "https://www.public.law",
"logo": "https://www.public.law/favicon-196x196.png",
"foundingDate": "2009-03-06",
"founder": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Robb Shecter"
},
"foundingLocation": {
"@type": "Place",
"address": "Portland, OR"
},
"sameAs": [
"https://twitter.com/law_is_code",
"https://www.facebook.com/PublicDotLaw"
],
</script>
Strong typing is at work here. SchemaDotOrg
will validate your code, and if correct, will generate Schema.org JSON-LD markup. If not, you'll get a descriptive error message.
Notice how the foundingDate
is in the required ISO-8601 format. The founding date must be a Ruby
Date object and so we can ensure correct formatting. In the same way, the foundingLocation
is a Place
which adds the proper @type
attribute.
If you use the wrong type or try to set an unknown attribute, SchemaDotOrg will refuse to create the incorrect JSON-LD. Instead, you'll get a message explaining the problem:
Place.new(address: 12345)
# => ArgumentError: Address is class Integer, not String
Place.new(
address: '12345 Happy Street',
author: 'Hemmingway'
)
# => NoMethodError: undefined method `author'
This type safety comes from the ValidatedObject gem.
Example with only the required attributes:
WebSite.new(
name: 'Texas Public Law',
url: 'https://texas.public.law',
)
With the optional SearchAction
to enable a Sitelinks Searchbox:
WebSite.new(
name: 'Texas Public Law',
url: 'https://texas.public.law',
potential_action: SearchAction.new(
target: 'https://texas.public.law/?search={search_term_string}',
query_input: 'required name=search_term_string'
)
)
Example:
Organization.new(
name: 'Public.Law',
founder: Person.new(name: 'Robb Shecter'),
founding_date: Date.new(2009, 3, 6),
founding_location: Place.new(address: 'Portland, OR'),
email: '[email protected]',
url: 'https://www.public.law',
logo: 'https://www.public.law/favicon-196x196.png',
same_as: [
'https://twitter.com/law_is_code',
'https://www.facebook.com/PublicDotLaw'
]
)
These three aren't too useful on their own in web apps. They're used when creating a WebSite
and Organization
, as shown above.
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'schema_dot_org'
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install schema_dot_org
After checking out the repo, run bin/setup
to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec
to run the tests. You can also run bin/console
for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.
To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install
.
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/dogweather/schema_dot_org.
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.