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/public-law/schema-dot-org.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.