Human and machine readable date pattern

Introduction

This is an experiment date format which is both human and machine readable. It is meant to be used as example of a mixed mode date which could get around some of the issue expressed about the microformats abbr design pattern http://microformats.org/wiki/abbr-design-pattern. This approach is not without its only problems, but it would provide a semantic use of the abbr pattern which should not raise any accessibility concerns.

Convert a human and machine readable date pattern into W3C Note datetime profile

The date test has to conform to pattern set out below

Examples of date string format

Date: 25 January 2008
Date: 25 January 2008 at 15:30 
Date: 25 January 2008 at 15:30, Time zone +1:30

Examples of date string format in HTML

English
<abbr class="dtstart" title="Date: 25 January 2008">Jan 25 08</abbr>
<abbr class="dtstart" title="Date: 25 January 2008 at 15:30">Jan 25 08</abbr>
<abbr class="dtstart" title="Date: 25 January 2008 at 15:30, Time zone +1:00">Jan 25 08</abbr>

Spanish
<abbr lang="es" class="dtstart" title="Fecha: 25 Enero 2008">Enero 25 2008</abbr>
<abbr lang="es" class="dtstart" title="Fecha: 25 Enero 2008 a las 15:30">Enero 25 08</abbr>
<abbr lang="es" class="dtstart" title="Fecha: 25 Enero 2008 a las 15:30, Zona horaria +1:00">Enero 25 08</abbr>

German
<abbr lang="de" class="dtstart" title="Datum: 25 Januar 2008">Jan 25 08</abbr>
<abbr lang="de" class="dtstart" title="Datum: 25 Januar 2008 um 15:30">Jan 25 08</abbr>
<abbr lang="de" class="dtstart" title="Datum: 25 Januar 2008 um 15:30, Zeitzone +1:00">Jan 25 08</abbr>

French
<abbr lang="fr" class="dtstart" title="Date: 25 janvier 2008">Jan 25 08</abbr>
<abbr lang="fr" class="dtstart" title="Date: 25 janvier 2008 à 15:30">Jan 25 08</abbr>
<abbr lang="fr" class="dtstart" title="Date: 25 janvier 2008 à 15:30, décalage horaire +1:00">Jan 25 08</abbr>

Simplified Chinese
<abbr lang="zh" class="dtstart" title="日期: 2008年 1月 25日">1月25日</abbr>
<abbr lang="zh" class="dtstart" title="日期: 2008年 1月 25日 15:30">1月25日</abbr>
<abbr lang="zh" class="dtstart" title="日期: 2008年 1月 25日 15:30, 時區 +1:00">1月25日</abbr>

Design rules (Needs extending)

• MUST start with the "data prefix". i.e In English this is "Date:"
• The "data prefix" MUST be the first item of the scrub list.
• MUST format must follow the pattern order i.e.in English  date, month year, time, timezone
• MUST use the full month name as in the language description
• MUST use a positive full year number. 2008 SHOULD NOT be abbreviated to 08
• The time MUST use 24 hour clock
• The time MUST always contain the number of minutes even if that is zero
• Any date without a time zone segment will be considered to be UTC  
• The time zone number MUST be prefixed with a + or - symbol
• The time zone number MUST contain the number of minutes even if that is zero

JSON language descriptions

{
"language-name" : "English", 
"language-codes" : ["en"], 
""pattern": "date,month,year,time,timezone",  
"scrub-terms": ["Date:","at", "Time zone"],
"month-names": ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"]
}

{
"language-name" : "Spanish", 
"language-codes" : ["es"], 
"pattern": "date,month,year,time,timezone",  
"scrub-terms": ["Fecha:","a las", "Zona horaria"],
"month-names": ["Enero", "Febrero", "Marzo", "Abril", "Mayo", "Junio", "Julio", "Agosto", "Septiembre", "Octubre", "Noviembre", "Diciembre"]
}

{
"language-name" : "German", 
"language-codes" : ["de"], 
"pattern": "date,month,year,time,timezone",  
"scrub-terms": ["Datum:","um", "Zeitzone"],
"month-names": ["Januar", "Februar", "März", "April", "Mai", "Juni", "Juli", "August", "September", "Oktober", "November", "Dezember"]
}

{
"language-name" : "French", 
"language-codes" : ["fr"],
"pattern": "date,month,year,time,timezone",   
"scrub-terms": ["Date:","décalage horaire","à"],
"month-names": ["janvier", "février", "mars", "avril", "mai", "juin", "juillet", "août", "septembre", "octobre", "novembre", "décembre"]
}

{
"language-name" : "Simplified Chinese", 
"language-codes" : ["zh","zh-cn","zh-sg"],
"pattern": "year,month,date,time,timezone",   
"scrub-terms": ["日期:", "年", "月", "日", "時區"],
"month-names": ["1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10", "11", "12"]
}