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Definition

Format ESS
.ess, .xml
application/ess+xml
version 0.9

ESS is an XML standard that converts "events" into feeds.
It is used to publish frequently updated or ongoing events such as cinema schedules, exhibition dates, museum agendas, festival details and other "happenings" that have to be published, promoted or publicized in a standardized XML feed format.

An ESS document includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates, happening dates, descriptions, type of category, prices, places and authorship. ESS feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs.
They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favorite websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

The aim of ESS feeds is to be used by other programs' portals or applications such as feed-reader, calendar or interactive map as well as to be included in other websites.
ESS is a consortium of web professionals it is not company. to submit your request to join the community please follow the instructions in the "contact" page.

What is an "event" for ESS?

Event can refer to many things such as an observable occurrence, phenomenon or a type of gathering.
Event concepts will be interpreted by ESS as a type of gathering that has to be published, publicized and promoted such as :

A ceremony : a birthday, a wedding, a national holiday, a military commemoration.
A competition : a sports competition, a national or international sporting event such as the Olympic Games or the Super Bowl.
A convention (meeting) : professionnal meeting about a specific corporation or political mutual interest.
A happening : a performance or situation labeled as art.
A festival : a musical event, a cinema event, a traditional festival.
A media event : a happening that attracts coverage by mass media (TV, radio, web, paper press).
A party : a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversing, or recreation.

Majority of events have to be published, publicized and promoted. The traditional way of promoting events is to use media (press, tv, radio, internet). This process requires an investment of time and money because information is not easily accessible. Human effort is necessary to broadcast and promote each event (even if it is recurring). Human effort is also necessary to get the information about the event.
With IT protocols it is possible to standardize and automatize data access and treat events like RSS Feeds. Events have to be considered as continuous flows that aggregate different concepts into one Feed. That is why ESS consortium have created Event Standard Syndication (ESS).

ESS Structure

DTD description available [http://eventstandardsyndication.org/history/0.9 ]

ESS Documents are formated in XML. ESS document are structurized with two types of XML elements :

Simple XML elements without childs to define "title", "subtitle", "publishing date"...
And 8 "main XML element" that describe with precision the event.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ess xmlns="http ://eventstandardsyndication.org/history/0.9" version="0.9" lang="en">
  <feed>
     <title>Football match on saturday</title>
     <subtitle>Match every saturdays</subtitle>
     <link>http://eventstandardsyndication.org/feeds/sample.ess</link>
     <id>football_match_121@eventstandardsyndication.org</id>
     <published>2011-12-13T08:29:29-04:00</published>
     <updated>2011-12-13T18:30:02Z</updated>
     <generator>ess:js:generator</generator>
     <rights>Copyright (c) 2012, John Doe</rights>
     <description><![CDATA[ Here the description ]]></description>

       <categories><! -- Define event subject from a general to a precise category. -->
       <places><! --  Define where the event takes place. -->
       <dates><! --  Define when the event will hapends. -->
       <prices><! --  Define how much it will cost to attend to this event. -->
       <people><! -- Caracterize the attendees, organizers and participants. -->
       <medias><! -- Broadcast several media files that present the event. -->
       <relations><! -- Connect several events that share some elements (date, category, place...). -->
       <authors><! --  Define who are the feed writers and contributors. -->

  </feed>
</ess>

ESS Examples

The best way to understand how a standard or a protocol works is to see a complete example in a common situation. Here is a football match event. A feed can be shorter, but this event displays the majority of the tags and features available in ESS standard to figure out how ESS is useful to broadcast events.

sample.ess | See the .ess file source by clicking at the end Expand/Collapse

i<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ess xmlns="http://eventstandardsyndication.org/history/0.9" version="0.9" lang="en">
   <feed>        
      <title>Football match of saturday</title>
      <subtitle>Match every saturdays</subtitle>
      <link>http://eventstandardsyndication.org/feeds/sample.ess</link>
      <id>football_match_121@eventstandardsyndication.org</id>
      <published>2011-12-13T08:29:29-04:00</published>
      <updated>2011-12-13T18:30:02Z</updated>
      <generator>ess:js:generator</generator>
      <rights>Copyright (c) 2012, John Doe</rights>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[
            Welcome to my first football match event.
 
            This football match is very important.
			As our team meets the main competitor of the league. 
 
            I hope to see you soon ! 
        ]]>
      </description>
 
<!--
##	AUTHOR SECTION
##	
##	This section is used to describe the writers of current feed.
-->
     <authors>
        <item type="author">
           <name>John Doe</name>
           <email>jdoe@eventstandardsyndication.org</email>
           <phone>001 (646) 490-8899</phone>
           <firstname>Janette</firstname>
           <lastname>Doe</lastname>
           <organization>Football club association</organization>
           <address>80, 5th avenue / 45st E - #504</address>
           <city>New York</city>
           <zip>10001</zip>
           <state code="NY">New York</state>
           <country code="US">United States of America</country>
        </item>
        <item type="contributor">
           <name>John Doe-bis</name>
        </item>
     </authors>
 
<!--
##	CATEGORIES SECTION
##	
##	This section is used to display the event categories.
##	For a better usage of your feed you should use standardized category ID 
##	available for selection on http://eventstandardsyndication.org
##	
##	
-->
     <categories>
        <item>
           <id>C2AH</id>
           <name>Football</name> 
           <description>
              <![CDATA[
                 Here is your description of your specific category that match the best the subject of your event
              ]]>
           </description>  
           <tags>
             <tag>Sport</tag>
             <tag>Team sport</tag>
             <tag>Ball</tag>
             <tag>Stadium</tag>
         </tags> 
        </item>
     </categories>
 
<!--
##	DATE SECTION
##
##	This section is used to display the date of the event, its frequency and its duration.
##	Several blocks of <item> can represent elements of dates tha compose the event.
-->
      <dates>
         <item type="recurent" unit="week">
            <name>Match Date</name> 
            <start>2011-12-13T18:30:02Z</start>
            <duration unit="hour">3</duration>
         </item>
      </dates>
 
<!--
##	PLACES SECTION
##
##	This section is used to localize where the event will take place.
##	Each <item> tag can have a different "type" (FIX, MOUVING, VIRTUAL or AREA)
-->
      <places>
         <item type="fix" priority="1">
            <id>GHSJLL4546D7Q54@JHS56D5D6</id>
            <name>Football Stade</name>   
            <latitude>40.71675</latitude>
            <longitude>-74.00674</longitude>
            <address>875 ave of americas</address>
            <city>New York</city>
            <zip>10001</zip>
            <state code="NY">New York</state>
            <country code="US">United States of America</country>
            <description>
               <![CDATA[
                  Here is your description of the event place
               ]]>
            </description>
         </item>
         <item type="virtual">
            <name>Match direct on tv</name>
            <channel unit="television">NBC super channel</channel>
        </item>
     </places>
 
<!--
##	PRICES SECTION
##
## 	This section is used to define the price of the event.
## 	The event can be free, with invitation or with monthly subscription.
##	You can also define the price with the a specific currency.
-->
      <prices>
         <item type="standalone" priority="3">
            <name>Free entrance</name>
            <value>0</value>
            <description>
               <![CDATA[
                  You can participate to this event for free, 
                  but the best places to see the match are not free...
               ]]>
            </description>
         </item>
         <item type="recurent" unit="month" priority="1">
            <name>Subscribe monthly !</name>
            <value unit="USD">17</value>
            <start>2011-12-13T18:30:02Z</start>
            <description>
               <![CDATA[
                  You can subscribe to our offer to comme every month for low cost. 
               ]]>
            </description>
         </item>
      </prices>
 
<!--
##	MEDIAS SECTION
##
##	This section is used to display media files that show the best the event.
##	Each <item> can have diferent "type" (PHOTO, VIDEO, SOUND, WEBSITE).
## 	Every <item> block have a "priority" attribute to order the importance of the selection.
-->
      <medias>
         <item type="photo" priority="1"> 
            <name>Stade image</name>
            <uri>http://eventstandardsyndication.org/small/image_1.png</uri>
            <width>256</width>
            <height>256</height>
            <description>
               <![CDATA[
                  Here is your description of your media file.
               ]]>
            </description>
         </item>
         <item type="video" priority="3"> 
            <name>Stade video</name>
            <uri>http://eventstandardsyndication.org/video/movie.mp4</uri>
            <width>256</width>
            <height>256</height>
            <duration unit="second">3600</duration>
         </item>
         <item type="sound" priority="4">
            <name>Radio spot</name>
            <uri>http://eventstandardsyndication.org/video/movie.mp3</uri>
            <duration unit="second">3600</duration>
         </item>
         <item type="website" priority="5">
            <name>Football Stade website</name>
            <uri>http://my-football-website.com</uri>
            <tags>
               <tag>information<tag>
               <tag>news</tag>
               <tag>upcoming<tag>
            </tags>
         </item>
      </medias>
 
<!--
##	PEOPLE SECTION
##	
##	This section is used to define the people that interact in this event
##	the <item> tag can have two "type" attribute value : ORGANIZER, PARTICIPANT or VISITOR.
## 	Each of this to groups have their own elements.
-->
      <people>
         <item type="organizer">
            <id>THJP1678URYRT24BUEREBK@567TYEFGUIPAAF</id>
            <name>Janette Doe</name>
            <firstname>Janette</firstname>
            <lastname>Doe</lastname>
            <organization>Football club association</organization>
            <address>80, 5th avenue / 45st E - #504</address>
            <city>New York</city>
            <zip>10001</zip>
            <state code="NY">New York</state>
            <country code="US">United States of America</country>
         </item>
         <item type="performer">
            <id>FDH56G497D64564D@D4654F6S4S6</id>
            <name>Janette Doe</name>
         </item>
         <item type="visitors"> 
            <minpeople>0</minpeople>
            <maxpeople>500</maxpeople>
            <minage>0</minage>
            <description>
               <![CDATA[
                  Here is your personal description of your attendees.
               ]]>
            </description>
         </item> 
      </people>
 
<!--
##	RELATIONS SECTION
##
##	This optional section is dedicated to define relations that event have with other events
##	Each ESS event is singularized by an "id" (defined at the top in the <feed> tag)
##	By defining this element the robots can crawl from one event to another.
-->
      <relations>
         <item type="alternate">
            <name>alternative event</name>
            <id>football_match_122@eventstandardsyndication.org</id>
            <uri>http://eventstandardsyndication/feed/event_2.ess</uri>
         </item>
         <item type="related">
            <name>related event title</name>
            <id>football_match_123@eventstandardsyndication.org</id>
            <uri>http://eventstandardsyndication/feed/event_3.ess</uri>
         </item>
         <item type="enclosure">
            <name>nearby event</name>
            <id>football_match_125@eventstandardsyndication.org</id>
            <uri>http://eventstandardsyndication/feed/event_5.ess</uri>
         </item>
      </relations>
   </feed>
</ess>

next >

External documentation

ESS standard under RFC validation process: RFC ESS Draft

RFC 3023 : XML Media Types
RFC 3066 : Tags for the Identification of Languages
RFC 3076 : Canonical XML Version 1.0
RFC 4287 : The Atom Syndication Format

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