Schema.org扩展机制演进：从分散到统一的核心词汇表整合

Introduction

Schema.org provides a shared vocabulary for structured data on the internet, enabling search engines and other applications to understand the content of web pages. A core challenge for any such large-scale, community-driven project is managing the growth and evolution of its vocabulary. How can new terms be added in a way that balances innovation with stability, and decentralized contribution with centralized coherence? This blog post explores the current mechanisms and philosophy behind extending the Schema.org vocabulary, tracing its evolution towards a more streamlined model.

Schema.org 为互联网上的结构化数据提供了一个共享的词汇表，使搜索引擎和其他应用程序能够理解网页内容。对于任何此类大规模、社区驱动的项目来说，一个核心挑战是管理其词汇表的增长和演变。如何以一种既能平衡创新与稳定，又能兼顾分散贡献与集中协调的方式来添加新术语？这篇博文探讨了扩展 Schema.org 词汇表的当前机制和理念，追溯其向更简化模型发展的历程。

The Journey Towards a Simplified Extension Model

Over its history, Schema.org has experimented with various mechanisms for extending its core vocabulary. The initial motivation was to enable a decentralized approach, allowing communities to develop and host their own specialized extensions. Documentation from the periods of 2011-2014 and 2014-2018 details these earlier models.

在其发展历程中，Schema.org 尝试了多种扩展其核心词汇表的机制。最初的动机是实现一种去中心化的方法，允许社区开发和托管他们自己的专业扩展。2011-2014 和 2014-2018 时期的文档详细介绍了这些早期的模型。

However, experience revealed a significant adoption hurdle. Publishers needed certainty that a specific vocabulary term was officially part of Schema.org to confidently implement it. The complexity and ambiguity of fully decentralized extensions hindered widespread use. This realization prompted a strategic shift towards a simpler, more centralized assurance model while still accommodating external contributions.

然而，经验揭示了一个重大的采用障碍。发布者需要确定某个特定的词汇术语是 Schema.org 的官方组成部分，才能有信心地实施它。完全去中心化扩展的复杂性和模糊性阻碍了广泛使用。这一认识促使战略转向一个更简单、更中心化的保障模型，同时仍然容纳外部贡献。

The Integration of Hosted Extensions

Until April 2019, the primary method for official extensions was the hosted extensions model. This involved dedicated subdomains of schema.org, such as:

• bib.schema.org for the bibliography extension (书目扩展)
• autos.schema.org for the automotive extension (汽车扩展)

在 2019 年 4 月之前，官方扩展的主要方法是托管扩展模型。这涉及 schema.org 的专用子域名，例如：

• bib.schema.org 用于书目扩展
• autos.schema.org 用于汽车扩展

The current direction is to integrate the content of these previously hosted extensions directly into the main schema.org vocabulary. Crucially, terms from these extensions are now considered fully part of Schema.org. To preserve their heritage and context, these terms retain a label indicating their extension of origin (e.g., bib:). Over time, as usage of these terms becomes commonplace and intermingled with the core vocabulary, these labels may be simplified or removed. Each former extension retains an "entry point" page for documentation and discovery.

当前的方向是将这些先前托管的扩展内容直接集成到主 schema.org 词汇表中。关键的是，这些扩展中的术语现在被视为 Schema.org 的完整组成部分。为了保留其来源和背景，这些术语会保留一个标签，标明其原始扩展（例如 bib:）。随着时间的推移，当这些术语的使用变得普遍并与核心词汇表融合时，这些标签可能会被简化或移除。每个先前的扩展都保留一个"入口点"页面，用于文档和发现。

The "Pending" Pathway for New Terms

To facilitate more agile vocabulary development, Schema.org reserves a special label: pending. This serves as an incubation zone for new terms.

为了促进更敏捷的词汇开发，Schema.org 保留了一个特殊标签：pending。这充当了新术语的孵化区。

The pending section allows the Schema.org community to rapidly introduce and test new vocabulary concepts on an experimental basis. After a term has been in the pending status for a period, its future is evaluated based on real-world usage, adoption rates, and community discussion. Following this review, a pending term will either be:

1. Incorporated into the core vocabulary (融入核心词汇表)
2. Dropped if it fails to gain traction (如果未能获得关注，则被放弃)

pending 部分允许 Schema.org 社区在实验基础上快速引入和测试新的词汇概念。一个术语在待定状态保留一段时间后，其未来将根据实际使用情况、采用率和社区讨论进行评估。经过此次审查后，一个待定术语将要么：

1. 融入核心词汇表
2. 如果未能获得关注，则被放弃

This model creates a balanced, evidence-based pipeline for vocabulary growth, emphasizing terms that are likely to be widely consumed and useful.

这种模型为词汇增长创建了一个平衡的、基于证据的管道，强调那些可能被广泛使用且有用的术语。

External Extensions and Community Contribution

The streamlined, integrated model for official extensions does not preclude the existence of external extensions. Third-party organizations can still develop and host their own specialized vocabularies that build upon Schema.org's core. A prominent example is the GS1 Web Vocabulary (http://gs1.org/voc), which defines terms for product identification in supply chains. These external vocabularies can be used in conjunction with Schema.org markup, providing a mechanism for highly specialized domains.

用于官方扩展的简化集成模型并不排除外部扩展的存在。第三方组织仍然可以开发和托管他们自己基于 Schema.org 核心的专业词汇表。一个突出的例子是 GS1 网络词汇表 (http://gs1.org/voc)，它定义了供应链中产品标识的术语。这些外部词汇表可以与 Schema.org 标记结合使用，为高度专业化的领域提供一种机制。

Schema.org continues to actively welcome improvements and proposals for new terms. Public discussion is encouraged through various forums, including groups at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The primary channel for proposing new terms to eventually become part of the core is now via the pending process. As always, the guiding principle remains a focus on vocabulary that is demonstrably useful and likely to be consumed by applications, rather than terms that are merely published.

Schema.org 继续积极欢迎对新术语的改进和建议。鼓励通过各种论坛进行公开讨论，包括万维网联盟 (W3C) 的各个小组。提议新术语最终成为核心部分的主要渠道现在是通过 pending 流程。一如既往，指导原则仍然是关注那些明显有用且可能被应用程序使用的词汇，而不是仅仅被发布的术语。

Note: This blog post is based on the development version of Schema.org. For details on the project's development process, please see how we work.

注：本篇博文基于 Schema.org 的开发版本。有关项目开发过程的详细信息，请参阅我们的工作方式。