Formatove

Formatove is a data format and interoperability framework designed for representing structured content with metadata and media. It aims to balance human readability with machine efficiency, supporting complex hierarchies, references, and extensible schemas.

The core data model uses a tree-like structure of nodes, with primitive scalar types, compound objects (maps and lists), and optional references to external resources. It emphasizes schema-based validation, versioning for backward compatibility, and explicit handling of optional versus required fields.

There are two primary encodings: a text-based Formatove-JSON that resembles JSON but with explicit type annotations and metadata sections, and a compact binary Formatove-Bin optimized for streaming and low-bandwidth environments. The schema language, Formatove-Schema, describes types, constraints, default values, and deprecation status.

Tooling includes reference implementations in major programming languages, a validator, a formatter, and data converters to and from common formats. The ecosystem prioritizes pluggable codecs, streaming parsing, and partial loading of large documents.

Formatove was developed by a consortium of researchers and software developers in the early 2020s with goals of extensibility, robust schema evolution, and permissive licensing. Governance emphasizes open standards, community proposals, and interoperability testing.

Adoption spans digital libraries, media archives, and content management systems that require rich metadata, versioned records, and reliable cross-referencing. Critics note that the format’s flexibility can increase the learning curve and tooling complexity.