Role

Canonical URL: http://schema.org/Role

Thing > Intangible > Role

Represents additional information about a relationship or property. For example a Role can be used to say that a 'member' role linking some SportsTeam to a player occurred during a particular time period. Or that a Person's 'actor' role in a Movie was for some particular characterName. Such properties can be attached to a Role entity, which is then associated with the main entities using ordinary properties like 'member' or 'actor'.

See also blog post.


Usage: Between 10 and 100 domains
PropertyExpected TypeDescription
Properties from Role
endDate Date  or
DateTime 
The end date and time of the item (in ISO 8601 date format).
roleName Text  or
URL 
A role played, performed or filled by a person or organization. For example, the team of creators for a comic book might fill the roles named 'inker', 'penciller', and 'letterer'; or an athlete in a SportsTeam might play in the position named 'Quarterback'. Supersedes namedPosition.
startDate Date  or
DateTime 
The start date and time of the item (in ISO 8601 date format).
Properties from Thing
additionalType URL An additional type for the item, typically used for adding more specific types from external vocabularies in microdata syntax. This is a relationship between something and a class that the thing is in. In RDFa syntax, it is better to use the native RDFa syntax - the 'typeof' attribute - for multiple types. Schema.org tools may have only weaker understanding of extra types, in particular those defined externally.
alternateName Text An alias for the item.
description Text A description of the item.
disambiguatingDescription Text A sub property of description. A short description of the item used to disambiguate from other, similar items. Information from other properties (in particular, name) may be necessary for the description to be useful for disambiguation.
identifier PropertyValue  or
Text  or
URL 
The identifier property represents any kind of identifier for any kind of Thing, such as ISBNs, GTIN codes, UUIDs etc. Schema.org provides dedicated properties for representing many of these, either as textual strings or as URL (URI) links. See background notes for more details.
image ImageObject  or
URL 
An image of the item. This can be a URL or a fully described ImageObject.
mainEntityOfPage CreativeWork  or
URL 
Indicates a page (or other CreativeWork) for which this thing is the main entity being described. See background notes for details.
Inverse property: mainEntity.
name Text The name of the item.
potentialAction Action Indicates a potential Action, which describes an idealized action in which this thing would play an 'object' role.
sameAs URL URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's identity. E.g. the URL of the item's Wikipedia page, Wikidata entry, or official website.
url URL URL of the item.

More specific Types

More specific Types available in extensions



Examples

Example 1
A basic Role example in JSON that
shows how to qualify the 'member' property
by adding an intermediate Role entity.
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
  <span itemprop="name">Cryptography Users</span>
  <div itemprop="member" itemscope
        itemtype="http://schema.org/OrganizationRole">
    <div itemprop="member" itemscope
            itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
      <span itemprop="name">Alice</span>
    </div>
    <span itemprop="startDate">1977</span>
  </div>
</div>
<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Organization">
  <span property="name">Cryptography Users</span>
  <div property="member" typeof="OrganizationRole">
    <div property="member" typeof="Person">
      <span property="name">Alice</span>
    </div>
    <span property="startDate">1977</span>
  </div>
</div>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Cryptography Users",
  "member": {
    "@type": "OrganizationRole",
    "member": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Alice"
    },
    "startDate": "1977"
  }
}
</script>
Example 2
A JSON example of an OrganizationRole being used to qualify
the 'alumni' property. Note that we use startDate to indicate
when the alumni situation began, which was the date of leaving
the organization.
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/CollegeOrUniversity">
  <span itemprop="name">University of Cambridge</span>
  <link itemprop="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge"/>
  <div itemprop="alumni" itemscope
        itemtype="http://schema.org/OrganizationRole">
    <div itemprop="alumni" itemscope
            itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
      <span itemprop="name">Delia Derbyshire</span>
      <link itemprop="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire"/>
    </div>
    <span itemprop="startDate">1959</span>
</div>
<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="CollegeOrUniversity">
    <span property="name">University of Cambridge</span>
  <link property="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge"/>
  <div property="alumni" typeof="OrganizationRole">
    <div property="alumni" typeof="Person">
      <span property="name">Delia Derbyshire</span>
      <link property="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire"/>
    </div>
    <span property="startDate">1959</span>
</div>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "CollegeOrUniversity",
  "name": "University of Cambridge",
  "sameAs": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge",
  "alumni": {
    "@type": "OrganizationRole",
    "alumni": {
      "@type": "Person",
       "name": "Delia Derbyshire",
      "sameAs": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire"
    },
    "startDate": "1959"
  }
}
</script>
Example 3
A JSON example of an OrganizationRole being used to qualify
the 'alumniOf' property (which is inverseOf 'alumni').
Note that we use startDate to indicate when the alumniOf
situation began, which was the date of leaving the organization.
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
  <span itemprop="name">Delia Derbyshire</span>
  <link itemprop="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire"/>
  <div itemprop="alumniOf" itemscope
        itemtype="http://schema.org/OrganizationRole">
    <div itemprop="alumniOf" itemscope
            itemtype="http://schema.org/CollegeOrUniversity">
      <span itemprop="name">University of Cambridge</span>
      <link itemprop="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge"/>
    </div>
    <span itemprop="startDate">1959</span>
</div>
<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Person">
  <span property="name">Delia Derbyshire</span>
  <link property="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire"/>
  <div property="alumniOf" typeof="OrganizationRole">
    <div property="alumniOf" typeof="CollegeOrUniversity">
      <span property="name">University of Cambridge</span>
      <link property="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge"/>
    </div>
    <span property="startDate">1959</span>
</div>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Delia Derbyshire",
   "sameAs": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire",
   "alumniOf": {
     "@type": "OrganizationRole",
     "alumniOf": {
       "@type": "CollegeOrUniversity",
       "name": "University of Cambridge",
       "sameAs": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge"
    },
    "startDate": "1959"
  }
}
</script>
Example 4
A JSON example of a PerformanceRole, in which
the Role represents the acting contribution made by
Bill Murray in the film Ghostbusters. The Role entity
allows us to additional information, such as the
character's name that he played in the film.
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Movie">
  <span itemprop="name">Ghostbusters</span>
  <link itemprop="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters"/>
  <div itemprop="actor" itemscope
        itemtype="http://schema.org/PerformanceRole">
    <div itemprop="actor" itemscope
            itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
      <span itemprop="name">Bill Murray</span>
    </div>
    <span itemprop="characterName">Dr. Peter Venkman</span>
  </div>
</div>
<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Movie">
  <span property="name">Ghostbusters</span>
  <link property="sameAs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters"/>
  <div property="actor" typeof="PerformanceRole">
    <div property="actor" typeof="Person">
      <span property="name">Bill Murray</span>
    </div>
    <span property="characterName">Dr. Peter Venkman</span>
  </div>
</div>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "Movie",
  "name": "Ghostbusters",
  "sameAs": "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters",
  "actor": {
    "@type": "PerformanceRole",
    "actor": {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Bill Murray"
    },
    "characterName": "Dr. Peter Venkman"
  }
}
</script>
Example 5
A JSON example of an OrganizationRole, showing information
about a 'member' of a 'SportsTeam', including time qualfiers
(when he began and ended that role).
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/SportsTeam">
  <span itemprop="name">San Francisco 49ers</span>
  <div itemprop="member" itemscope
        itemtype="http://schema.org/OrganizationRole">
    <div itemprop="member" itemscope
            itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
      <span itemprop="name">Joe Montana</span>
    </div>
    <span itemprop="startDate">1979</span>
    <span itemprop="endDate">1992</span>
    <span itemprop="roleName">Quarterback</span>
</div>
<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="SportsTeam">
  <span property="name">San Francisco 49ers</span>
  <div property="member" typeof="OrganizationRole">
    <div property="member" typeof="http://schema.org/Person">
      <span property="name">Joe Montana</span>
    </div>
    <span property="startDate">1979</span>
    <span property="endDate">1992</span>
    <span property="roleName">Quarterback</span>
</div>
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "SportsTeam",
  "name": "San Francisco 49ers",
  "member": {
    "@type": "OrganizationRole",
    "member": {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Joe Montana"
    },
    "startDate": "1979",
    "endDate": "1992",
    "roleName": "Quarterback"
  }
}
</script>

Schema Version 3.2