Atom 1.0

The name Atom applies to two related proposed standards: the Atom Syndication Format (whose current version is also known as Atom 1.0) and the Atom Publication Protocol (APP). Here, I discuss Atom 1.0 and return to APP later in this book in the context of various Google web services that use GData, an extension of APP.

Designed to overcome perceived shortcomings of the various RSS formats, Atom 1.0 is currently a proposed IETF standard:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287

Atom 1.0, constructed to syndicate web content, has a similar semantics to RSS but a different naming scheme. In an Atom document, a <feed> element is composed of one or more <entry> elements, each described by a set of tags such as <title>, <link>, <id>, and <summary>.

Let me now rewrite the sample Apress “new books” feed into Atom 1.0:[71]

         <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
         <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
           <title>Apress :: The Expert's Voice</title>
           <subtitle>
             Welcome to Apress.com. Books for Professionals, by Professionals(TM)...
             with what the professional needs to know(TM)
           </subtitle>
           <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.apress.com/"/>
           <link rel="self" href="http://examples.mashupguide.net/ch04/Atom1.0_Apress.xml"/>
           <updated>2007-07-25T12:57:02Z</updated>
           <author>
             <name>Apress, Inc.</name>
             <email>support@apress.com</email>
           </author>
           <id>http://apress.com/</id>
           <entry>
             <title>Excel 2007: Beyond the Manual</title>
             <link href="http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10232"/>
             <id>http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10232</id>
             <updated>2007-07-25T12:57:02Z</updated>
             <summary type="html">
               &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Excel 2007: Beyond the Manual&lt;/i&gt; will introduce those
               who are already familiar with Excel basics to more advanced features, like
               consolidation, what-if analysis, PivotTables, sorting and filtering, and some
               commonly used functions. You'll learn how to maximize your efficiency at
               producing professional-looking spreadsheets and charts and become competent at
               analyzing data using a variety of tools. The book includes practical examples
               to illustrate advanced features.&lt;/p&gt;
             </summary>
           </entry>
           <entry>
             <title>Word 2007: Beyond the Manual</title>
             <link href="http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10249"/>
             <id>http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10249</id>
             <updated>2007-07-25T12:57:10Z</updated>
             <summary type="html">
               &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Word 2007: Beyond the Manual&lt;/i&gt; focuses on new
               features of Word 2007 as well as older features that were once less accessible
               than they are now. This book also makes a point to include examples of
               practical applications for all the new features. The book assumes familiarity
               with Word 2003 or earlier versions, so you can focus on becoming a confident
               2007 user.&lt;/p&gt;
             </summary>
           </entry>
         </feed>
      

Note the following about this example:

Writing a simple feed as RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 sheds some light on how the two formats compare. For a more detailed analysis, see the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29#Atom_Compared_to_RSS_2.0

Finally, Atom 1.0 has an official RNG schema, defined in the appendix of RFC 4287:

http://atompub.org/rfc4287.html#schema