The Atom Standard

Here's a Wikipedia article
on the Atom standard:

Atom (standard)

According to the article,
it would seem that the
Atom standard is really
a pair of related standards:

1. Atom Syndication Format
2. Atom Publishing Protocol
   (AtomPub or APP)

I'm learning the difference as I
write.

Do I know the difference? I don't.

Seems like the Wikipedia article
makes this distinction and then
drops it. The article leads off
with this distinction and then
doesn't ever seem to discuss it again.

This document seems to describe
the Atom Publishing Protocol:

The Atom Publishing Protocol

I gather from skim-reading
that the Atom Publishing
Protocol is largely based
on HTTP.

According to the Atom
Publishing Protocol document
above, there are 4 basic things
you can do using HTTP methods:

1. Get a resource
2. Post a resource
3. Put a resource
4. Delete a resource

Sounds like a Get is
how you read a resource.

Sounds like Post is
how you create a brand-new
resource.

Sounds like Put is
how you update a resource
that already exists.

Sounds like Delete
could only be the deletion
of an existing resource.

OK. In my mind, at least,
this simplfies the Atom
Publishing Protocol
somewhat.

If all you are doing is four
basic functions, I can follow
that.

The four basic functions again
are:

1. Read a resource
2. Create a brand-new resource
3. Change an existing resource
4. Delete a resource

OK. Now I'm starting to understand
better.

The Atom Publishing Protocol
is not literally HTTP. I was
wondering about this.

Rather, HTTP is used to define
client-server interaction. I take
this to mean that the Atom
Publishing Protocol is not
HTTP itself. Rather, it borrows
its basic way of doing things from
HTTP.

This is a pretty good example of how
knowing a little bit about one thing
helps you learn more about something
else. In this case, knowing a little
HTTP helps one understand the
Atom Publishing Protocol.

Time to wrap up this post.

OK. I started out thinking I was
going to write about the Atom
Standard. However, I quickly
discovered that the Atom Standard
seems to have two major branches.

Here are the branches:

1. Atom Syndication Format
2. Atom Publishing Protocol
   (AtomPub or APP)

I got so caught up in studying the
Atom Publishing Protocol that
I ignored the other branch, the
Atom Syndication Format

I'll get back to the Atom Syndication
Format later.

Ed Abbott