Entry Archive: August 5, 2005
Atom
It's probably because I'm a bit dense when trying to create documents that are "standards compliant" that I've been struggling somewhat with converting my syndication feed over to the new Atom 1.0 format. I read where other people managed it in 5 minutes, and feel like a total failure for having spent over an hour on it.
While I am not quite certain if my feed is optimal (e.g., I am confused as to the "id" tag, as different people interpret its use in different ways), it does verify as Atom 1.0 compliant. Perhaps tweaks will come later once I've seen the "official" template when Movable Type 3.2 is released. In the meanwhile, I've killed off all of my RSS variants, and have routed their URLs to the Atom feed instead. Hopefully this won't cause problems for anybody.
The next step is trying to figure out how to craft a "comments only" feed in Atom format. That will replace the "combined entries/comments" feed, since that one seems to confuse many newsreaders out there.
I remain optimistic that Atom catches on in a big way so that the "syndication wars" will finally end.
NOTE TO MAC USERS: If you are using NetNewsWire to read your syndication feeds, you'll need to upgrade to version 2.0.1 in order to view Atom 1.0 feeds. It's free to registered users. I believe that other readers (like Shrook) are also being updated.
Comments
Well, it showed up Bloglines fine when you posted this entry. Does that help reassure you at all that it all moved over seamlessly?
It's a start! :-)
Pssst: http://www.neilturner.me.uk/templates/static/atom03.tmpl :) .
The ID just has to be somnething unique - i.e. something that no other entry in any other feed anywhere on the internet could concievably be. The feed ID can just be your URL, but you might want to see how I did my IDs for the entry.
By the way, I'm writing this in a bar on my PDA. Your site works surprisingly well in Internet Explorer 4 for Windows Mobile :)
To some, the "ID" tag for entries is much more. It is a permalink that can NEVER change. Since most permalinks are created from either entry titles (that can change) or entry IDs (which can change if you ever swap to a new database), these are considered unacceptable. And then there's the whole "tag:" spec that some people are pressing for.
Sometimes I think the people writing specs are so eager to please the most amount of people that they can't actually come out and define something in a way that tells you exactly what the real rationale and intent is meant to be. Sure it means that the spec has a better chance of being accepted, but for people like me who just want to play in the game, it makes for a really confusing rule book.
Or maybe I am just not understanding it at all, which is probably the deal here. In any event, Atom has distinct advantages over RSS that I am happy to support. Hopefully others will feel the same.
Thanks for your template. I can't use it outright, because I haven't initiated "tags" as keywords yet, but it will make an interesting study for tweaking my own template!
As for viewing on your PDA, that's really cool to know, so thanks! I am actually writing up a new series of stylesheets that are meant to work for both mobile and web-data apps, so hopefully it will only get better for people who can read on their PDA or mobile phone or via widget or whatever.
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