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Two of the fastest growing technologies on the Web today are RSS and Atom. They are content syndication feeds used for everything from news headlines from major media organizations to alerts from social networking sites to blog postings to advertising. They allow web sites to share their content with other applications in a standard way. This book introduces the new ways of collaboration on the Web enabled by RSS and Atom and focuses on the fundamental concepts needed to understand how these technologies can be used in real world applications.
RSS and Atom in Action is organized into two parts. The first part introduces the blog technologies of newsfeed formats and publishing protocols-the building blocks. The second part shows how to put to those blocks together to assemble interesting and useful blog applications.
In keeping with the principle behind Manning's "In Action" series, this book shows the reader, through numerous examples in Java and C#, how to parse Atom and RSS format newsfeeds, how to generate valid newsfeeds and serve them efficiently, and how to automate blogging via web services based on the new Atom protocol and the older MetaWeblog API. The book also shows how to develop a complete blog client library that readers can use in their own applications. The second half of the book is devoted to a dozen blog apps-small but immediately useful example applications such as a community aggregator, a file distribution newsfeed, a blog cross-poster, an email-to-blog gateway, Ant tasks for blogging software builds, and more.
What's Inside
Traces the evolution of newsfeed formats and explains the pros and cons of each
Explains server technology in depth as well as guidelines for choosing blog or wiki server software
Explains how to develop a complete Atom client library
Book Review
The RSS and the Atom specifications are important for any web application developer today. They open up interesting new application integration options. The book "RSS and Atom in Action" is, in the "in Action" series style, very well written.
It starts with a case study that most developers will find relevant to them in their everyday environment. The writing style is easy and the content builds up slowly in complexity as the book progresses. The examples are so simple and yet demonstrate the technology in sufficient detail. The flow of the book just makes you feel that you want to try every example and technology that has been explained.
The book actually goes out and shows the power of RSS and some of the possible applications that the web is starting to see of the specification. It helps set a trend that innovative minds can pick up to create exciting applications.
Overall, a must read for anyone who wants to get a taste of the RSS and Atom technologies.
by Navneet Karnani,
JavaReference.com
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