Atom API Support in TypePad
In mid-December, we started publishing Atom feeds for all TypePad weblogs and released a new version of Movable Type that published Atom feeds.
Today, we've released beta support for the Atom API in TypePad. Last June, we outlined a number of reasons why Atom is exciting: a more complete specification; a normalization of the way entries are serialized between both syndication and the API; better support for internationalization; a secure authentication protocol.
Best of all, the Atom API is designed for extensibility, and with that in mind, in addition to supporting standard weblog posts, our Atom implementation also allows you to post to photo albums and TypeLists, something you're not able to do using our previous APIs.
We've documented our Atom implementation, and we'll be updating both the API and the documentation as the API spec progresses to 1.0 status.
Winterfest
Those of you with an interest in syndication formats and in learning about the technical background, potential business applications, or future directions of syndication technology will want to check out the RSS Winterfest, beginning today. Though the focus is of course on applications of today's RSS format, I'll be speaking a bit about the Atom format and some of the future directions of syndication technology in general as well.
The Winterfest is taking place entirely online, so you don't even need to get out of your seat to attend. We hope you'll join us.
Atom Specs and Test Suites
A very important piece of the Atom API and syndication format is that it is--or will be--a fully-specified format, complete with test suites and sample implementations. The atom-syntax list, and Mark Pilgrim in particular, have been doing a lot of good work building specs, and I've updated XML::Atom to reflect some of those changes.
Format Offering Applications, Finally
One of the "hidden" features of TypePad, which happens behind the scenes when you create a People TypeList, or blogroll, is that an XML Friend of a Friend (FOAF) file is created. FOAF lets you list the people you know, along with a description of yourself and how you know your acquaintances, so that people can search through these relationships. And now that thousands of these FOAF files have been built by TypePad, along with many more built manually by users of Movable Type and other tools, we're starting to see some of the first applications emerge around the nascent standard.
In addition to the venerable FOAF Explorer and the FOAF Query service, a new FOAF search engine has launched, called Plink. Plink, short for People Link, lets you find connections between people using its simple search interface, and the simple, friendly interface hints at a new breed of FOAF application, aimed more at regular users than the geeks and developers who've been working with the format thus far.
The larger goal, of course, is to remove the need for anyone to know the technical details of these sorts of things unless they want to, while still being able to take advantage of the benefits and potential of new technologies. Hopefully FOAF will provide an example for a technology being able to move from early adopters to regular people without anyone having to learn new acronyms and technical terms. Give it a try: Put in the name a weblog author, and see if you can find any friends in common.
