atom-tools README

atom-tools is an all-in-one library for parsing, creating and manipulating Atom <www.w3.org/2005/Atom> feeds and entries. It handles all the nasty XML and HTTP details so that you don’t have to.

Example

  require "atom/feed"
  require "open-uri"

  feed = Atom::Feed.new "http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/ongoing.atom"
    # => <http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/ongoing.atom entries: 0 title=''>

  feed.update!
  feed.entries.length
    # => 20

  feed.title.to_s
    # => "ongoing"

  feed.authors.first.name
    # => "Tim Bray"

  entry = feed.entries.first
    # => #<Atom::Entry id:'http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/11/07/Munich'>

  entry.title.to_s
    # => "M\303\274nchen"

  entry.links.last
    # => {"href"=>"http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/11/07/Munich#comments", "rel"=>"replies", "type" => "application/xhtml+xml"}

  entry.summary.to_s
    # => "That local spelling is nicer than the ugly English [...]"

Things are explained in more detail in the RDoc.

The Atom Publishing Protocol

  require "atom/app"

  app = Atom::App.new "http://necronomicorp.com/app.xml"
  coll = app.collections.first
    # => <http://necronomicorp.com/testatom?app entries: 0 title='testing: entry endpoint'>

  coll.update!
    # => <http://necronomicorp.com/testatom?app entries: 10 title='testing the APP'>

  entry = coll.entries.first
  entry.title
    # => 'html entities'#text

  # modify the title
  entry.title = "HTML entities"

  # store the modified entry
  coll.put! entry
    # => #<Net::HTTPOK 200 OK readbody=true>

  coll.entries.first.title
    # => 'HTML entities'#text

For details on authentication, see the documentation for Atom::HTTP

Advanced Use

Extension Elements

  irt = REXML::Element.new("in-reply-to")
  irt.add_namespace "http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0"

  irt.attributes["ref"] = "tag:entries.com,2005:1"

  entry.extensions << irt

  entry.to_s
    # => '<entry xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><in-reply-to ref="tag:entries.com,2005:1" xmlns="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0"/></entry>'

YAML

if you feel like writing this stuff by hand, atom-tools can slurp an atom:entry from YAML:

  require "atom/yaml"

  yaml = <<END
    title: Atom-Drunk Pirates Run Amok!
    tags: tag1 tag2
    authors:
    -
      name: Brendan Taylor
      email: whateley@gmail.com
    -
      name: Harvey
      uri: http://fake.com/

    content: |
      <p>blah blah blah blah</p>

      <p>and so on.</p>
  END

  entry = Atom::Entry.from_yaml(yaml)