First, a background question. So that I understand things correctly,
a typical weblog which provides full content and an excerpt in the
feed would use
atom:summary - exceprt
atom:content - full entry
atom:link[rel=alternate] - link to web page representation
Is that correct?
I'm considering using atom to represent that data for a the software
update engine built into an application I am writing. On the one
hand, the primary use for the feed is going to be automated
consumption by the application, so the exact details of that format
don't matter. But I'd like to get it right, and have the feed useful
to feed readers, not just my automated software update checker.
I'd like to have a summary of the release, full release notes, and
the tarball for the software. My original thoughts where
atom:summary - summary
atom:content or atom:link[rel=alternate] - full release notes
atom:link[rel=enclosure] - tarball package
But then I read James Snell's article at
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-atom10.html
His podcasting example uses enclosures. His photo and software update
examples uses non-text atom:content elements to represent the data.
Which is the conceptually more correct approach here? Which is the
more practical approach? (Working with off the shelf feed readers
would be desirable.)
Thanks,
Jim
