Which syndication format to choose, Atom or RSS 2.0

?

Although other solutions have been proposed in the past, three syndication formats have emerged:
- RSS 2.0, or Really Simple Syndication, Harvard
- RSS 1.0, or Rich Site Summary, by the RSS-DEV group;
- Atom via IETF, the format is widely used but still defined.

These formats were determined not just by the spirit of competition, but with a specific goal that we will develop to answer the question posed in the title.

RSS 2.0

French specifications translated by me are posted on this site.
This format was defined by Dave Winner with the explicit goal of simplicity, freedom, and extensibility. There are no restrictions on the size of the texts. The author wanted to define a kernel that is very easy to implement and at the same time offers the possibility of infinite extensions, but using namespaces, which is tantamount to adding a category in which you can define all the tags necessary for a particular application.

RSS 1.0

Specifications in French, also translated by me, are posted on this site.
Unlike RSS 2.0, which has pure XML, the RSS version repeats the original principle of the 0.9 syndication format in RDF format and extends it.
Resuming the RDF format detailed in the specification aims to add meta data to the data included in the stream, that is, add information to the subject of the information contained in the RSS feed file.
The format is also extended with modules that are XML namespaces, as in RSS 2.0.
Meta data provides computer processing of work that can be done from a document, so the 1.0 format fits into the framework where you want to know what the stream is for. That is why this format is used for syndication of blogs, since there are sites specializing in the analysis of the blogosphere, seeking to find out trends on the Web and groups of influence, and therefore these sites will be able to use the channel information provided by RSS 1.0.

Atom

Work is currently underway on the specification and a definition of the standard has been proposed under reference to RFC 4287.
The format has been defined to complement and replace RSS, which is considered insufficient because it has primarily a simple purpose.

The atom is more accurate

The tag content type, clear text, or HTML code is specified in Atom, but not in 2.0. This can help software that processes and displays channels, although most expect to find clear text.

Integration

Atom is defined within a namespace, allowing it to be integrated with other XML documents without name conflicts. You can even add Atom content to RSS feed 2.0 without collisions.

Standardization

Atom is in the process of standardization, which does not bring anything more compared to such an actual standard as RSS 2.0. It has a schema that can help use some XML programs, but nothing prohibits writing a schema for other formats, since their definition is frozen.
Atom writes dates to RFC 3339, while RSS 2.0 does not. It doesn't matter when you use the date as a character string for display, but the format is useful if you want to extract elements from it: year, month, day...

Publication Protocol

Atom provides a protocol for publishing or even editing HTTP-based resources. A stream or stream entry can be accessed by a GET method. And with the POST and DELETE methods, you can add or delete news. The protocol is not yet standardized, but will allow the implementation of syndication tools.

Software assistance

Beyond the above specifications, Atom offers more help with streaming software. For example, it distinguishes between absolute and relative URLs. Multiple additional lines of code with different formats are required.

Conclusion

Three formats, three goals:

  1. The simplest (albeit extensible) format is RSS 2.0.
    Largely enough to display links to site articles.
  2. Get Channel Information: RSS 1.0
    3. .
  3. Use more sophisticated threading programs with higher data format requirements: Atom.

The 1.0 format is often used by content management software that automatically generates an RSS file, blogs, for use by 2.0 websites such as Technorati.
Atom has been adopted by Google for most of its services, while major sites such as CNN or the BBC offer syndication of their news in RSS 2.0. Note that when showing a simple example of an Atom stream, the difference with the 2.0 format is not glaring. The same goes for the file provided by my blog manager, meta information is yet to be found.
If you do not have compatibility issues with a particular service or analysis software, the 2.0 format is sufficient.

Further information