The Atom Publishing Protocol
RFC 5023

Network Working Group                                   J. Gregorio, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5023                                        Google
Category: Standards Track                                B. de hOra, Ed.
                                                         NewBay Software
                                                            October 2007

                      The Atom Publishing Protocol

Status of This Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   The Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub) is an application-level
   protocol for publishing and editing Web resources.  The protocol is
   based on HTTP transfer of Atom-formatted representations.  The Atom
   format is documented in the Atom Syndication Format.

Gregorio & de hOra          Standards Track                     [Page 1]
RFC 5023              The Atom Publishing Protocol          October 2007

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................4
   2. Notational Conventions ..........................................4
      2.1. XML-Related Conventions ....................................4
           2.1.1. Referring to Information Items ......................4
           2.1.2. RELAX NG Schema .....................................4
           2.1.3. Use of "xml:base" and "xml:lang" ....................5
   3. Terminology .....................................................5
   4. Protocol Model ..................................................6
      4.1. Identity and Naming ........................................6
      4.2. Documents and Resource Classification ......................7
      4.3. Control and Publishing .....................................8
      4.4. Client Implementation Considerations .......................9
   5. Protocol Operations .............................................9
      5.1. Retrieving a Service Document .............................10
      5.2. Listing Collection Members ................................10
      5.3. Creating a Resource .......................................11
      5.4. Editing a Resource ........................................11
           5.4.1. Retrieving a Resource ..............................11
           5.4.2. Editing a Resource .................................12
           5.4.3. Deleting a Resource ................................12
      5.5. Use of HTTP Response Codes ................................12
   6. Protocol Documents .............................................13
      6.1. Document Types ............................................13
      6.2. Document Extensibility ....................................13
   7. Category Documents .............................................14
      7.1. Example ...................................................14
      7.2. Element Definitions .......................................14
           7.2.1. The "app:categories" Element .......................14
   8. Service Documents ..............................................15
      8.1. Workspaces ................................................16
      8.2. Example ...................................................16
      8.3. Element Definitions .......................................17
           8.3.1. The "app:service" Element ..........................17
           8.3.2. The "app:workspace" Element ........................18
           8.3.3. The "app:collection" Element .......................18
           8.3.4. The "app:accept" Element ...........................19
           8.3.5. Usage in Atom Feed Documents .......................19
           8.3.6. The "app:categories" Element .......................20
   9. Creating and Editing Resources .................................20
      9.1. Member URIs ...............................................20
      9.2. Creating Resources with POST ..............................20
           9.2.1. Example ............................................21
      9.3. Editing Resources with PUT ................................22
      9.4. Deleting Resources with DELETE ............................22
      9.5. Caching and Entity Tags ...................................22
           9.5.1. Example ............................................23

Gregorio & de hOra          Standards Track                     [Page 2]
RFC 5023              The Atom Publishing Protocol          October 2007