On the things we build and the things we consume.
the many formats of atlas, and why you should care
I’m planning to write a series of posts about how Atlas can help when building large products and services, how it contributes to an overall strategy for metadata, and why you should care. To start with, I thought it would be useful to talk about a simple but vital feature: output formats.
A while back I wrote about choosing a metadata format for video and audio content. The conclusion was that there really isn’t one single format that wins out. Several options make sense, depending on who is integrating with your system. The really important thing is to make sure that the details are well organised. How long is a title or a description, what lists of context should exist (shows, channels?), how do you describe genres and tags?
As well as taking care of the details, we’re proud to output a wide range of formats in Atlas.
Probably the most user-friendly is our JSON output: http://atlasapi.org/2.0/brands.json?uri=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj59
Internally we tend to use a very similar simple XML format: http://atlasapi.org/2.0/brands.xml?uri=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj59
We have basic Atom and RSS outputs: http://atlasapi.org/2.0/brands.atom?uri=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj59 and http://atlasapi.org/2.0/brands.rss?uri=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj59
And everything is available (in the greatest detail) in RDF/XML: http://atlasapi.org/2.0/brands.rdf.xml?uri=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mj59
We also produce basic HTML (great for debugging), and a subset of data in XML OEmbed and JSON OEmbed. For data coming into Atlas, we can read in all these formats, and quite a few variants from specific sources that we hope to refine and enlarge with your help.
All these formats are good news for people who build products and services. These days, few systems exist in isolation. Everything needs to talk to something else, and there’s a good chance it doesn’t speak the same format as you. By using Atlas for metadata, you’ve got that handled out of the box. Instead of putting effort into producing a variety of feeds, you can focus on the fine details that are needed to make a memorable and high quality product.
Let us know what you think of our format support. What problems does it solve? Are we missing something*? What can you make with it? And has it brighten your day already?
* At some point we’ll probably add TV Anytime and MPEG 7 metadata. The core of these specs leave out many of the details required to describe modern video distribution, so for now we’re waiting to see which extensions get traction. Thoughts are welcome, as always.
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