ATOM Channel

ATOM Publishing protocol is a very common method of delivering data over HTTP on the Web, most blogs and news sites use ATOM to deliver their contents.
Since ATOM is delivered over HTTP, using the ATOM channel is very similar to using the HTTP channel, except the channel uri is prefixed with 'atom:'. Lets say you want to receive blog post entries from my blog when ever I add a new one (tip: you might be waiting a while ).

@Schedule(interval = 6000)
@Receive(uri = "atom:http://rossmason.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default")
public void readFeed(Entry entry) throws Exception
{
    //read the entry
}

The @Schedule annotation tells iBeans to check the atom feed every minute. When there are entries available the readFeed method will be invoked. The Entry is a Java Object that wraps the ATOM XML making it easier to work with. For every new entry available on my blog feed, the readFeed method will get invoked. Behind the scenes iBeans splits the feed into entries for you and remembers what entries have already been received so that they are not processed again.

Channel Properties

The ATOM channel support the following properties.

Examples

LAST_UPDATE_DATE Example

To consume feed enties that were create after August 1st 2009, you would configure the uri with a LAST_UPDATE_DATE property -

@Schedule(interval = 6000)
@Receive(uri = "atom:http://rossmason.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default", properties = ATOM.LAST_UPDATE_DATE + "=2009-08-01")
public void readFeed(Entry entry) throws Exception
...

DON'T_SPLIT_FEED Example

Using the DON'T_SPLIT_FEED flag will just pass the Feed object to your method -

@Schedule(interval = 6000)
@Receive(uri = "atom:http://rossmason.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default", properties = ATOM.DONT_SPLIT_FEED)
public void readFeed(Feed feed) throws Exception
...

Getting the Entry and the Feed

Usually it is desirable to have the Feed split into entries, but you may also want access to the Feed object it came from. The feed object is available as a Header that can be passed into your method -

@Schedule(interval = 6000)
@Receive(uri = "atom:http://rossmason.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default")
public void readFeed(Entry entry, @ReceivedHeaders(ATOM.FEED_HEADER) Feed feed) throws Exception
...