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PaceDateModified


Abstract

a child element of atom:entry

atom:modified is an objective machine readable date which MUST appear in atom:entry, and contains the last datetime the entry was modified in any way.

Status

Open

Supporters

Rationale

Proposal

Add a sub-section section 5 (atom:entry), near any other 'date' sections with the following:

        === 5.x "atom:modified" Element ===

        The "atom:modified" element is a Date Construct indicating the
        most recent date and time when any change was made to the entry.
        Unlike atom:updated this would include minor adjustments like
        spelling and grammatical corrections, content reformatting, etc.
        It would also include insertion or removal of name-spaced child
        elements or extensions.

        The content of this element MUST conform to the specifications of
        the Date Construct defined in section 3.3.

        atom:entry elements MUST contain exactly one atom:modified
        element. atom:modified MUST be updated in value whenever any
        change in any child element of atom:entry occurs, including
        content and extensions. The value of atom:modified SHOULD be the
        objective current date/time of the change.

        Publishers MAY change the value of this element over time.
        Publishers SHOULD NOT change the value of atom:modified when no
        changes in the entry have occurred (eg. when re-serialising or
        re-exporting the entry).

Impacts

Notes

Common use cases that can't be done with atom:updated alone

Choosing latest entry from multiple feeds: http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/msg10894.html

Single feed for project documentation: http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/msg10931.html

Bob's description of the entry equivalence forced by atom:updated alone

This implies that if I find multiple versions of an entry, I should ignore all but the *first* instance of an entry found with any particular atom:updated value. I should not be concerned with identifying the "latest" version since any version that shares the same atom:updated value is equivalent in the opinion of the publisher. The opinion of the publisher is paramount in these issues.

http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/msg10930.html

DateSpecTests

It's just data

see: PaceUpdatedDefinition


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