Atom in WordPress is an open source text editor from GitHub. This editor is so flexible that it is attracting several developers and already giving serious competition to all other popular text editors.
It publishes content in XML to be used by feed readers and news aggregators.WordPress can naturally generate an Atom feed for content and it can be included into the header template to be automatically discovered by feed readers and news aggregators.
These feed readers regularly check for updates on the site and then allow their users to continue with their new content. RSS does the same thing but Atom was developed to fix some fault in RSS. These web feeds are found on many large websites and on the smaller ones.
The feed readers are standalone programs which usually runs on the client’s computer.
Advantages of Atom
- The main advantage of this is that it requires no installation and the feeds are available on any computer.
- This term can also refer to the Atom Publishing Protocol which is a web standard and is called AtomPub.
- This protocol allows you to publish, delete posts and media files remotely.
WordPress 3.5 AtomPub is not activated by default but the Atom Publishing Protocol Plugin can be used.
Setup and Overview
Atom can be downloaded for free from the official website. Just click the big red button.
- Double click on the installation file, once the download gets finished. Everything else will happen by itself. But the installation doesn’t even give you a prompt to decide where to place the files.
- Once the installation is done, you see a welcome screen that will help you take your first steps around the code editor such as create a new project, learn keyboard shortcuts and other options.
- You get to see a tab in which you are asked whether to send anonymous data to Atom’s makers in order to improve the software. You can close all these tabs to get to the main editor screen.
- This is where you will do most of your work. You can create projects, files, and folders or edit existing files. When you choose to Add project folder from the File menu, Atom will provide the file structure on the left side. Pick any file to start editing.
Benefits of using Atom Code editor
It is important to point the benefits out so that the beginners understand what they are and how they will help with coding and web development.
- Open Source and Community Built
- Fully Customizable
- Highly Extendable
- Syntax Highlight and Autocomplete
- Fuzzy Search Function
Conclusion
Code and text editors are one of a standard tool for anyone who plans to dive deeper into web development and website building or wants to take full advantage of the customization options in WordPress.