{{#title Atomic Data}}
Atomic Data is a modular specification for sharing, modifying and modeling graph data. It combines the ease of use of JSON, the connectivity of RDF (linked data) and the reliability of type-safety.
Atomic Data uses links to connect pieces of data, and therefore makes it easier to connect datasets to each other - even when these datasets exist on separate machines.
Atomic Data has been designed with the following goals in mind:
- Give people more control over their data
- Make linked data easier to use
- Make it easier for developers to build highly interoperable apps
- Make standardization easier and cheaper
Atomic Data is Linked Data, as it is a strict subset of RDF.
It is type-safe (you know if something is a string, number, date, URL, etc.) and extensible through Atomic Schema, which means that you can re-use or define your own Classes, Properties and Datatypes.
The default serialization format for Atomic Data is JSON-AD, which is simply JSON where each key is a URL of an Atomic Property.
These Properties are responsible for setting the datatype (to ensure type-safety) and setting shortnames (which help to keep names short, for example in JSON serialization) and descriptions (which provide semantic explanations of what a property should be used for).
Read more about Atomic Data Core
Atomic Data Extended is a set of extra modules (on top of Atomic Data Core) that deal with data that changes over time, authentication, and authorization.
{{#include extended-table.md}}
Atomic Data has been designed to be very easy to create and host. In the Atomizing section, we'll show you how you can create Atomic Data in three ways:
- Using Atomic Server, from your browser
- By creating JSON-AD (and optionally importing it)
- By upgrading your existing application
- Browser app atomic-data-browser (demo on atomicdata.dev)
- Build a react app using typescript & react libraries. Start with the react template on codesandbox
- Host your own atomic-server (powers atomicdata.dev, run with
docker run -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -v atomic-storage:/atomic-storage joepmeneer/atomic-server) - Discover the command line tool: atomic-cli (
cargo install atomic-cli) - Use the Rust library: atomic-lib
Make sure to join our Discord if you'd like to discuss Atomic Data with others.
Keep in mind that none of the Atomic Data projects has reached a v1, which means that breaking changes can happen.
This is written mostly as a book, so reading it in the order of the Table of Contents will probably give you the best experience. That being said, feel free to jump around - links are often used to refer to earlier discussed concepts. If you encounter any issues while reading, please leave an issue on Github. Use the arrows on the side / bottom to go to the next page.
{{#include SUMMARY.md}}