Protocols/AOL/Atoms
| AOL Protocol |
| Introduction • Terms • Clients |
| Basic |
| Datatypes • |
| FLAP • P3 • Midas |
| Tokens • Atoms • FDO |
| Tutorials |
| Sign On |
| Technical Documentation |
| Host Architecture • |
Atoms are the base building blocks for atom streams. They're basically just opcodes for code sections defined in the client.
Every atom belongs to a protocol, which in most cases belong to one particular client tool. Protocols are groups (or "families") of atoms, according to what those atoms do within the client. For example, the atoms that work with the client database are in the Database protocol, and the atoms that control the flow and logic of the atom streams are in the Universal protocol. Atoms that handle the way actions are triggered and run are in the Action protocol, and atoms that handle the form and object attributes are in the Attribute Manager protocol.
While there's a lot of different atoms out there, the most common atoms are part of the UNI, MAT and MAN namespaces.