The WordPress developer team tries to secure WordPress. Hence, they deactivated the XML-RPC and the Atom API.

Without these APIs it is not possible to post to your blog using a desktop blogging software like WIndows Live Wiriter.

Thankfully they didn’t delete this API. It can be activated in WordPress Administration (Settings –> Write).

via Frank Bültge

flickr user Irregular Shed shows us how:

This is Windows Live Writer running on Windows XP, running virtually on Ubuntu 8.04 running virtually on Asus Eee PC. This setup let windows use 192 MB RAM. An according to the guy who did this, it’s perfectly usable.

Irregular Shed’s blog – Blogging from inside a virtual XP machine. w00t.

The new version number of the Live Writer Technical Preview is 14. When i saw this, I remembered that the previous release had version number 12. I assumed, version 13 was a developer release and never public. So I asked Ste and he forwarded my question to Scott. Apparently Microsoft Software never has a version number 13, because it’s an unlucky number. So Live Writer didn’t had a release 13.

What a bummer. I was looking forward to Windows 13 which wouldn’t need a keyboard or mouse as it could read its users mind

The new SDK isn’t a release, it’s a Technical Preview like the new Live Writer an therefore it’s not intended for production use. That’s why Live Gallery doesn’t accept plugins based on the SDK 1.1 Technical Preview. It’s also possible that the Developer Team make breaking changes in the new SDK code and new plugins won’t work in final release anymore.

The SDK has get two new plugin base classes:

Publish Notification Hook
Header/Footer Source

Publish Notification Hook

The new class PublishNotificationHook allows you to develop plugins which can run actions after pressing the Publish button. These actions can be executed before or after publishing the post. You can also cancel the publishing process.

Examples for use could be:

• Notification on new posts to services e.g. Twitter
• Ask for confirmation if no tags or keywords are provided with the post and cancel the publishing process if necessary
• Show a warning when the post contains invalid XHTML

With this new base class you can save settings in the post file for later use. Plugins written on that class have to be enabled or diabled for every blog configured in Live Writer individually.

Let’s go to some development stuff. It’s very easy to develop PublishNotificationHook plugins. Follow these steps:

1. Create a new .NET Class Library (e.g. in Visual Studio)
2. Add a reference to WindowsLive.Writer.Api
3. Create a new class extending PublishNotificationHook
4. Assign a GUID and a Plugin name with WriterPluginAttribute
5. Overwrite OnPrePublish and/or OnPostPublish method

Here a tiny code example:

using System.Windows.Forms;
using WindowsLive.Writer.Api;

[WriterPlugin("????????-????-????-????-????????????", "My Plugin Name")]
public class MyPublishNotificationHook : PublishNotificationHook
{
    public override bool OnPrePublish(IWin32Window owner, IProperties properties,
            IPublishingContext publishingContext, bool publish)
    {
        // Do pre-publish work
        return true;
    }

    public override void OnPostPublish(IWin32Window owner, IProperties properties,
            IPublishingContext publishingContext, bool publish)
    {
        // Do post-publish work
    }
}

Header/Footer Source

This type of plugins are used to add some text to the header or footer of a post. The user can’t modify this text in the Edit section of Live Writer but this text is visible in the preview section and in the published post.

This type of plugins could be used for example for:

• Header: Insert a Digg button
• Footer: Insert Social Bookmark links

The interessting part of this new base class is that the permalink of the post can be used even if it’s not exist yet.

Plugins which make use of this base class have to be enabled or disabled for every blog configured in Live Writer individually.

Let’s go to the development stuff:

1. Create a new .NET Class Library (e.g. in Visual Studio)
2. Add a reference to WindowsLive.Writer.Api
3. Create a new class extending HeaderFooterSource erbt
4. Assign a GUID and a Plugin name with WriterPluginAttribute
5. If permalinks are used, overwrite the RquiresPermalink property and return true
6. Overwrite GeneratePreviewHtml and GeneratePublishHtml

using System.Windows.Forms;
using WindowsLive.Writer.Api;

[WriterPlugin("????????-????-????-????-????????????", "My Plugin Name")]
public class MyHeaderFooterSource : HeaderFooterSource
{
    public override bool RequiresPermalink
    {
        get { return true; }
    }

    public override string GeneratePreviewHtml(ISmartContent smartContent,
            IPublishingContext publishingContext, out Position position)
    {
        position = Position.Footer;
        return “<p><a href=\”#\”>Digg This</a></p>”;
    }

    public override string GeneratePublishHtml(IWin32Window dialogOwner,
            ISmartContent smartContent, IPublishingContext publishingContext,
            bool publish, out Position position)
    {
        position = Position.Footer;
        return “<p><a href=\”http://digg.com/submit?url=”
            + publishingContext.PostInfo.Permalink
            + “\”>Digg This</a></p>”;
    }
}

There are another changes like TaskServices which can run tasks in background.

SDK download (contains documentation and samples)

Live-Side.net

For feedback please use the Live Writer Developer forum

The new Live Writer Blog is based on WordPress instead of dasBlog. Along with this new base there are numerous of new features. You can rate the plugins we write about also the author of a post about a plugin can rate the plugin. With this, it’s easier for visitors to decide which plugins they want to install and which not.

The Design is now the same as on our german blog (corporate identity ).

Enjoy discovering the news Live Writer Blog

Problem:

When you try to publish a post to your blog you are getting this error: “An unexpected error has occured while attempting to log in: Blog Server Error  Server Error -32700 Occured parse error. not well formed”

Solution:

This Problem occures when you use wordpress as your blog software. In fact it is a spam injection to your wordpress installation. This is possible when your wordpress installation or your server isn’t as secure as it should be. Some wordpress files were changed on the server so you getting this error.

To solve this problem, you should replace the files on your server with the original wordpress files of the same version as installed. It looks like the following files are affected:index.php

• xmlrpc.php
• wp-admin/admin.php
• wp-admin/index.php
• wp-includes/wp-db.php
• wp-includes/pluggable.php
• wp-includes/gettext.php
• wp-includes/default-filters.php (critical!)

You also should check your .htaccess file for suspicious redirects and remove them. You have to remove the wp-includes/class-mail.php file. This file does not belong to wordpress and is a security leak.

The server wordpress is installed have to get secure. There is an article on wordpress codex that shows some methods to hardening wordpress.

Further informations:
gordon.dewis.ca
Kakkoi
via Windows Live Writer Group

“Insert Acronym Tags” is a small plugin which provides a tiny GUI to insert abbreviations or acronyms.

An article about the use and the future of these two tags can be found on SmackTheMouse.com

Download the plugin

[rating:2/5]

The installation is very easy thanks to the integrated installer. No other configuration has to be done.

After installation a file can be inserted into a blog post by clicking on the “Insert Box.net File…” link in the sidebar. First you have to login using your box.net account. After you have choosen the file you want to link the plugin creates a hyperlink and inserts it to your blog post.

There is a restriction for hotlinking pictures. To do this you need a premium or pro account. It is restricted by using a free account.

Here’s a little demo that shows a link created by the plugin:

Download Box2LiveWriter Installer

More informations about the plugin, screenshots and how tos are available on the plugins Codeplex site.

[rating:3.5/5]