Fixes for Joomla metaWeblog XML-RPC API plugin
I have now finally fixed the bugs or better said the limitations in the metaWeblog XML-RPC API plugin for Joomla by Justo de Rivera. My initial statement was "how hard can it be" and it was not that hard but it took me some time anyway. The trickiest part was to figure out how to return a string array with XML-RPC in Joomla.
My main concern was handling of categories and the problems were:
- If multiple categories with same name but with different section existed then the wrong category was chosen when creating a new post
- The ability to change a category on a post was not available
- The ability to get the categories for already posted posts. The category would always be empty.
All of these problems have now been fixed in my new version of the metaWeblog XML-RPC API plugin which I also have changed version to be 0.9.1 as it is based on the 0.9 version of the same plugin by Justo Gonzalez de Rivera. I have tried to keep the original code as is and only add those missing parts or change what's wrong. I have also tried to contact Justo for adding these changes to his original plugin in JoomlaCode.org without success. I think that these changes could be valuable for more people than me so that's why I have made it available to the public.
Here is a brief installation guide for enabling blog editors such as Windows Live Writer or MarsEdit and Blogo on Mac to connect to Joomla.
- Install my new version of metaWeblog XML-RPC API plugin via "Extensions->Install/Uninstall"
- Install Real Simple Discovery plugin via "Extensions->Install/Uninstall"
- Turn both plugins on under "Extensions->Plugin Manager" (and turn off other XML-RPC plugins)
- Enable "Web Services" under "Global Configuration->System"
- In your blog editor add the URL to your site
This has been tested on Joomla! 1.5.15 with Windows Live Writer 14.0.8089.726, Marsedit 2.3.3, Blogo 1.2.10 and ScribeFire 3.4.6.
Now it's time to reconsider my previous statement to skip Joomla in favor for WordPress for blogging and install Joomla on this site as well.
5 comments
Hi this is a great tool, only find a flaw, the titles cannot have a utf8 characters… this is dissapointing because titles in other language than english will be cut… for example “Revolución” is showing as “Revoluci” I have no skills in programing, coul you help to make a metaweblog UTF8 version? for Windows Live Writer. thank you
Sorry for not answering earlier but I was away on holiday and just got back today. It was a while back I was working with this plugin and I can’t promise that I will have a fix soon but I will give it a try anyway.
Hi, interesting post.
You write: “The trickiest part was to figure out how to return a string array with XML-RPC in Joomla.”
This is exactly the problem I have. I want to use LW to adress a different table than content. Can you please illuminate where I have to change/digg deeper.
Just use my email adress or post here.
Thanks a lot
In my code where it says
'categories' => new xmlrpcval(array(new xmlrpcval($category->title .' ('. $section->title .')')),'array')I am creating an Array with only one item as content in joomla only can belong to one section and category.
To figure out what was sent back and forth between joomla and live writer I was using http analyzer so that I could check how the xml looked like.
Unfortunately It has been a while since I did any of this coding and my development environment is long gone.
Thank you very much!!! That helped already.