Offline Blogging: An Example with Windows Live Writer
Created on: Sep 26, 2008 9:04 AM by Vinh - Last Modified: Sep 26, 2008 10:12 AM by Vinh
This applies to: 1.10.x, 2.0.6 or higher, 2.5.x (Note: As of this document, we are releasing 1.10.4, 2.0.8 and 2.5.2)
High-Level Summary: It's possible to use an external edit to create and publish blogs to your Clearspace blog by leveraging web services.
Web Blogging without the Web
It's tough to always be connected when your next blogging inspiration hits you. Clearspace lets you connect with a variety of tools for your offline blogging needs. Any software using the MetaWebBlog API, but this example uses Windows Live Writer:
- Check with your Administrator to make sure that web services is enabled:
Note to admins: You'll need to restart the server if you just enabled web services. - Download Windows Live Writer and install it into your system
- Add a new account by going to Tools -> Options -> Accounts:
- Enter the URL for your blog page (i.e. if you're using 2.5.1, it would be http://clearspace_url/people/your_username/blog):
- Select "Metawebblog API" and enter the URL to your XMLRPC service (format: http://clearspace_url/blogs/xmlrpc):
- After running through the rest of the setup, you should now be able to write up posts in your Windows Live Writer application:
- Click on "Publish" and it should now show up on your blog in Clearspace!
Only the basic functions will translate correctly, though. Bold, underline, italics and strikethroughs should go through with no issues. Tables and lists may not work at all and images will only work with some extra configuration. Still, you can always edit the blog post and add those in after the fact.
malcolm stanley
says:
Is there a difference in settings for Marsedit or are they the same? anybody know?
bhench
says:
This works great in 2.5 for posting to my personal blog. Is it possible to post to a blog under a space or in a group? I have tried a bunch of different versions of the URL and live writer can't resolve it.
Craig Woodward
says:
Thanks for this guide.
" Tables and lists may not work at all and images will only work with some extra configuration."
Will you be posting how to do the extra configuration to get pictures to work?
Thanks.
Vinh - thanks for detail and effort to give us a worked example. This is useful and will provide some inspiration, especially were users want to continue using interfaces they know.