RSD and MetaWeblog Api

Question

I'm currently working on implementing the MetaWeblog Api in my company's internal Blog site and am having some difficulty getting RSD (Real Simple Detection) working with Windows Live Writer. The main issue is the "blogID" attribute of the <api.../> element. Here is an example of my RSD XML file:

 

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<rsd version="1.0" xmlns="http://archipelago.phrasewise.com/rsd">

<service>

<engineName>Blog Service</engineName>

<engineLink>http://mycompany/blogs/BlogServiceHandler.ashx</engineLink>

<homePageLink>http://mycompany/blogs/default.aspx</homePageLink>

<apis>

<api name="MetaWeblog" preferred="true" apiLink="http://mycompany/blogs/BlogServiceHandler.ashx" blogID="" />

</apis>

</service>

</rsd>

 

Live Writer does not automatically detect that I'm using MetaWeblog unless I enter a value in for the "blogID" attribute. But, if I do enter a value for it, then Live Writer automatically determines that I'm using the blog with that ID and does not call the "blogger.getUsersBlogs()" function letting me choose which blog I want to post to like it does when I manually pick MetaWeblog and point it to my MetaWeblog Handler (http://mycompany/blogs/BlogServiceHandler.ashx).

 

The RSD spec says to leave the "blogID" attribute blank if its not used, but Live Writer doesn't seem to allow this. Is there a workaround? Or is this just not possible?

 

Thank you.

Answer 1

Any thoughts?

Answer 2

Hi Vince, sorry for the delay in responding.

 

During configuration we ask for the homepage URL of the specific blog you want to configure, so to us, we strive to identify the exact blog that matches that URL. If you have multiple different blogs you might want to configure, our assumption was that each of those blogs would have different homepage URLs, which point to different RSD documents, which contain different blog IDs.

 

Does that make sense?

Answer 3

Great! That makes perfect sense and is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. I'll just have to generate the rsd xml doc dynamically using an aspx page instead of having a static file.

 

Thank you for your help!

Answer 4

If you get the user blogs by its credentials and only need one apiLink where all postings goes its a bit annoying  that you need to generate the rsd dynamically for each blog, especially as the specs says it can be omitted. Live Writer already have the blog ID for the current blog after the getUserBlogs call to the service. I understand the idea, but think it should be possible to bypass.

Answer 5

By inserting a link such this <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title=\"RSD" href="http:\//whereever the rsd.xml lives." /> into a homepage's header we uncouple the need to know where to find the RSD file.

Answer 6

By inserting a link such this into a homepage's header we uncouple the need to know where to find the RSD file.

I've tried it and it works, Thanks for your help!