How to post to Joomla 1.5.3 using Windows Live Writer

Yes, it’s possible. I had so much popularity with my “Making Windows Live Writer Work With Blogger Beta” article that I had to share this one too.

 

I found myself wanting to replace WordPress with a new Joomla application on my main web site, but didn’t want to lose the ability to post using WLW. I’ve grown quite fond of this freeware over recent years and was determined to find a solution to make it work. A little Googling, a little forum hopping, and here we are! It works.

 

What you need to make WLW post to Joomla:

There are a few requirements to make this work. Of course you’ll need Joomla running on your server and WLW running on your PC. I’m assuming you know that much already. Here’s the rest:

1. MetaWeblog API plugin for Joomla
   It’s available from: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/metaweblogapi/frs/
    
   Right click on metaweblog.zip and download the zip file to your PC.
2. RealSimpleDiscovery Plugin for Joomla (RSD)
   It’s available from: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/rsd/frs/
   
   Right click on rsd.jpb and download the zip file to your PC.

Instructions for Installing the Plugins in your back-end Admin.

Log into your Joomla Admin panel and go to  Extensions –> Install/Uninstall.

 

Click “Browse” and then choose the zip files you just uploaded. It doesn’t matter which order you upload them in. You need to upload the MetaWeblog module and the RSD module.

 

Go to your Plugin Manager and enable the MetaWeblog Plugin and disable the Blogger API that came with your Joomla installation. (Extensions –> Plugin Manager)

 

 

While you’re there, also enable the RSD plugin. (If it’s hard to find, that’s because it’s called System – Real Simple Discovery (RSD).

 

Enable Web Services

Go to your Global Configuration and choose “yes” to the “Enable Web Services option, which is defaulted to “no.”

This is located under Global Configuration –> System –>System Settings

 

Now, you’ve finished the Joomla end of the instructions. Now go open Windows Live Writer and let’s create a new Weblog.

 

Setting up Windows Live Writer to Talk to Joomla

1. Open WLW and create a new blog account.
2. Choose “Another Weblog Service” and press next.
3. Enter your joomla web site address, your username, and your password.

That’s it!

 

Now, maybe your auto-configuration didn’t work and you need to enter the variables manually. It’s ok, no problem. On the next screen, under type of blog, be sure you choose MetaWeblog API, then enter your XML-RPC url, which will be http://yoursite.com/xmlrpc/index.php.

 

Now it should work.

 

Things you should know

• You MUST be an admin to post on the site automatically. If you are only a Registered User, Editor, or Publisher, the article will still be posted but will await approval by a moderator before being published publicly. If you ‘re not getting any errors, but aren’t seeing your posts, this might be why.
• You must choose the category for your post, or else Joomla will assign is as “uncategorized” which means it gets treated as a static page. Choose the category from the lower left side of the WLW screen.
  
• If you can’t publish, check to make sure your plugins are enabled properly. If they ARE, and you type http://yoursite.com/xmlrpc/index.php into your browser, you should see something similar to this screen:
  

I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or comments, edits or critiques, please feel free to comment!

 

7 Responses to “How to post to Joomla 1.5.3 using Windows Live Writer”

1. wadeo says:

   July 31, 2008 at 5:15 am

   WLW works great but having a problem with two categories that keep getting mixed up WLW always post items for Category 50 in Category 34 weird have you had any problems like this one?
2. Tommy Jordan says:

   July 31, 2008 at 6:20 am

   No, but I have had a different issue. I set this up on a second joomla site and every time I publish, it makes the article a “front page” article, which isn’t what I need… still figuring that part out.
3. wadeo says:

   July 31, 2008 at 6:04 pm

   that is a part of the metaweb configuration you should be able to turn this feature off. edit your meta web plugin and you should be fine. hope this helps
4. Tommy Jordan says:

   August 4, 2008 at 9:38 am

   Ah ha! You’re right. Worked flawlessly. Default was set to Always.. switched it to never.. voila!
5. Mark Woodward says:

   August 10, 2008 at 10:44 pm

   Thank you!! The instructions were clear, and more importantly..it worked!!

   I’ve also tried it with Scribewire, and while I get an error message back about ‘server returned malformed response’ it seems to post just fine…I really appreciate your willingness to help.

   Mark
6. Bernhard says:

   August 29, 2008 at 4:07 pm

   Hi, got a problem after doing this, so i made a new 1.5.6 install with these instructions, it connects, but my site gives errors : Illegal variable _files or _env or _get or _post or _cookie or _server or _session or globals passed to script.

   otherwise a great idea…
7. Mike says:

   September 10, 2008 at 7:36 am

   Many Thanks
8. 随风飞扬 » Blog Archive » Post to Joomla using Windows Live Writer says:

   September 11, 2008 at 4:34 pm

   [...] http://carolinaregion.com/2008/07/23/how-to-post-to-joomla-153-using-windows-live-writer/ [...]
9. Joomla Desktop - F says:

   August 6, 2010 at 11:06 am

   [...] Joomla 1.5.3 using Windows Live Writer / MetaWeblog API plugin for Joomla – How to post to Joomla 1.5.3 using Windows Live Writer | [Me-Tom-orphasis] – Welcome [...]