Request: Vox support
  • Edit
    Howdy,

    I originally became interested in MarsEdit because I thought it might let me post to LiveJournal and Vox at the same time. I haven't gotten the LiveJournal support to work, and Vox doesn't seem to be supported yet at all. Maybe now that Daniel Jalkut is taking over development, MarsEdit can make some progress on these services.

    Thanks, I look forward to the future of MarsEdit.
  • Daniel JalkutDaniel Jalkut
    Thanks for the feedback, fetjuel. I will be evaluating the status of support for the various blog systems, over the next few days (and for some of the lesser known ones, maybe weeks). I hope to be able to address the general class of "will this be supported" and "why doesn't this work anymore" questions with blog systems after I've had a chance to digest it all.

    Stay tuned!

    Daniel
  • baronbaron
    As far as I know, Vox doesn't have any kind of xml-rpc support as of yet (shocking for a blog company but still). It's why I avoid it like the plague despite having set up an account.

    It's probably something to pursue more with Six Apart than Red Sweater.
  • Daniel JalkutDaniel Jalkut
    Hi Baron - definitely pursue it with Six Apart if you'd like to see XML-RPC support from them.

    That said, it's also shocking for me not to support their preferred publishing API - so I'm definitely going to get right on that.

    Daniel
  • baronbaron
    They supposedly support the atom API but Flickr is the only one that managed to successfully make it work. They also have a posting client project called fence which you can check out. Their Atom code might have some hints for you:
    http://code.sixapart.com/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/trunk/?root=Fence
  • eBobeBob
    I use LiveJournal. I was disappointed that the initial setup only asked me for my LJ home page URL (and my name for the account profile), but did not set up the LJ account properties. I had to manually enter the LJ username. I have no idea what the LJ XML-RPC URL is, and LJ doesn't exactly make it jump out on their site.

    What URL should I use for LJ?
  • Daniel JalkutDaniel Jalkut
    Hi Bob - I definitely want to improve the auto-configuration experience. The RPC I use for LiveJournal is:

    http://www.livejournal.com/interface/blogger

    Then put your LiveJournal account name as the "blog ID".

    Some of this stuff is documented in the MarsEdit help, in particular in "Getting Started." But I'd like to take that content and expand upon it, and put it in a more obvious location on the web site too so people can tell ahead of time what support is like for their service.

    Daniel
  • eBobeBob
    That worked. Thanks.

    A bit disappointingly when I posted my entry, MarsEdit did not have the login sheet username field filled in form the account profile.

    The login sheet's checkbox has geeky text. Instead of "Remember password" (or something common and understandable) it said something about storing the password in the Keychain (geekspeak).

    Finally, I searched MarsEdit help for words like RPC URL (the text field wording from the GUI), and LiveJournal, but came up with bupkis. So if this is in the help file, it doesn't have these keywords.
  • Daniel JalkutDaniel Jalkut
    Glad it worked, Bob. Point taken about the failure to autopopulate the authentication dialog.

    Actually I'm not so sure "Keychain" is geek-speak. At least it's not supposed to be. Apple is pushing it pretty hard to users and this is the language users will see when for example an application tries to access the password after being updated (Keychain will automatically put up an alert). So I think it makes sense to be consistent in the language there.

    That really sucks that searching the help didn't work. It must need to be indexed properly. I'll be sure to fix that for the next update.

    Daniel
  • eBobeBob
    Apple is declaring "Keychain" is now lay lingo? I'm far more familiar with something simple like "Remember password". If Apple's pushing hard, then maybe they know better.
  • Daniel JalkutDaniel Jalkut
    Well maybe I overstate "pushing" it ... but it's the only name by which the "magic collection of securely remembered passwords" is referred.

    See for example: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/security/

    The problem with just saying "Remember Password" is it doesn't convey to conscientious users whether the developer was smart enough to do so securely. :) Using the word Keychain implies the developer is putting it in a secure location.
  • rickybuchananrickybuchanan
    Daniel Jalkut said:
    The problem with just saying "Remember Password" is it doesn't convey to conscientious users whether the developer was smart enough to do so securely. :) Using the word Keychain implies the developer is putting it in a secure location.

    What about "Remember Password" and a disclosure box with details of where it is stored for the geeks?

    Also, I very much want to use MarsEdit with LiveJournal, but the support seems so patchy that it's not very usable. That means I won't show up in your usage stats with the upgrade checking, as I can't afford to buy a program that may never meet my needs. That is not meant as criticism, just an observation :). I am sure that you are aware that they type of issue has to be taken into account, but I *really* want to have full LJ support so I figured that I would say it anyway.

    r
  • Daniel JalkutDaniel Jalkut
    Ricky: I think I'm going to stick with simply "In Keychain" for now. As long as Apple continues using this terminology, it should continue to become more and more recognized by average users.

    Regarding LiveJournal - I know support is not great right now. It's very likely that when LJ finishes their Atom support, MarsEdit will be able to take advantage of the advanced features more easily than it can now.

    As far as the "usage stats" go, I'm definitely going to be looking at them with some degree of intelligence :) For instance, if I look at the statistics and discover that while LiveJournal is among the most popular blogging systems in the world, nobody is using MarsEdit with it, then the *negative votes* could be a motivation to improve the support in the app. I'd have to ask my self, "Why aren't more LiveJournal users running MarsEdit?"

    Thanks,
    Daniel
  • rickybuchananrickybuchanan
    I have great faith in your intelligence, and your dedication to MarsEdit *grin* ... I'll harass 6A about their Atom support and wait to hear about MarsEdit for now.

    r
  • baronbaron
    I talked to someone from VOX yesterday (in Japan) and confirmed that there is in fact full Atom support so this is a feature waiting to happen. Just need to figure out how to get the proper details I suppose.

    Have you got in touch with VOX or made any progress on this?
  • Daniel JalkutDaniel Jalkut
    Hi Baron - I have been in discussion with people at Vox, and we are making progress on both ends. The support is not 100% at Vox so I haven't been able to implement complete support for things like uploading images and editing or deleting posts. If you're anxious to try out the Vox support in MarsEdit, you can join the MarsEdit on Vox beta group:

    http://marsedit.vox.com/

    Just follow the directions and I'll add you to the group!

    Thanks,
    Daniel
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