Red Sweater Forums

Hi guys,

I'm new to MarsEdit here and i'm really amazed about how good the software actually is. It's almost everything I wanted. However, during my playaround, I found that the app can't seem to pick up on the wordpress excerpts and keywords. The box is empty. I'm using AllInOneSeo, might this be the problem?

Mark

EDit: oops, sorry. Just to make it clear, what i meant was meta description tag. How do i fill in the information for meta description through MarsEdit?

Daniel Jalkut

Hi there - it sounds like the meta description is probably a "custom field" that your SEO plugin added to WordPress.

You can set up custom fields in MarsEdit under the blog's settings. To open the blog settings in MarsEdit, open the Main Window, and find your blog in the list on the left side of the window. Double-click the blog icon to open the settings window.

You'll see a tab for Custom Fields where you can add them each with a name for how you want the field to show up in MarsEdit, and a name that represents the "raw name" of the custom field in WordPress. You can find this by looking in the WordPress admin panel.

Let me know if I can give more precise instructions e.g. about the WordPress admin panel (I don't have it open and handy now to look).

Daniel

msoon2k

Hi Daniel,

I've been using wordpress for a while but only the default setup. I've not messed around with custom fields before. If you could give me or show me more precise instructions on adding meta descriptions via custom fields, it'd be great.

I just need to know I can do meta keywords and descriptions before i purchase marsedit. Other than those, ME's the bomb. It's so slick and is exactly what i'm looking for to work on my site. :)

Hope to hear back soon.

Mark

Daniel Jalkut

Hi Mark- when you go into the post editor on the web interface to your blog (the Admin panel), you should see a section below the content and the excerpt, called "Custom Fields." When you're looking at a post that has this meta description value, does it show any values in this "Custom Fields" area?

msoon2k

Hi Daniel,

I decided to set up a new wp blog to get a cleaner interface to test this on. I'm now using the headway theme and it includes some basic seo parameters (much like AllInOneSEO). It includes the description, keywords, and title box. I've made a screenshot for you here..

http://screencast.com/t/gVz84eig3F3

There is the custom fields area that you spoke of as well, just below the content box, but it doesn't show any values there, it's blank.

See other screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/rUTX5C7SgutO

Any ideas?

Mark

msoon2k

Btw Daniel,

I'm mainly dealing with Pages on my WP site, so I'm looking at the custom fields for pages (should be the same as posts I reckon).

Daniel Jalkut

Hi Mark - unfortunately, if the plugin doesn't use custom fields for the values, and doesn't use any of the standard WordPress fields that MarsEdit knows how to edit (like Tags, title, etc.), then MarsEdit will not be able to edit it.

I thought that All in One SEO uses custom fields. Maybe it does? It doesn't look like this other plugin you're using does, though.

msoon2k

Hi Daniel,

there must be a way. I'm sure you've heard of Microsoft Live Writer right?

There's this plugin for live writer now that hooks right into AllinOneSEO and it can put the right tags in.

Check out this link. http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-seo-wlw-bridge-plugin.html

msoon2k

Oh and Daniel, I've also switched over to Headway Themes, as mentioned before. And I wrote to them earlier today to see if they can provide me with their custom field values they use for their "description" and "keyword" meta tag boxes.

Here is what i posted to them but i don't know if I've asked the right way. See screenshot below:

http://screencast.com/t/VmrtAKuca

Daniel Jalkut

Mark - if the custom field values are not showing up in the WordPress admin page area, then they won't be editable via MarsEdit either.

I'm pretty sure the All In One SEO package uses custom fields, but you're talking about a different SEO package now, aren't you?

We can't assume that All In One SEO and Headway SEO use the same technique to get the values into the WordPress database.

In a nutshell: whatever SEO package your use, it will either store the extra data in WordPress's "custom fields" or in a custom format writing directly to the WordPress database. If it uses the official custom fields then MarsEdit can access and edit those values, but if it it doesn't then MarsEdit has no way to edit them.

msoon2k

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the reply. I WAS trying MarsEdit on one of my older blogs before that DOESN'T use Headway, and uses AllInOneSEO instead.

Custom fields were empty unfortunately. I think they must have started writing directly to the WP database as well. Can you check on your side? I think you're right tho but i can't find anything there. If the Microsoft Live Writer can access AllInOneSEO, that means the values must be accessible to MarsEdit as well. Just can't find it...

Mark

msoon2k

Hi Daniel,

Check this out, made a screenshot for you for AllInOne's Custom field area. I don't think they expose their field values anymore :(

http://screencast.com/t/nAttOQrZUiS

Daniel Jalkut

Hi Mark - there's one more thing we can try. Set the title and description values for some recent post to something recognizable, then save the post on your blog. Then when you refresh the blog from MarsEdit, capture the network log:

1. Open MarsEdit
2. Select Window -> Network Log from the menu bar.
3. Clear the log if it's not already empty.
4. Try to refresh the blog again from MarsEdit.
5. Copy the network log contents.

We should be able to see in the network log contents whether the values are being sent to MarsEdit or not. It's possible that they are using custom fields but have hidden the information from the admin panel in WordPress.

Daniel

msoon2k

Good one Daniel. You're on to something. From the network logs, here is what i found. The all in one value strain!

<value><struct>
  <member><name>id</name><value><string>4214</string></value></member>
  <member><name>key</name><value><string>_aioseop_description</string></value></member>
  <member><name>value</name><value><string>this is my test post</string></value></member>
</struct></value>
  <value><struct>
  <member><name>id</name><value><string>4213</string></value></member>
  <member><name>key</name><value><string>_aioseop_keywords</string></value></member>
  <member><name>value</name><value><string>test posting, wordpress</string></value></member>
</struct></value>
  <value><struct>
  <member><name>id</name><value><string>4215</string></value></member>
  <member><name>key</name><value><string>_aioseop_title</string></value></member>
  <member><name>value</name><value><string>my test post</string></value></member>
</struct></value>

so does that mean that i can create a custom field in marsedit now, with say "_aioseop_description" , and that should be my meta description field?

Mark

msoon2k

LOL! did it Daniel! It works!!

THanks so much for your help. You might wanna copy those values down for your FAQ or something, someone's bound to ask about this in the future.

cheers mr. developer.

Mark

Daniel Jalkut

Awesome, glad to hear it worked! I will definitely keep the values handy for future inquiries.

As an aside, I am vaguely remembering now that WP has a convention for custom fields that if they start with a _ they are not shown in the user interface. That would explain why we couldn't find them.

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