Today was the day where I was back at work trying to weblog in my Intranet weblog and to take things for a spin I decided to see how the Performancing for FireFox extension from FireFox would work. If you would remember, not long ago, I created a couple of weblog posts on my overall experience about Performancing for FireFox and back then I mentioned how I saw some initial issues when trying to get this extension to work with one other Open Source weblogging engine, which is Roller Weblogger. And the same thing happened with Flock’s weblogging component.
Either way, I decided to give it another try today and to my surprise even though I initially had some issues getting it to work in the end I managed to set up the account manually for my Intranet weblog, which uses Roller and right away I thought I was off to a good start. Whooops, but not so fast, Mr. Apparently, the account got set up all right and I could see that there was a successful connection to my Intranet weblog. However, I do not seem to be able to get the listing of categories nor the previous weblog posts that I have created already. It just displays a grey screen. Nothing happening.
As you may have figure out already I had to set up the weblog through the manual process since it is protected in an Intranet and while doing that initial set up I had to choose the option for MetaWeblog API in order to be able to connect to it since Roller is not listed as an option on the list of weblogging engines available. So, I said, fair enough, as long as it connects I should be fine. But now that I am connected, I am not that fine. As I said the listing of categories and previous weblog posts do not seem to be working, which means that it is rather awkward to post a article to a place where some of the options are missing.
I have read somewhere (Wish I could find that link again, grrr ! Where were you BlinkList when I needed you!) that this may not be a problem with Performancing For FireFox per se, but from the MetaWeblog API option that fails to grab the categories and the history from a weblog based on Roller. Thus I am not sure if that is something that would be fixed eventually. What I was hoping for is that Performancing For FireFox would eventually fix this issue by allowing the possibility of having Roller Weblogger added as another option to choose from other weblogging engines. That way, we would not have to go through the same thing and still be able to function properly with our own weblogs regardless of what engine they run.
Oh, but don’t worry, because this same issue is happening to other weblogging tools that I have been talking about over here: Both Qumana and the weblogging component from Flock have got this same problem and unless Roller is added into the list of options available for selection I doubt we would have any success to make full use of the capabilities of each of these weblogging tools for that particular weblogging engine. And that, to me, would be a pity, because although this engine may not be particularly popular like Blogger, TypePad or LiveJournal it is still an option out there for quite a few of us and therefore it would be just like shutting us down from the benefits of weblogging in general. That is why I just hope that one of these days this Open Source weblogging engine would be part of all three weblogging tool options.
In this particular case, w.bloggar is the big winner since it includes a whole bunch of different weblogging engines, Roller included, that none of the other tools current offer that people can choose from. This, on its own, is what is making me continue using extensively w.bloggar as my default weblogging tool as opposed to other options since it just simply does the job. And quite nicely !
[tags]Roller, Roller+Weblogger, Performancing, Qumana, Flock, wbloggar[/tags]
Luis,
Thanks for bringing this up. While I have not actually tried out Roller, I can tell you that it is a PFF issue. In versions 1.0 and 1.0.1 the metaWeblog API is incorrect and does not work.
This has been fixed and will be available in 1.1 which should go out on Tuesday.
So sorry about that, it was an overlook on my part as I only recently (after 1.0.1 was released) found out there was an issue with this API.
Once again, I’m sorry.
Anyhow, once 1.1 is out if you could get that a try that would be awesome. In the meantime I’ll look into Roller and get a test account going for myself to try it on.
Cheers
Excellent stuff, Jed ! Thanks much for sharing with us what is actually happening with Performancing For FireFox. Indeed, just as I was posting this weblog entry I saw that you guys were working on an upcoming upgrade for PFF. I am glad to know you guys are fixing the MetaWeblog API issue and it will be my pleasure to take it for a spin this coming week and report on my findings as to how it went. I am glad to hear you guys are working actively towards fixing this issue and, hopefully, when the new release goes out we would be able to work with it the way it is supposed to. Thanks again for dropping by and for sharing this very valuable feedback ! No need to apologise. Just great stuff !
No problem, thank you for pointing out the roller issue.
Dave from rollerweblogger.org has been of great help explaining exactly what their API is doing, so 1.1 should be compatible.
Also, sorry for the spacing issue on my comments.. not sure what’s going on there 😉
Great, Jed ! Thanks again for dropping by and for sharing your thoughts. Indeed, I have read about it over at Roller‘s weblog that you guys are working together to make it work. That is just fantastic ! And I surely look forward to trying it out whenever it goes life. Hopefully, it will work just fine and we can certainly enjoy using a much nicer integration with that particular weblogging engine. Appreciated all the help, support and comments shared so far, Jed. Thanks !
For those folks interested in following up the conversation over at Roller‘s weblog here you have got the link with the information details: Performancing 1.1 release coming soon.
Hello César and thanks for the pingback ! Yes, indeed, I can’t wait for Performancing For FireFox 1.1 to go live as I have been waiting for it to see if I could transition into it without having a second piece of software installed in my machine to weblog content into my weblog. Great thing of this new release is that if it works all right we may be able to prepare the way for when Roller will be added as another weblogging engine, which means that setting it up will be really a piece of cake, as has been detailed over here: Performancing!.
We shall see how that goes but so far it looks like things are looking bright. Thanks to Jed and Matt for their hard work and for their support. We, webloggers, will be very grateful to you both very shortly !
Luis,
1.1 is out!! 😀 I’ve been working with Dave, from Roller and he helped guide me while fixing support for roller.
1.1 should work with the latest roller version, including accounts at jroller. However for category support I believe only the upcoming release of roller 2.1 get’s it right with tha API (I could be wrong, maybe other versions of roller will work).
Anyhow, please give it a whirl and report back with any issues you are having, and as always I will try and get right on it.