The whole XML-RPC server for Textpattern CMS is almost ready – including complete implementations of Blogger/MetaWeblog/MovableType APIs, with the notable lack of support for metaWeblog.newMediaObject (at least for now). It will eventually be released to the public.

As you can see, I’m not saying “it will be included into core” when ready, but “released to the public”. Why?, mostly because we’re trying to put all our efforts into the next big Textpattern release – crockery branch into the repo – and don’t want to add anything more than bugfixes to the existing stable branch.

Of course, it will be included by default with crockery, like many other new goodies we’re going to talk about here really soon.

In brief

  1. XML-RPC for Textpattern CMS will be released as a separated package for version 4.0.x, and included by default into crockery.
  2. All the upcoming upgrades of 4.0.x version will be bugfix/mainteinance releases, and new things there will be limited to new translations or really simple or important patches.
  3. We’re starting the road to crockery, the next Textpattern CMS major release.

Some obvious questions I think you could have now about XML-RPC implementation

  1. Why isn’t it already in the repository?: It’s new code for an existing and stable package, and the 4.0 repository branch is being used by many people to update their production installs. We don’t want to add any code there until we can test it enough.
  2. When are those tests going to be completed?: I’ll start to use it on my own weblog this week – I’ve found a cool PocketPC client I’d like to play with – and we’re going to eat our own dog food for a week or so. Then, we’d like to start a round of beta testing before we release it. If no problems are detected, we hope to offer it here for public download during the next weeks.

A few curiosities

  1. It uses Simon’s IXR_Library which has been included in Textpattern for a long time, so no completely new RPC-libraries are required for Textpattern.
  2. There is a new ‘wrapper’ to invoke specific Textpattern functionality which could be used in the future to add implementations of an Atom server, Atom clients or moblogging tools.
  3. Blogger API’s template related methods are also implemented, this means you can edit your templates using a desktop XML-RPC client.

There is going to be documentation for developers – I have already written more than 20 pages – and as many specific client configuration samples, including screenshots, as we can collect during the next weeks.