I've used Sitefinity as my blogging platform for around 2 years now. Prior to this, I used many other blogging platforms. For most of this time, production and publication has largely been an awkward experience.
However, after many years of pain I have finally settled on a production process I'm happy with. This all started a couple months ago with with a small post Ivan made to the Sitefinity forums:
Yes the Live Writer support is fully functional. As a matter of fact all the guys and girls on blogs.telerik.com are using Live Writer for their everyday blogging.
Windows Live Writer is a free desktop application that can be used to compose your blog offline. When you're finished composing, you can publish with a 'click' of a button. I've now written several blog posts using Live Writer, it's a nice little editor that makes publishing online extremely easy.
If you're blogging on the Sitefinity platform, you need to give Windows Live Writer a look.
MetaWeblog API
In fairness, the Sitefinity team hasn't specifically created support for Windows Live Writer. Rather, they've created support for the MetaWeblog API. The MetaWeblog API is an XML-RPC web service that exposes methods for managing blog posts. Windows Live Writer (as well as other blog editors) use this API to publish compositions online.
Configuring Windows Live Writer to Publish to your Sitefinity Blog
There is a full KB article that contains a lot of information about the MetaWeblog API & Sitefinity. Below I'm going to walk-through, very specifically, setting up Windows Live Writer to publish to your Sitefinity blog. If you need additional information, please refer to the KB article or the Sitefinity forums.
Step 1: Download Windows Live Writer and run the installer.
Step 2: Click "Writer" from the list of products to be installed.
Step 3: Click the "Add to installation" button.
Step 4: When the installation is finished, click the "Close" button.
You will be prompted to create a new Windows Live Spaces account. Because you will be publishing to Sitefinity, this is not necessary.
Step 5: From your Start menu, load the "Windows Live Writer" program.
You will be prompted to setup a new Weblog service. If you are not prompted click "Tools" and then "Accounts" from the menu above. Then click the "Add" button to create a new Weblog service.
Step 6: Choose "Another weblog service" for your Weblog Type and click the "Next" button.
Step 7: For the "Weblog Homepage URL" type the URL you've configured for your blog in Sitefinity.
Step 8: Type the Sitefinity username & password you use to modify your blog. Click the "Next" button.
Step 9: Type "http://<your url>/blogs/metablog.ashx" for the "Remote posting URL".
Step 10: Click "Next". Live Writer will contact the Sitefinity MetaWeblog API. Click the the "Finish" button to complete the setup.
Write your Blog Post and Publish
You are now done and ready to publish new blog posts to your Sitefinity blog. Use Windows Live Writer to write your article. When you're ready to publish your post, just click "Publish".
Note: This was article was originally published at blogs.telerik.com. However, a technical glitch caused all the images to disappear from the post. I managed to retrieve the images and I'm republishing the article here.
