IM2 | OQP

2008/02/11

Post Also : my first complete Drupal module

Filed under: English, anglais, cms, drupal, free software, koumbit, open source, postalso Robin @ 05:28 (2099 lectures)

Maybe you were looking for the Rawdon affair?

UPDATE: 2008-02-12

Post Also version 0.1.7 is out. It now keeps a history of your remote posts, logs messages to the watchdog and notifies the user. Remote account management has also been improved in this latest release. Post Also now also comes with a french translation and a template file for those of you out there who would like to translate this module to your language.

Post Also is a module for Drupal 5.x that lets you post simultaneously to multiple sites. For example, I often post content on my blog but since I’m too lazy to just copy/paste it to other sites, generally for an association where it would belong, the content lives solely on my site. Or it might eventually get sniffed up through RSS, but sometimes, that’s not fast or good enough.

Post Also uses xmlrpc to talk to various web engines using so-called blog APIs. Currently, only metaWeblog is supported (allowing to post to other Drupal or WordPress sites for example) but other APIs should soon follow (blogger, moveble type, atom) as well as autodiscovery. That means you will soon be able to post simultaneously to other Drupal, Wordpress, TikiWiki, Plone, Xoops, Typo3 and many more supported web engines like CMSes, calendars and blogs.

Configuration happens in two stages. First, the site admin can setup destinations with names, xmlrpc endpoints and supported content types. Next, each user can setup remote accounts giving a destination, username and password. After this is done, the node submit forms, if supported, will allow the user to post also using his other remote accounts.

There was a module for Drupal 4.6 originally written by chx for nowpublic and released by walkah, unfortunately I found it too late since it doesn’t appear in the module directory anymore. I never used it but looking at the code, I note it did the configuration a little differently.

This version is a little raw. No way to edit or delete destinations nor remote accounts. No logs, no history… here’s the complete todo list I included with version 0.1.7:

  1. readme
  2. let users edit their remote accounts
  3. let admin edit/delete destinations and appropriate types
  4. xmlrpc endpoint autodiscovery
  5. support more blog apis (blogger, metablogger, atom)
  6. support for drupal cck
  7. support for project module
  8. support for events/calendar
  9. edit/delete remote posts
  10. docstrings
  11. queue jobs
  12. create a few blocks (stats, available destinations, etc)
  13. port to Drupal 6
  14. run through coder to respect coding standards
  15. get cvs account
  16. cvs project (proper tag/branch, figure it out)
  17. create project node

Version 0.2 holds a lot of promises :)

Next, I gotta get myself a CVS account on Drupal and release my new module. Hopefully, the first in a series of many!

8 Comments »

  1. Thanks for this useful information. BTW, does Plone support MetaWeblog API?

    Comment by Moblogger — 2008/02/13 @ 11:57

  2. I never tried Plone through a blog api, but from what I read it should support the metaWeblog API.

    Comment by Robin — 2008/02/13 @ 12:30

  3. Hi Robin,

    I tried drupal also and a few others like wordpress
    but I found wordpress let in too much spam.
    Drupal seems tight and easy to read. I chose e107 for
    the many plugins and styles and it’s support and
    mise a jours were quick and almost monthly.

    I’m just writing to let you know I appreciate your effort
    for the cause of free speech. I don’t think I can get any
    deeper than this, and your that support helps me chinup.

    Comment by steve — 2008/02/19 @ 12:17

  4. [...] : a comment from Steve, the old forum [...]

    Pingback by IM2 | OQP » Le Forum Rawdon est fermé — 2008/02/19 @ 13:05

  5. BTW, my new Rawdon Forum is there. Here is my personal blog since April 2004. Not really Rawdon specific ;)

    Comment by Robin — 2008/02/22 @ 20:20

  6. Hi, I’m interested in learning more about the current state of this module. Are you still interested in extending it and adding the features you mentioned? Maybe I can help or we can work together in some way. Thanks.

    Comment by Julio Barros — 2008/03/31 @ 19:22

  7. Indeed, I’m still interested :)

    I probably won’t be able to put any time in it before next week though. What planned features did you care for the most?

    Comment by Robin — 2008/03/31 @ 21:37

  8. Letting users edit their own remote accounts/destinations so that they can post to myblog.wordpress.com and more blog api types

    Comment by Julio Barros — 2008/03/31 @ 23:26

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