» Editing WordPress “Pages” Via XML-RPC MaisonBisson.com

Editing WordPress “Pages” Via XML-RPC

WordPress’s Pages open the door to using WP as a content management system. Unfortunately, Pages can’t be edited via XML-RPC blogging apps like Ecto. This might be a good thing, but I’m foolhardy enough to try working around it.

Here’s how:

Find a text editor you like and open up the wp-includes/functions-post.php file.

in the wp_get_recent_posts() function, change this:

$sql = “SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status IN ('publish', 'draft', 'private') ORDER BY post_date DESC $limit”;

to this:

$sql = “SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status IN ('publish', 'draft', 'private', 'static') ORDER BY post_date DESC $limit”;

Now, in the wp_update_post() function, look for this block of code:

// Escape data pulled from DB. $post = add_magic_quotes($post); extract($post);

and insert this block underneath it:

// XML-RPCs apps can't return “static” post status, // so we have to work around it $page_status = NULL; if($post_status == “static”) $page_status = “static”;

And follow that up by looking for this block:

// Now overwrite any changed values being passed in. These are // already escaped. extract($postarr);

and insert this block underneath it:

// set post_status static if this is a page if($page_status) $post_status = $page_status;

Fair warning: this works in my limited testing, but don’t blame me if you try it and it breaks something. You’d be a fool to mess with this on a live install, so don’t.

tags: blog, blogg as cms, blogg as content management system, blogging, cms, content management system, ecto, hack, hacking, hacking wordpress, php code, wordpress, wordpress hack, wordpress hacks, wordpress pages, xml rpc, xmlrpc

Posted September 22, 2005 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Technology. Tags: blog, blogg as cms, blogg as content management system, blogging, cms, content management system, ecto, hack, hacking, hacking wordpress, php code, wordpress, wordpress hack, wordpress hacks, wordpress pages, xml-rpc, xmlrpc.

17 Comments

Comment by MaestroJAL on December 12, 2005 5:26 pm
So it seems this works fairly well. Except now my pages never finish loading. The page looks complete and according to my browser’s activity window, everything is loaded except the page itself. For instance it reads “13.5KB out of ?”. Any ideas?
Pingback by Cd Chen’s webLog » Blog Archive » Editing WordPress “Pages” Via XML-RPC « MaisonBisson.com on January 10, 2006 5:49 am
[...] Editing WordPress â€œPagesâ€ Via XML-RPC Â« MaisonBisson.com: WordPressâ€™s Pages open the door to using WP as a content management system. Unfortunately, Pages canâ€™t be edited via XML-RPC blogging apps like Ecto. This might be a good thing, but Iâ€™m foolhardy enough to try working around it. [...]
Comment by Sammy on January 27, 2006 1:11 am
Anyone try this with WP2? I’m interested in trying it but that’s an awful lot of mucking around in core files so I’d rather someone else be the guinea pig.
Comment by Sammy on January 27, 2006 1:20 am
Alrighty. No go with my install of WP2 and Marsedit. I’d try ecto but I think I used up my trial last year (never got around to actually do a blog)… But it was an XML-RPC error that Marsedit threw, so I’m reasonably sure it’s not unique to the program.
Comment by MaestroJAL on March 2, 2006 12:51 pm
It works a little with ecto and WP 2.0.1. I have to create a blank page in the admin panel, then I can edit it with ecto. This, at least, allows me to update pages quickly once they’re made. However, I have noticed that on some servers, my pages will hang the server’s php for a while if I edit a page too many times. Don’t know what’s up with that.
Comment by Jochem on March 25, 2006 1:42 pm
Is it possible to post a working file with the version numers of WordPress and Ecto.

[tags]Ecto, WordPress Pages,[/tags]
Comment by Jochem on March 25, 2006 1:42 pm
Is it possible to post a working file with the version numers of WordPress and Ecto.

[tags]Ecto, WordPress Pages[/tags]
Pingback by Editing WordPress Pages Via XML-RPC - A Frog in the Valley - Technology Intelligence on September 8, 2006 12:20 pm
[...] Quick and dirty code hacking howto on the great MaisonBisson blog (now added to my regular reading list) [...]
Pingback by trellis » Blog Archive » my brain is pouring out on September 11, 2006 5:39 pm
[...] this is also deliciously interesting - the use of an external client for blogging? man, i dont even want to start thinking about that. [...]
Comment by Yuttadhammo on November 23, 2006 9:10 am
Hey, I just got this working with WP 2.0.4 and BlogsInHand. I had trouble figuring out where to put the last block, as the original text is not there AFAICS. I put it in the wp_update_post() function after the block starting:

// Drafts shouldn’t be assigned a date unless explicitly done so by the user

as well as in the wp_insert_post function (first function) after the line:

extract($postarr);

and one of these options worked. I also edited the first block to read as follows:

$sql = “SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status IN (’publish’, ‘draft’, ‘private’, ’static’) ORDER BY post_status DESC, post_date DESC $limit”;

This puts the *pages* at the top of the list in BlogsInHand, so they are always available for editing.

I really didn’t know what I was doing, and am surprised this worked so well, but so far so good. Thanks for your great script! This perfected my pocket pc blogging experience.
Pingback by loggedoff.org » Blog Archive » Using WordPress as a CMS on February 18, 2007 12:45 am
[...] final coup was finding a lead on the MaisonBisson blog that would allow contributors to use existing applications like ecto, MarsEdit, or Contribute [...]
Comment by mistercharlie on February 18, 2007 12:53 pm
There’s a pretty easy workaround with Ecto. Just make a post as normal, upload any pictures from the pic editing sheet, and then copy the html.
You can then just paste it into a page.

It’s quick enough, and you get all the custom html templates you may be using.

I understand direct posting is easier, but for the amount of pages I actually creat or edit it’s quicker for me to do ti this way than to remember to re-hack all my php files with each Wordpress update.

Hope this helps!

[tags]wordpress hacks ecto[/tags]
Comment by Brian on February 18, 2007 6:03 pm
Sadly, this appears to now be broken with the latest version(s) of WP (2.0.6) and/or Ecto (2.4.2). When I try to refresh the posts in Ecto, I get an error in the Console log complaining about the first block change (’$sql = â€œSELECT…’).

If anyone is able to find a workaround for this bugaboo, I’m definitely interested.
Pingback by » WordPress 2.2 Out on May 16, 2007 5:20 pm
[...] version includes widgets (by default), some XML-RPC hooks to edit pages (so you don’t need my hacks), a switch to jQuery from Scriptaculous (Matty got me excited about this), full Atom support [...]
Comment by Luisa on September 30, 2007 9:34 am
It is what I was looking for. Thank you for the post
Comment by ????? on December 11, 2007 8:31 am
How to upload XML blog to WordPress. Where can I find the XML Format?
Pingback by Editing WordPress Pages with Ecto on May 6, 2008 4:36 am
[...] There are two solutions out there. One is to modify the core WordPress files, specifically wp-includes/functions-post.php. [...]