Blogger, And Third Party Offline Editors

Ever since Blogger Engineering completed the emergency upgrade to support Windows Live Writer, we've seen demands from people who use similar offline editors, and other third party products.

The "ClientLogin" protocol (aka OpenID 2.0) was replaced by OAuth 2.0 (aka OpenID Connect), last month. As the problem with Live Writer was diagnosed, in a joint effort by Blogger and Microsoft, we saw evidence that Live Writer was not the only offline editor, that needed attention.

The problem is not with Microsoft is with ALL external soft. Do not work with Zoundry Raven, BlogJet, Post2Blog, PowerBlog Personal Client, W.Bloggar, Windows Live Writer, etc.

Blogger is about personal choice, however - and some Blogger blog owners use offline editors that are not produced by Microsoft.

Now that Live Writer is once again operational, Blogger may need to consider other third party "Client" products - and reach out to their publishers.

I'll start with 5 products, where I can find specific mention in the forums.

• Artisteer
• Blog2Print
• BlogJet
• WordPress
• Zoundry Raven

Artisteer Support has been contacted by one blog owner.

Artisteer Software Engineers wrote me and said: it's an issue known and it's due by a Google change.

It's possible that this may be a good candidate for reaching out.

Blog2Print is not an offline editor - but it apparently uses ClientLogin, when slurping private blogs. Right now, blog owners are told to make their blogs public, just while the blog is being slurped. This can be done, with little inconvenience - given some planning. Blog2Print was, at one time, a Blogger Partner - so hopefully, Blogger Engineering has or will reached out to them.

Blog2Print Support is aware of the problem.

Blog2Print is aware of this issue and we are working hard to fix it. If you run into this issue, please contact our customer service team at support@sharedbook.com
As a temporary work around, you can make your blog public, generate and save your book. Once the book is saved you will be able to restore the privacy settings on your blog.

BlogJet was reported as a problem, by one blog owner.

I downloaded Blogjet but it won't recognize my blog. I've turned off my firewall and tried it several different ways. Is it a Blogger setting that I can't find, a Blogjet issue or some setting on my computer?

Looking at the BlogJet website, we see that the current version BlogJet 3, was released in March 2013.

WordPress is reported to be demanding use of "OAuth 2.0", as advised by Google, when importing posts from Blogger.

Google no longer supports OAuth 1.0

Zoundry Raven was mentioned by several blog owners. However, it may be an unfortunate victim of the ClientLogin deprecation. Looking on the Zoundry Raven website, we see a reference to the future.

Zoundry Raven Goes Open Source!
Join us in making Raven the best blog editor on the market today. Read the full announcement here on our blog.

Referencing the linked blog, we see the most recent post.

The good news is that, to this end, we have decided to release Raven as an open-source project.

You'll note that the "open-source" promise is dated 2009. Barring a long hibernation, I'm not confident that the open sourcing, of Zoundry Raven, is very active.

Given feedback, I'll add and update the status of additional products - and hopefully, Blogger Engineering will provide some suggestions of improvements coming.

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(Update 6/7): Blogger and Microsoft created a backdoor, to allow Windows Live Writer to continue to work. Whether this will let your favourite third party offline editor also work remains to be tested. Your experience and feedback is welcome.

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