Live Space Sync

Plug-in Name: Live Sync(MSN Sync Modified)
Version: 1.01

Trivia: Live Sync is a plug-in that allows you to synchronized WordPress post to Live Spaces, facilitating MetaWeblog API.

Original version of MSN Sync was created by William.

License: GPL

Version History

Download Latest version

Known Issue:

  1. password protect post will still sync as clear text.
  2. Sync-them-all function could cause http timeout if you have too many posts

FAQ:
Q1: In plug-in page keep showing Warning: fsockopen(): unable to connect to storage.msn.com:443?
A: Might because that your php doesn’t support or enable ssl connection.

Installing Notes:(Chinese Version here)

Enable Live Spaces Metaweblog API:

  1. First you need to open a live space. Go options->E-mail publishing, check ‘Turn on e-mail publishing’.(pic 1)
  2. Fill an email and a secret word, the email is not important since we’re actually using MetaWeblog API, rather than send by email.(pic 2)
  3. drafts and publish setting is also not important, this will only affect the posts through true e-mails.

Put wp-livesync.php into ‘wp-content/plugins’ directory, and activate Live Space Sync plug-in in the plug-in control panel.

Now the plug-in settings:

Connections:(pic3)

  1. First line shows if the sync is enabled, the button on the right toggles enable/disable.
  2. Go ‘Live Sync’ below ‘Options’ or ‘Write’, in ‘Space Name’, fill your live space name, (if the address is foobar.spaces.live.com, fill foobar), in Password fill you secret word.
  3. ‘Post Status’ decides how your posts show up in Live Spaces(direct publish or draft).
  4. ‘Sync Delete’ is whether you want to delete posts on live spaces when the wordpress copy is deleted.
  5. After you correctly fill-in space name/password, press ‘Update Options’ button at page bottom, above area should display your space title and ‘Seems your settings are correct, and the plug-in is ready to sync post for you’ string.(pic 4) If connection is failed, it will show the error code and error message.(pic 5) Please note that the MetaWeblog API would be closed for 24 hours after several wrong password tries.

Formatting: (pic 6)

  1. Sync Text: Always full, or cut at <!--more-->. When cutting at <!--more-->, you can use a different template for sync post content.
  2. Enable Cook: The style sheet on Live Spaces have very small space between paragraphs. I observed the editor on Live Spaces, it use <div> and <br /> for formatting. When enable cook, I convert <p> to <div>, to give better visual results.
  3. Title of Sync, Content of Sync: The template for sync title and sync text, [TITLE]/[POST]/[PERMALINK] stand for title, content, and permanent link of original article.
  4. Content of Sync(For Partial Article): When the post is cut by <!--more-->, sync text will switch to this template. You can customize your ‘read full story’ link here

Other Options:

  1. Excluded Categories: Set the categories that won’t be synchronized.(pic 7)
  2. Press ‘Sync All existing Posts’ button can sync all your existing posts at once
  3. ‘Reset Options’ button can reset all settings except for space name and password, useful when you want to restore the templates.
  4. If you don’t want a particular post to be synchronized, but it’s not in the excluded categories, you can add a html comment <!--stopsync--> in that post.

After done settings correctly, when you publish a post on wordpress, the same post should appear on your live space right away. Editing, deleting actions will also be synchronized.

Note: I have only tested this on 2.0.x and 2.1, and since I use ‘post_type’ field for ‘Sync All existing Posts’ query, this function could be only use on WordPress 2.1 or later, search remove AND post_type='post' may allow this to work on 2.0.x.(Does anyone know a general solution that will work both on 2.0 and 2.1?)

If you have any problem, visit Contact Form or leave a comment in the posts.