SEO Scientist - Applying the scientific method to SEO

WordPress and Windows Live Writer XmlRpc server problem solutions

So after installing my snazzy new blog, changing the theme and playing with the plugins, I decided to try the Windows Live Writer. A friend of mine has warmly recommended it and since he is a sucker for WP, I reckoned it is a good bet.

So I download it and install it and when I try to connect my blog to it, I get the following message:

“Invalid Server Response - The response to the blogger.getUsersBlogs method received from the weblog server was invalid: Invalid response document returned from XmlRpc server.”

OK. I couldn’t expect to get it from the first try. So I uninstall the WLW. Nothing. I reinstall the WordPress. Nothing. I change the hosting. Nothing.

So I turn to Google in despair and find four different solutions:

1. There is a problem with the PHP version. Solution: the following code should be added to the top of the xmlrpc.php file:

   $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA = file_get_contents(“php://input”);

   Source

2. There is a problem with .htaccess. The following code should be added to the .htaccess file:

   <Files xmlrpc.php>
   SecFilterInheritance Off
   </Files>

   Source

3. There is a clash between WLW and some of the installed plugins. Disable the clashing plugins.
   
   Source

4. There are some extra lines in all kind of files that xmlrpc.php is referring to so the php functions calling those file are not able to execute. Solution: Use Fiddler to monitor the HTTP traffic between the WLW and your hosting and find the calls to files that are giving the error.

   Source

Well, needless to say, none of those worked for me. However in the comments of the solution #4, I find the following gem:

Check the WLW log as well. Go to Help, About and click on the Show Log File link.

Well, I try and find the following lines in the WLW log:

<b>Warning</b>: include_once(public_html/www.seo-scientist.com/wp-includes/class-IXR.php) [<a href='function.include-once'>function.include-once</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in <b>/public_html/www.seo-scientist.com/xmlrpc.php</b> on line <b>43</b><br />
<b>Warning</b>: include_once() [<a href='function.include'>function.include</a>]: Failed opening ‘/public_html/www.seo-scientist.com/wp-includes/class-IXR.php’ for inclusion in <b>/public_html/www.seo-scientist.com/xmlrpc.php</b> on line <b>43</b><br />
<b>Fatal error</b>: Class ‘IXR_Server’ not found in <b>/public_html/www.seo-scientist.com/xmlrpc.php</b> on line <b>73</b><br />

Just to translate: xmlrpc.php was trying to access the class named class-IXR.php from line 43 and line 73 and not finding it in the /wp-include/ directory. So I access the directory and I see that the stupid FTP client has converted all my filenames to lowercase. One change of one filename and everything works perfectly.

You can’t beat the feeling…

Posted in WordPress