Jaded Optimist: Windows Live Writer

Happy Birthday Blogging!

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:08:08 GMT

The blog is celebrating an anniversary today. Ten years ago a guy named Jorn Barger coined the term "weblog" to describe his website Robot Wisdom. It was shortened to "blog" two years later by somebody else.

Back then only about 23 websites were properly considered blogs. These days, whether you write them or read them, blogs are a pretty common pursuit.

Estimates are that 120,000 new ones are created everyday. No word, though, on how many are actually read.

Milestone: Windows Live Writer 2008

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:36:50 GMT

It's here. No more beta.

Lots more languages, including for spell checking.

Image fixes for Blogger and Spaces.

Fewer bugs, fewer error dialogs.

Support back for Vista x64 installations.

Try it out, let us know what you like (or don't) and blog, blog, blog: http://writer.live.com.

Well, lookee here

Wed, 30 May 2007 22:45:28 GMT

Take that naysayers: brand new Windows Live Writer Beta shipped today!

Read all the official stuff here: Windows Live Writer blog

Lots of cool new features--inline spell checking, paste special, linking to a previous post, synchronization between posts from WLW and posts from web UIs, and more.

Some big company (coughcoughMicrosoftcoughcough) features too, like a sexy new look, localized versions for several markets, and accessibility modifications.

Go--download it now and give it a try. And let us know what you think--our team takes every comment to heart. We want to deliver a blogging tool that bloggers really like.

Windows Live Writer--new and improved

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:06:43 GMT

Our team announced a new release of WLW today (see more info and download link on the team blog) with some new features, bug fixes, improved performance, etc. etc. Check it out, use it, send us feedback--we are very committed to figuring out and addressing user needs. We plan on having a pretty aggressive release schedule, so definitely let us know what you don't like--and what you do.

A major feature of this release is a Writer plugin area on the Windows Live Gallery. These are all free plugins that you can use to enhance your WLW experience--submitted by both the team and other developers. If you have written a plugin, please do consider submitting it to the gallery!

What to do with your plugin? How to let the world know?

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 23:03:41 GMT

Get more info about sharing and developing Windows Live Writer plugins at the official plugin developer blog.

Making an installer for your plugin

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:38:01 GMT

One of the (many) great things about Windows Live Writer is the SDK for building your own plugins. For reference, see some example Plugins, download the Plugin SDK, or read an article on building plugins.

Once you have built and tested your plugin, it would be nice to wrap it in an installer before distributing it to others. At MS, our build system is using WiX to build installers. You too can use WiX, it is available on SourceForge. There is also a pretty good online tutorial available. (****Edited 8/31: Turns out the version of WiX we are using here and the latest one on SourceForge are not quite the same. Their various releases seem to be changed directory structure and library names. So to use the sample file below, you will want to download version 2.0.4103.0 from this page, the 5-03 release.****)

Here is a sample .wxs file to wrap a basic plugin (one DLL). The generated installer checks that Windows Live Writer is installed and adds your DLL to the plugins folder. Now your plugin can be managed through add/remove programs, is upgrade ready, and includes a license agreement. The sample assumes you are pointing at the WiX Minimal UI and their localization files (i.e., including flags for {path}\wixui_minimal.wixlib -loc {path}\WixUI_en-us.wxl). To change the sidebar image during installation, just replace the Bitmaps\dlgbmp.bmp image included with WiX; to use your own license agreement replace License.rtf.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2003/01/wi">
  <Product Name="{Name that shows in installer, add/remove programs}" Id="{GUID #1}" 
            UpgradeCode="{GUID #2}" Language="1033" Codepage="1252" Version="1.0.0" 
            Manufacturer="{Your name here}">
    <Package Id="????????-????-????-????-????????????" Description="{Plugin description}" 
            Manufacturer="{Your name here}" InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" />
    <Upgrade Id="{GUID #2}">
      <UpgradeVersion OnlyDetect='yes' Property='PATCHFOUND' IncludeMaximum="no" Maximum="1.0.0" />
    </Upgrade>
    <UIRef Id="WixUI" />
    <Property Id="WRITERINSTALLED">
      <DirectorySearch Id="PFF" Path="[ProgramFilesFolder]">
        <DirectorySearch Id="WLWFolder" Path="Windows Live Writer">
          <FileSearch LongName="WindowsLiveWriter.exe" />
        </DirectorySearch>
      </DirectorySearch>
    </Property>
    <Condition Message="Windows Live Writer is not installed. Windows Live Writer plugins require 
            Windows Live Writer to already be installed."><![CDATA[WRITERINSTALLED<>""]]></Condition> 
    <Media Id="1" Cabinet="{PluginName}.cab" EmbedCab="yes" DiskPrompt="CD-ROM #1" />
    <Property Id="DiskPrompt" Value="{PluginName} Installation [1]" />
    <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
      <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" Name="PFiles">
        <Directory Id="WriterInstallFolder" Name="Writer" LongName="Windows Live Writer">
          <Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name="Plugins">
            <Component Id="{PluginName}" Guid="{GUID #3}">
              <File Id="{PluginName}DLL" Name="{plugin.dll--must be in 8.3 format}" 
              LongName="{Full DLL name}" DiskId="1" Source="{path + dll}" Vital="yes" />
              {note: other files could be included here an necessary; if you 
              distribute help files or supporting graphics}
            </Component>        
          </Directory>
        </Directory>
      </Directory>
    </Directory>
    <Feature Id="Complete" Level="1" Title="{PluginName}" Description="{Plugin Description}" 
              Display="expand">
      <ComponentRef Id="{PluginName--matches the ID given in Component tag above}" />
    </Feature>
  </Product>
</Wix>

It Lives!

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:13:24 GMT

Windows Live Writer....ships! Go here.