Windows Live Writer PlugIn for DotNetKicks Alpha

About a month ago I started writing a plug-in for Windows Live Writer that would insert a DotNetKicks link into the post. I got it working but I was not satisfied with the workarounds I had to use. The post url was not accessible prior to the post being published, at which point it was too late to insert the DotNetKicks link. So I had to improvise and use javascript to get it working. It worked, but I just did not like the solution. One problem occurred when several posts using the solution were listed on the same page. This meant the DIV that was the placeholder for the javascript had to be unique or possibly auto-generated. There were other issues, too, all of which I got around but it just was not elegant code.

I put this on hold hoping for some improved features in the next release. Today I downloaded the latest bits with the June 2008 Technical Preview Release and the improvements I was looking for are included! I’ll be uploading the source code for my DotNetKicks PlugIn to CodePlex soon. But for now, you can grab the compiled bits from here if you want to give it a try. This is an alpha release as I wrote it in about an hour tonight. Use this at your own risk. My plugin uses the new model that allows you to hook into post (or pre) publishing events. Specifically, I am using the HeaderFooterSource features which allowed me to create content in the post’s footer. Basically I stick the link in the footer. The revised version I am working on will have several options to configure the DotNetKicks link. I have to convert the code from the old version of the API to the new one. So for now, this release has default configuration settings. But for most people this will probably do just fine as it simply creates the DotNetKicks “KickIt” link for the post in the footer. In fact, this post has the link in it at the bottom of this post.

If you agree to test this out, you can grab the bits from CodePlex here.

If you choose to use it, you will also need the new June 2008 Technical Preview release.

Here are the files to grab for the June 2008 Technical Preview:

One important aspect from the WLW website regarding this release: Further, you will not be able to upload plugins that use the updated SDK to Windows Live Gallery.

This is a technical preview release, so the idea is that these features will stick around … I sure hope they will!

Here are the new features they list on the site:

This release is largely about updates to the Writer SDK, which now includes hooks for pre- and post-publish events.

Video and Image Publishing Enhancements

Upload videos to Soapbox
Image cropping and tilting
Additional border styles
Support for LightBox and other image previewing effects (like Slimbox, Smoothbox, and others)
Support for centering images