Live Writer Plug-in for Sharing Technical Post

Adding a new post to my blog was always a daunting task.
I had to follow these steps:

• Write the post on Windows Live Writer
• Publish it and get the post link
• Submit to DotNetKicks and get their counter HTML
• Submit to DotNetShoutout and get their counter HTML
• Prepare HTML for my CodeProject blog feed
• Edit the post and add the HTML I've collected in the previous steps
• Republish post

Well, no more!

Inspired by Guy Burstein’s post, I've decided to write my own Live Writer Plug-in that will handle all of this mess for me.

In order to test the plug-in, I have to publish something on my blog.
So, this is it. Wish me luck.

How to Implement a Windows Live Writer Plug-in that Adds Sharing Buttons to your Post

First, credit goes to Guy Burstein for providing a reflectable DLL in his post.
Also, I've used guidelines for Windows Live Writer Plug-in written by Scøtt Lovegrove.

The end result is a plug-in that adds to your posts the following share icons:

Since enough information already exists on this subject, I'll just quickly review the steps I've followed:

1. Create new Class Library project, using .NET Framework 2.0 (!).
   Not sure why, but Microsoft recommends to use version 2.0 of the .NET Framework when writing a Windows Liver Writer plug-in.
2. Add reference to WindowsLive.Writer.Api.Dll, which resides in the Windows Live Writer folder (e.g. \Program Files\Windows Live\Writer\)
3. Add “using WindowsLive.Writer.Api;”
4. Create a class that inherits HeaderFooterSource.
   This type of plug-in allows us to add custom generated HTML in either the header or the footer of the post.
5. Put WriterPlugin attribute on the class.

Here is the code for a basic version of the plug-in (only has one button):

using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using WindowsLive.Writer.Api;

namespace ShareTechPost
{
    [WriterPlugin("00407F92-2152-4339-A9A5-B89873EB77A7", 
        "Share Technological Post",
        PublisherUrl = "http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/arik/",
        Description = "A plugin that lets you share a technological" + 
                      " post on numerous sharing sites.",
        ImagePath = "writer.png", 
        HasEditableOptions = true)]
    public class ShareTechPostPlugin : HeaderFooterSource
    {
        private Settings _settings;

        public override bool RequiresPermalink
        {
            get
            {
                return true;
            }
        }

        public override void Initialize(IProperties pluginOptions)
        {
            base.Initialize(pluginOptions);

            _settings = new Settings(pluginOptions);
        }

        public override void EditOptions(IWin32Window dialogOwner)
        {
            SettingsForm settingsForm = new SettingsForm(_settings);
            settingsForm.ShowDialog(dialogOwner);
        }

        public override string GeneratePreviewHtml(
            ISmartContent smartContent, 
            IPublishingContext publishingContext, 
            out Position position)
        {
            position = Position.Footer;

            StringBuilder generatedHtml = new StringBuilder();

            if (_settings.AddDotNetKicks)
            {
                generatedHtml.AppendFormat
                    ("<a href=\"http://www.dotnetkicks.com/kick/" + 
                    "?url={0}\"><img border=\"0\" "+
                    "alt=\"kick it on DotNetKicks.com\" " + 
                    "src=\"http://www.dotnetkicks.com/" + 
                    "Services/Images/KickItImageGenerator.ashx" + 
                    "?url={0}&amp;bgcolor=6600FF\" /></a> ",
                    publishingContext.PostInfo.Permalink);
            }
                        
            return generatedHtml.ToString();
        }

        public override string GeneratePublishHtml(
            IWin32Window dialogOwner, 
            ISmartContent smartContent, 
            IPublishingContext publishingContext, 
            bool publish, 
            out Position position)
        {
            return GeneratePreviewHtml(
                smartContent, 
                publishingContext, 
                out position);
        }
    }
}

The Settings class and SettingsForm just lets you control some of the sharing options.

This is how the settings form looks like:

You can find the full source for this plug-in here.

That’s it for now,
Arik Poznanski.

CodeProject