Using MarsEdit with Textpattern

Talk about a niche title that will appeal to about a dozen (generous) people. I struggled finding any information on this at all and will have to confess that it took inquiring Microsoft Copilot to figure out if this was even possible to do. Turns out, it is! Here is how you set MarsEdit up to talk with Textpattern 4.8.8:

1. Create New Blog
2. Enter the name you want it to have in MarsEdit and the URL
• It will not auto-detect the Textpattern endpoint
3. You will be taken to the Connection setup screen. Enter the Basic Information
4. In Connection Settings, you will set the System as ‘Other’ and use the MetaWeblog API
5. The API Endpoint URL should be https://[Your-site]/rpc/index.php
6. In the Blog ID, put the system name for the section you want to post to
• A ‘Blog ID’ is required, so even if you only have one main section, you will have to enter the name here.
7. Test your connection

Once you have that connection established, post away. There are a few caveats I’ve found, such as uploading an image has not worked for me. It simply refuses. I switched the API to AtomPub at one point and it appeared to be uploading, but the upload never completed and I had to force-quit MarsEdit. So, it is not perfect, but it is one very easy way to get a post up without having to use the backend of the website. It saves a few steps. I plan to use this to post to social sites. I have a section that sends to Bluesky and Mastodon through "Micro.blog":https://micro.blog, so a quick post to that section will send it out to wherever I want it to go. I’m psyched about this. It’s another step in my internet independence.