With WordPress blogs, the way that apps can communicate with then is by using the XMLRPC API, which is a specific file (xmlrpc.php) in your WordPress installation.
In previous versions of WordPress, this file was used in various security exploits, therefore some hosts started to block access to this file by default. So because of this, there would be no way for an app such as Blogo to connect to your blog. But after various fixes, the WordPress team decided that it was no longer a cause for concern, as you can see in this closed feature request where they decided to enable it by default, and also remove the option to disable it.
The big issue with this is that after we ask users to contact their hosts, so that they can request the file to be unblocked, they either simply say No, or they’re just pretty slow about doing it.
Luckily there’s a workaround that you can use to bypass their block, it does require some technical knowledge though, so it may not be for everyone.
The solution is – Rename the XMLRPC API file!
Renaming the File
- Go into your WordPress installation folder.
- Inside the root folder there is a file called xmlrpc.php.
- Rename it (e.g. xmlrpc2.php).
Test it
Open your browser and connect to the below URL, where yourblog is the location of your WordPress blog (e.g. myblog.com, website.net/blog/). If you renamed your file to something other than xmlrpc2.php you will also need to change that as well.
http://yourblog/xmlrpc2.php
It should display the message “XML-RPC server accepts POST requests only.’, and if so you can then continue on to the last step.
Configuring WordPress with the new file
- Open the header.php file located in your themes folder (/wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/header.php).
- Find the line of code with
<link rel="pingback" href="<?php bloginfo( 'pingback_url' ); ?>"> - Replace
<?php bloginfo( 'pingback_url' ); ?>with the full url (The same URL you used to test) of your new xmlrpc file, so something like http://yourblog.com/xmlrpc2.php. - If you couldn’t find the line of code in step 2, just add it with the new changes in step 3 as well. But it has to be before the </head> tag.
Once you’ve got this done, you can now connect your blog to Blogo as normal!