It appears to me that Windows Live Writer completely ignores categories returned by the getRecentPosts Metaweblog API method.

It took me a long time to realize this because I write all my posts using WLW and it stores the categories for a recent post on the local machine. So as long as I do everything via WLW, I’d never notice.

But a recent bug report alerted me to the problem. I logged into my blog via the web admin interface and changed the categories. I refreshed the recent posts in WLW and opened up a post, and sure enough the categories for the post were not updated.

I was experiencing the same thing in Blogjet, but after making a small tweak in the code, everything works fine in BlogJet. Unfortunately WLW is still broken in this respect.

I’ve carefully analyzed the HTTP traffic with Fiddler and cannot figure out why this would happen. Everything looks absolutely correct on Subtext’s end. I must conclude it’s a bug with WLW.

Would someone be so kind to confirm this with a different blog engine for me? Just run through the repro steps I mentioned above and let me know if it really works for you. I’d really be grateful.

Just to be clear: Repro Steps

  1. Create a post with no categories.
  2. Use another tool (such as your blog’s web admin) to specify several categories.
  3. In Windows Live Writer, refresh the recent posts.
  4. Click on the post to edit it.
  5. Check whether or not the correct categories are selected in the category drop down.

Thanks Mucho!