Peter Van Eeckhoutte's Blog

Keywords : Invalid response document returned from XmlRpc server – System.Xml.XmlException: Unexpected end of file while parsing Name has occurred –

After moving my old Sharepoint based blog to WordPress, I have encountered some problems when trying to connect Windows Live Writer to WordPress. When trying to connect Live Writer to my blog, I received “Invalid response document returned from XmlRpc server”

The Windows Live Writer log file (Help – About Windows Live Writer – “Show log file”) indicated this :

Invalid response document returned from XmlRpc server
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.BlogClientBase.CreateAuthenticatedCredential()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.BlogClientBase.Login()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Clients.BloggerCompatibleClient.GetUsersBlogs()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogAccountDetector.ValidateService()","   at System.Environment.GetStackTrace(Exception e, Boolean needFileInfo)
   at System.Environment.get_StackTrace()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.Diagnostics.LogFileTraceListener.Fail(String message)
   at System.Diagnostics.TraceInternal.Fail(String message)
   at System.Diagnostics.Trace.Fail(String message)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogAccountDetector.ReportError(Exception ex, MessageId errorMessageType, Object[] errorMessageParams)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogAccountDetector.ValidateService()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogServiceDetector.AttemptRsdBasedDetection(IProgressHost progressHost, RsdServiceDescription rsdServiceDescription)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogServiceDetector.DetectBlogService(IProgressHost progressHost)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.Progress.ProgressWorker.DoWork()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.Progress.MultipartAsyncOperation.DoWork()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.AsyncOperation.InternalStart()
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()"
WindowsLiveWriter,1.5428,Fail,00022,14-Oct-2008 22:21:10.930,"WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogServiceDetectorBase+BlogAccountDetectorException: Blog account detector did not succeed
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogServiceDetectorBase.ReportErrorAndFail(MessageId errorMessageType, Object[] errorMessageParams)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogServiceDetector.AttemptRsdBasedDetection(IProgressHost progressHost, RsdServiceDescription rsdServiceDescription)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogServiceDetector.DetectBlogService(IProgressHost progressHost)","   at System.Environment.GetStackTrace(Exception e, Boolean needFileInfo)
   at System.Environment.get_StackTrace()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.Diagnostics.LogFileTraceListener.Fail(String message)
   at System.Diagnostics.TraceInternal.Fail(String message)
   at System.Diagnostics.Trace.Fail(String message)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.BlogClient.Detection.BlogServiceDetector.DetectBlogService(IProgressHost progressHost)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.Progress.ProgressWorker.DoWork()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.Progress.MultipartAsyncOperation.DoWork()
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.AsyncOperation.InternalStart()
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()"
WindowsLiveWriter,1.5428,None,00023,14-Oct-2008 22:22:10.060,"Exception parsing XML-RPC response:

WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.XmlRpcClientInvalidResponseException: Invalid response document returned from XmlRpc server —> System.Xml.XmlException: Unexpected end of file while parsing Name has occurred. Line 18, position 16.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String arg)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Int32 pos, String res, String arg)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseQName(Boolean isQName, Int32 startOffset, Int32& colonPos)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ThrowTagMismatch(NodeData startTag)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseEndElement()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc)
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.XmlRpcMethodResponse..ctor(String responseText)
   — End of inner exception stack trace —
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.XmlRpcMethodResponse..ctor(String responseText)
   at WindowsLive.Writer.CoreServices.XmlRpcClient.CallMethod(String methodName, XmlRpcValue[] parameters)

<?xml version=""1.0""?>
<methodResponse>
  <params>
    <param>
      <value>
        <array><data>
  <value><struct>
  <member><name>isAdmin</name><value><boolean>1</boolean></value></member>
  <member><name>url</name><value><string>http://www.corelan.be:8800/</string></value></member>
  <member><name>blogid</name><value><string>1</string></value></member>
  <member><name>blogName</name><value><string>Peter Van Eeckhoutte’s Blog</string></value></member>
  <member><name>xmlrpc</name><value><string>http://www.corelan.be:8800/xmlrpc.php</string></value></member>
</struct></value>
</data></array>
      </value>
    </param>
  </params>
</methodRespons",""
WindowsLiveWriter,1.5428,Fail,00024,14-Oct-2008 22:22:10.061,"WindowsLive.Writer.Extensibility.BlogClient.BlogClientInvalidServerResponseException: Invalid Server Response – The response to the blogger.getUsersBlogs method received from the weblog server was invalid:

If you look at the output of the xml (at the bottom of the log file), and/or if you use a web-mitm-proxy (Paros) /sniffer to look at the http communication, you can see that the xml file is in fact truncated. The methodResponse element is not closed, which results in an error within Windows Live Writer

This is caused because something (a plugin ? my webserver (IIS) ? something else ?) decided to add UTF-8 BOM to the XML-RPC response. Result : the xml response is 3 bytes longer than expected, which causes the xml response to be truncated.

Solution : find the class.IXR.php file (under wp-includes), edit the file, and look for

function output($xml)

FInd the line that calculates the length 
$length = strlen($xml);

and replace it by

$length = strlen($xml)+3;

Save the file, and try again. Problem should now be solved.

© 2008, Peter Van Eeckhoutte. All rights reserved. Terms of use are applicable to this document.

One Response to “Windows Live Writer unable to connect to WordPress Blog”