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somethingme.com

what | using | who | faq

What is somethingme?

somethingme is a set of services for information creation, aggregation and exchange across devices, protocols, and services.
The first available service allows you to interact with your blog via AOL(TM) Instant Messenger.

Using the somethingme AIM service

1. Add the following buddy to your AIM Buddy List: smthingme

2. Table of commands:
Command
 Description
 Example

Core Commands
login {username} {password}
 Identifies you with the smthingme buddy and starts a new interaction with the service. The username and password are the username and password you use to post to your blog.

NOTE: Before you are allowed to use any other commands (besides help), you must provide your login information to the smthingme buddy.
 login myblogid myblogpassword
logout
 Destroys your login information and credentials.
 logout
setservice (0 = Blogger, 1 = TypePad) Sets the XML-RPC url for your blog to one  of the known endpoints for existing blog services such as Blogger or TypePad. You do not need to use the seturl command if you use this command.

For Blogger, this will set the endpoint to http://api.blogger.com/api
For TypePad, this will set the endpoint to http://www.typepad.com/t/api
 setservice 0
setapi {0 = Blogger API, 1 = MetaWeblog API} Selects the blogging API, either Blogger or MetaWeblog, used to post a new entry to your blog.

NOTE: By default, the smthingme buddy will use the Blogger API to post new entries to your blog.		 setapi 1
seturl {XML-RPC endpoint for your blog} Allows you to manually select the XML-RPC endpoint to post to your blog.
 seturl http://my.blog.com/xmlrpc/userid
settitle {Entry title}
 Sets the title of your blog entry. Valid only if you are using the MetaWeblog API to post to your blog.
 settitle Title of entry
setblogid {Blog ID}
 Sets the blog ID to which the blog entry will posted.
 setblogid 309392
newpost
 After setting the parameters to post to your blog, you can issue the newpost command to enter post editing mode.

All messages must be included within ^^ to be included in the post.

To get out of post editing mode, issue a ^^^^.
You are now in command processing mode.
 ^^This is a message.^^
^^This is another message with <b>bold</b> and a <a href="http://www.google.com">link to google</a>.^^
^^^^
endpost {true | false}
 Once you are out of new post editing mode, you can select to post the entry to your blog or discard the entry.
 endpost true
deletepost {postid}
 Deletes a given post from the given blog ID. Will return "true" or "false" depending on whether on not the post was deleted successfully.
 deletepost 1010399239204985

Other Commands
getusersblogs
 Retrieves and prints the available blogs to which you are allowed to post. Uses the getUsersBlogs method from the Blogger API.
 getusersblogs
getuserinfo
 Retrieves and prints out your user information. Uses the getUserInfo method from the Blogger API
 getuserinfo
help
 Prints out this list of commands in your AIM window.
 help
hello
 Have the buddy say hello back.
 hello
about
 Do you really have to ask? ;)
 about

3. How would an interaction with the service look like?
myAIMid (9:57:13 PM): login david XXX
smthingme (9:57:13 PM): login: Login information stored temporarily for session.
Use 'logout' command to destroy credentials.
myAIMid (9:57:25 PM): seturl YYY
smthingme (9:57:26 PM): seturl: Set XML-RPC url to: YYY
myAIMid (9:57:31 PM): setblogid 6463444
smthingme (9:57:32 PM): setblogid: Set blog ID to: 6463444
myAIMid (9:57:35 PM): setapi 1
smthingme (9:57:36 PM): setapi: Set blogging API to: 1
myAIMid (9:57:43 PM): settitle Another post via IM
smthingme (9:57:44 PM): settitle: Set post title to: Another post via IM
myAIMid (9:57:47 PM): newpost
smthingme (9:57:47 PM): newpost: Starting new post
myAIMid (9:57:58 PM): ^^BLAH BLAH BLAH.^^
myAIMid (9:58:03 PM): ^^I am now editing my post.^^
myAIMid (9:58:08 PM): ^^Oh, this is fun.^^
myAIMid (9:58:09 PM): ^^^^
myAIMid (9:58:11 PM): endpost true
smthingme (9:58:12 PM): 2B8A002EE93F2CF76817D3A1BB66AC39
myAIMid (9:59:35 PM): logout
smthingme (9:59:36 PM): logout: Login information destroyed.


Who is behind somethingme?

David Czarnecki and Mark Lussier.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does this cost anything?

No.

2. What blogging services does this work with?

Blogging services and software that support the Blogger or MetaWeblog API.

3. Why do you need my username and password?

We would not be able to post the message to your blog without your username and password.

4. What are you going to do with my username and password? Are you going to sell my personal information?

We're not going to do anything with your username and password. It is only used to be able to post a message to your blog.

We're not going to look at or sell your personal information.

5. Why do I need to include my post edits between ^^ delimeters?

The format of the IM can and will differ depending on the IM client. AOL will differ from iChat will differ from GAIM will differ from the next client and so on. Basically we needed a way to reliably parse the text you want to include in your post without resorting to cumbersome parsing of HTML.

6. Can you handle international characters?

Not at the moment. The current implementation of this service uses the AIM TOC protocol which is ASCII only. This is AOL's free protocol. We are working on an implementation of the service that can use AIM's OSCAR protocol, which can handle international characters.

7. You know it'd be cool if you did ____________?

Send us an e-mail at info (at) somethingme (dot) com.

 8. Screenshots?