Regarding Roller problems pinging IceRocket

[Anil Gangolli <an...@busybuddha.org>]

I looked into the IceRocket ping issue.

The problem is that IceRocket, whether by ignorance or intention, has 
implemented an incompatible variant of the common weblogUpdates.ping 
mechanism.  Their ping request accepts only one argument, the blog URL, and 
their success-case response also is not properly structured (it is a simple 
string rather than a struct with flerror and message members).

I'm pursuing two tacks in parallel: (1) I've contacted Blake Rhodes at 
IceRocket, and requested that they consider putting up a compatible 
weblogUpdates.ping endpoint.  I'm not expecting rapid response here, but 
this is the right thing to do in principle, since there is a defacto 
standard spec that most of the rest of the world seems to adhere to.  But 
also (2) I've filed a Roller JIRA issue 
http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/roller/browse/ROL-1192, which I 
hope to fix before the next Roller release to add configurable support for 
non-conformant ping implementations like IceRocket.

Also before the next Roller release, I am hoping to add common ping target 
definitions in default disabled state for most/all of the ping targets I 
know about and can verify as working or get to work with this and similar 
minor variations.

In the meantime, a workaround is to ping icerocket via ping services like 
ping-o-matic or pingoat.  (Expect additional delay and somewhat weaker 
guarantees that your ping will be delivered.)

--a.