diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/external.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/external.pm
index 0d292dfc2..ec91c79db 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/external.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/external.pm
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ use warnings;
 use strict;
 use IkiWiki 3.00;
 use RPC::XML;
-use RPC::XML::Parser;
 use IPC::Open2;
 use IO::Handle;
 
@@ -55,7 +54,19 @@ sub rpc_call ($$;@) {
 		$plugin->{accum}.=$_;
 		while ($plugin->{accum} =~ /^\s*(<\?xml\s.*?<\/(?:methodCall|methodResponse)>)\n(.*)/s) {
 			$plugin->{accum}=$2;
-			my $r = RPC::XML::Parser->new->parse($1);
+			my $parser;
+			eval q{
+				use RPC::XML::ParserFactory;
+				$parser = RPC::XML::ParserFactory->new;
+			};
+			if ($@) {
+				# old interface
+				eval q{
+					use RPC::XML::Parser;
+					$parser = RPC::XML::Parser->new;
+				};
+			}
+			my $r=$parser->parse($1);
 			error("XML RPC parser failure: $r") unless ref $r;
 			if ($r->isa('RPC::XML::response')) {
 				my $value=$r->value;
@@ -72,9 +83,9 @@ sub rpc_call ($$;@) {
 
 					# XML-RPC v1 does not allow for
 					# nil/null/None/undef values to be
-					# transmitted, so until
-					# XML::RPC::Parser honours v2
-					# (<nil/>), external plugins send
+					# transmitted. The <nil/> extension
+					# is the right fix, but for
+					# back-compat, let external plugins send
 					# a hash with one key "null" pointing
 					# to an empty string.
 					if (exists $hash{null} &&
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index b368618b4..b948aaf56 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ ikiwiki (3.14159266) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * img: Fix dependency code for full size images.
   * toggle, relativedate: Support templates that add attributes
     to the body tag.
+  * Support RPC::XML 0.69's incompatable object instantiation method.
 
  -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:40:03 -0400
 
diff --git a/plugins/externaldemo b/plugins/externaldemo
index be7aba8b9..24861dcc9 100755
--- a/plugins/externaldemo
+++ b/plugins/externaldemo
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ use strict;
 print STDERR "externaldemo plugin running as pid $$\n";
 
 use RPC::XML;
-use RPC::XML::Parser;
 use IO::Handle;
 
 # autoflush stdout
@@ -31,7 +30,19 @@ sub rpc_read {
 			$accum=$2; # the rest
 	
 			# Now parse the XML RPC.
-			my $r = RPC::XML::Parser->new->parse($1);
+			my $parser;
+			eval q{
+				use RPC::XML::ParserFactory;
+				$parser = RPC::XML::ParserFactory->new;
+			};
+			if ($@) {
+				# old interface
+				eval q{
+					use RPC::XML::Parser;
+					$parser = RPC::XML::Parser->new;
+				};
+			}
+			my $r=$parser->parse($1);
 			if (! ref $r) {
 				die "error: XML RPC parse failure $r";
 			}