Question

I'm using the Berkeley DB, and after changing hosts/servers, I'm unable to login because the new server has a different version of Berkeley. How do I convert the database files to the new version?

Answer

Converting the DB files over to the format used by the new library version can be accomplished in several different ways, depending on the Berkeley DB versions involved. The files that need to be converted are all of the files in your db directory whose filenames end in either .db or .idx (the .lock files do not need to be converted).

The following steps require...

continue reading ...

Question

My webserver doesn't have sendmail; how do I use SMTP instead?

Answer

If you have tried to get sendmail working, or if you know that your webserver doesn't have sendmail (for example, if you're on a Windows server), Movable Type allows you to send email messages through SMTP. To do this, you will need to install the Mail::Sendmail Perl module; if you are on a Windows server, you can do this using Activestate's ppm tool. Launch ppm, then at the prompt, type install Mail::Sendmail

and ppm will do all of the work to install the module. If...

continue reading ...

Question

I'd like my visitors to be able to use HTML when posting comments.

Answer

Enable option for weblog

• Navigate to Settings > Feedback : Comments1. • Locate the setting for Allow HTML2 and check the box to the left to turn the setting on. • Press the SAVE button to preserve the change.

Limit HTML Tags

The Sanitize feature protects your weblog from malicious code by permitting only certain HTML tags to be used in comments and TrackBack pings. The default set of allowed HTML tags and attributes is: a href, b, br, p, strong, em, ul, li,...

continue reading ...

Question

I published a new entry, but no one on my notification list received the email telling them about it.

Answer

Note: There was a bug introduced in version 3.15 which affected the send notification feature. Please upgrade to the latest version of Movable Type to eliminate this bug as a possible cause for this issue.

Have You Sent the Notification?

The notifications for new entries are not sent out automatically, so make sure you have sent the notification after publishing your entry:

Navigate to the Edit Entry screen of the entry for...

continue reading ...

Question

I get a 500 Internal Server Error when trying to view pages I've set to publish dynamically.

Answer

The dynamic publishing feature creates an .htaccess file in your weblog directory; however, some hosts do not allow the use of these files, and you will see these errors as a result.

You should confirm with your host whether or not you are permitted to use .htaccess files on your account.

continue reading ...

Installing Movable Type via the Command-Line

Problem

You want to install the Movable Type software and have command-line (shell) access to the server.

Solution

Transfer the latest Movable Type distribution file to your server and unpack it into your CGI directory.

Discussion

• Unpack the software.

Download the latest Movable Type distribution file and transfer it to your server. Unpack the software into your web server CGI directory. For example, if you had downloaded Movable Type 3.2 US english distribution with the CGI directory as your present working directory, you could...

continue reading ...

Question

I'm trying to set up a cron job for scheduled posting, but it's not working due to errors.

Answer

Error: Can't locate MT.pm

This means the cron job command is incorrect. It should be: cd /full/path/to/your/mt/install/; ./tools/run-periodic-tasks

For Windows servers, the run command should be the path and filename of your Perl interpreter, followed by the path to the tool. For example: C:Perlinperl.exe ools un-periodic-tasks

Be sure to set Start In to be the full path to your Movable Type directory. For example: C:Inetpubwwwrootmt...

continue reading ...

Question

When attempting to install Movable Type, I get an error that says: Table 'mt_author' already exists.

Answer

This error means you are trying to use a MySQL database which has already been initialized with some or all of the Movable Type tables.

If you are trying to install for the first time, make sure the database you are using is new or has been cleared of any pre-existing Movable Type tables (i.e., if you are reinstalling from scratch and do not wish to preserve your old weblog data).

If you are trying to install again because...

continue reading ...

0.09 (2001.10.06)

• Improved look and functionality of default templates; also added default templates for all archive types. • Set more default options when creating a new blog or editing 'First Blog'. • Added instructions for exporting NewsPro entries into the correct format; thanks to Jeremy W for sending along the instructions, which are now in the manual. • Added author attribute to MTEntries tag, so you can grab all of the posts by a particular author (can also be combined with category and lastn). (Jeremy W) • In comment notifications, the...

continue reading ...

One of the great things about RSS is that you can display, or "feed" in, headlines and content from other people's websites directly onto your own website. In another article, we've already covered what "syndication" is, and RSS, and how you can use a newsfeed reader to efficiently read and browse through the latest content from your favorite weblogs and news sites. The focus of this article will be on the other main use of RSS - feeding external content into your site. An example of this can be found here on my recipe website. Clicking on a sidebar link opens a new page with several feeds from various food and cooking websites. Check the page at a later time, and if there...

continue reading ...

With the most difficult part of running Movable Type -- the installation -- behind you, it is time to get started using MT.

It all begins with The Movable Type Content Management System (CMS). This script is the heart and soul of what makes powerful weblog publishing possible.

The CMS contains the majority of the intelligence and work flow that makes Movable Type what it is. Whether it involves posting an entry, adding a colleague as an author, or publishing your content with a whole new style, it is the CMS that is doing the heavy lifting.

By default the CMS script is named mt.cgi, although this...

continue reading ...

This section of the appendix details all configuration directives that can be defined in mt-config.cgi. Through use of these directives, you can control numerous aspects of the system.

Except for those which define things specific to your system (e.g. CGIPath and your database settings), all of them have defaults set by Movable Type. This means that not every directive will appear in mt-config.cgi. If you wish to override the default for a setting which does not appear in the file, simply add it and the desired value to your mt-config.cgi.

...

continue reading ...

2.0b3 (2002.02.23)

• New New Entry and Upload File icons for left nav. • Added troubleshooting section for mt-load.cgi and DataSource errors. • Added Post Status pulldown to import so that "Status" default in blog config can be overriden. Added help links to import options. • Added Javascript validation for every DELETE button that deletes items from a list; if nothing is checked, now gives a JS alert. • HTML-formatting buttons (bold, italic, URL, etc.) will now only show up when using a browser that supports them. • mt-upgrade.cgi now detects if MT databases are already upgraded; if so, it stops, and doesn't try to upgrade again....

continue reading ...

Question

When saving an entry or rebuilding, I see an error message that starts with Malformed UTF-8 character (unexpected continuation byte 0xb7) at extlib/DateTime/LocaleCatalog.pm line 25.

Answer

This error typically shows up when you've used a Mac to upload the files. If so, then upload the file again, but this time, use BINARY mode.

Although most of the files in the distribution should be uploaded in ASCII mode, the extlib/DateTime/LocaleCatalog.pm contains non-ASCII characters and thus would technically need to be uploaded in BINARY mode instead....

continue reading ...

Question

When I save an entry or rebuild my site, I receive an error that says mkdir /some/path: Permission denied at /full/path/to/mt/lib/MT/FileMgr/Local.pm.

Answer

This error means that Movable Type is trying to create a folder which does not already exist at the specified location. Movable Type cannot create your blog folder for you, so: • Make sure that you have created the folder where you want Movable Type to publish your blog files. • Make sure you have properly set your paths in Settings > Publishing1. In almost all cases, you should be...

continue reading ...

Question

I'd like to be able to create thumbnails of uploaded images, but my host doesn't have Image::Magick.

Answer

As of version 2.3 of Movable Type, an alternate method of creating thumbnails is supported, using the NetPBM suite of tools. If your system has NetPBM but not Image::Magick, you'll need to do the following:

Install Perl Module

Install the IPC::Run Perl module, which Movable Type uses to talk to the NetPBM tools. Download this file from Six Apart.

On your FTP server, create a new folder called IPC within your extlib folder. Then upload the...

continue reading ...

Question

What are the guidelines for using the support ticket system?

Answer

• Make sure you have set a public name in your TypeKey profile. We like to greet our users by name!

• Automated notifications of our responses are sent to the email address associated with your account. If you are using any spam-filtering or blocking, or a verification service which requires human interaction to permit you to receive email to your email address, please remember to add support@movabletype.org to your trusted senders so that you will receive these notifications.

If you wish to use a...

continue reading ...

Configuring TrackBack functionality for the system

Problem

You want to set up and configure TrackBack functionality for your system

Solution

Use the TrackBack configuration directives in mt-config.cgi

Discussion

Configuration of the TrackBack functionality is done in both the mt.cfg file and the Weblog settings. The following are the configuration directives that are related to TrackBacks and pings. • TrackBackScript

Sets the name of the TrackBack script in the MT home directory. The default is mt-tb.cgi. • GenerateTrackBackRSS

Individual RSS 0.91 feeds will be automatically...

continue reading ...

Question

Accented characters display incorrectly in my pages.

Answer

After Importing

If you are importing a weblog from an earlier version of Movable Type (before 3.0), your data is most likely encoded using the ISO-8859-1 character encoding, but Movable Type 3.x is set by default to use the UTF-8 encoding.

To change the character encoding used by Movable Type, open mt-config.cgi1 in a plain text editor and find the line that reads: PublishCharset utf-8

Change utf-8 to the same encoding that was used in the PublishCharset option in your old...

continue reading ...

Question

My webserver requires that the permissions on my .php files be set to 755, but the files Movable Type generates have permissions set to 666.

Answer

The permissions on files created by Movable Type are determined by the HTMLPerms configuration default, which is 666. You can override this default in mt-config.cgi1: # HTMLPerms 0777

If you uncomment this setting2 in the file, default permissions for all files created by the system will then be set to 777.

Note that the setting for HTMLPerms will be adjusted by the the HTMLUmask setting in...

continue reading ...