• Initial beta release

Back to top | Permalink | Comments (0)

0.02 (2001.09.25)

• Added FTP URLs to installation instructions. (Daniel Talsky) • Fix some warnings. (Caroline van Oosten de Boer)...

continue reading ...

3.2 (2005.08.25)

• The auto-expiration of Junk feedback items only occurs when a user visits the main menu for that weblog. In future versions, auto-expiration of junk items will be triggered system-wide when a new junk feedback item is received. • When an entry is saved from the Preview screen, duplicate TrackBack pings may be sent out • When an entry is saved from the Preview screen, the entry basename may be incremented or, if the title was changed, altered to fit the new title. • Subcategories are not alphabetically sorted in the category assignment listings on the entry editing...

continue reading ...

Movable Type's been able to publish multiple templates for all of your content for years now, but many people haven't taken advantage of this power. Part of the reason for this feature's relative obscurity was that the interface for the feature was confusing and complex. And though you've always been able to publish files to any address you want, customizing those paths wasn't always intuitive.

But now, in Movable Type 3.2, you can: • More easily publish as many different versions of your content as you want, all at the same time • Manage all your archives from one simple form that displays their status • Choose the exact format of the URL for each bit of content, without having to know...

continue reading ...

Update: A 2.01 release of MT-IfEmpty is now available, which mainly adds support for dynamic publishing in MT 3.1x.

You can download this plugin here: mtifempty-2_01.zip.

Usage: <MTIfEmpty var="EntryTitle">(untitled)</MTIfEmpty> <$MTEntryTitle$>

Embedded expression support works like this: <MTIfNotEmpty expr="[MTEntries days='1']1[/MTEntries]"> We...

continue reading ...

08.31.2005

Simple Example Templates for Movable Type 3.2

Chris Vannoy has posted some simple Movable Type templates based on the new default templates in Movable Type, but with much of the XHTML structure stripped out so they're easier to read. As Chris explains in his following post, they're not designed to be used on an actual site, since the styling would be pretty ugly by default, but they're a useful basis for creating your own completely custom design if you just need a place to get started.

We'll be producing additional documentation about all the new abilities that templates and styles have in Movable Type 3.2, but this is a great place to start if you...

continue reading ...

This very simple Movable Type plugin implements a template tag for displaying the first N words of an entry or any other text. While Movable Type's MTEntryExcerpt tag will automatically generate an excerpt consisting of the first N words of the entry body. However, you must configure the value of N for an entire blog, so you can't have excerpts of one length on one template and another length on another. This plugin allows you to display excerpts of different lengths in different places, and also lets you excerpt text other than an entry body.

Installation

To install the FirstNWords plugin, upload the file FirstNWords.pl to the plugins directory within your Movable Type directory. If you...

continue reading ...

Ben and Mena are at center stage now, announcing the new Movable Type 3.1 product. It's scheduled to go into beta soon, and should be released next month. Ben said last night at the developer's dinner that it would be August 31 (cute again), but that date hasn't been mentioned again.

The first announcement is for post scheduling. You can create a post, then set it to be posted in the future. Once you do, the post will be automatically posted (presumably, the appropriate templates will be rebuilt) on the date and time you specify.

The next announcement is the addition of subcategories to the core MT code. David Raynes has been working with the folks at Six Apart to integrate his...

continue reading ...

Almost all my blogs have the "Set Each Template's Build Options Separately" option selected and the dynamic setting on my hundreds of templates is varied. I wanted to be able to see immediately which templates were and which templates were not rebuilt dynamically from the templates listing view. A screenshot of how this look is above (click for a larger view) Obviously, this hack is only valid for MT versions equal to or greater than 3.1

You will need your list_template.tmpl file. Find

<th width="20%"><MT_TRANS phrase="Build w/Indexes"></th>

and replace it with

<TMPL_IF NAME=DYNAMIC_CUSTOM><th width="10%"><MT_TRANS...

continue reading ...

Matt Haughey has a great article on how he uses Movable Type to do it all (apparently, Kottke does too… can't wait to see his article).

Anyhow, I wanted to share a tidbit in that vein. I've just set this up recently, and I'm in the process of moving the rest of my static content to use it. What I did: • Created a new Movable Type blog and named it "bradchoate.com: Static Content". • Deleted all the Index templates. • Deleted all the archive templates, except for the Individual archive template. • Made sure individual archives were enabled. • Made the archive path the root...

continue reading ...

Page: 1 2 3 3 Pages.

Blog Selective Hacks

One of the biggest problems of simple hacks to the system is that they occur system wide, e.g. if you hacked the entry page to specify a default category, that category would become the default for all blogs on the...

Continue reading "Blog Selective Hacks"

Posted on 07/30/2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Feedback during Power Editing

Many people have asked me how to display the status of comments and trackbacks on the power edit entries screen. This hack will guide you through the process of adding two fields, as shown by the screenshot. One is...

Continue reading "Feedback during Power Editing"...

continue reading ...

UPDATE Many people seem to be experiencing the following problems on 3.11: • Categories don't show in entry permalink on first save • When you save an entry, on the individual entry page, the next/previous link points to the first entry of your weblog

Add NoPlacementCache 0 to your mt.cfg file. NoPlacementCache is a variable that caches the category assignments for a particular entry. Currently, a category is assigned and the entry is built in the same operation (or request) and because of caching, that category assignment is getting ignored. If a category is assigned in its own request then it is recognized. There is a bug that is causing the categories to be loaded and cached prior to...

continue reading ...

In a recent thread on the MT forums, a person asked how you could make the dates on entries relative to the current time. This means instead of "Posted on August 1st 2004" it would be "Posted 3 days ago." You could use the RelativeDate plugin but that would require you to rebuild your pages everyday (of course this can be done via a cron job).

Lucky I found this PHP script written by Kristine (kadyellebee on the forums). For this code to work, you will need to be using PHP enabled templates. Towards the top of your templates you should find a tag similar to <$MTEntryDate$>

Just replace that with <?php //offset is how many hours away you are from your server. $offset = "0";...

continue reading ...

I will be using Movable Type's default RSS 2.0 template, simply for size reasons. These template changes can apply just as easily to Atom feeds or any other feed template you can come up with.

First, here is the default template: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="<$MTPublishCharset$>"?> <rss version="2.0"> <channel> <title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> <link><$MTBlogURL$></link> <description><$MTBlogDescription remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> <language><$MTBlogLanguage ietf="1"$></language> <copyright>Copyright...

continue reading ...

06.30.2005

New in Movable Type 3.2: A home for administrators

One of Movable Type's biggest strengths is the platform's support for an unlimited number of weblogs. Once you've got a thriving community of bloggers creating entries and publishing their thoughts, though, it quickly becomes necessary to manage the weblogs on your system.

To meet this need, we've introduced an entire new area of functionality in Movable Type 3.2: The System Overview. We've chosen the System Overview as the first feature to highlight in this new release because it represents a single home for administrators. It's one place to go to oversee everything that's happening across your...

continue reading ...

Page: 1 1 Page.

Dynamic Publishing - Pros and Cons

Discussion cross posted on Movalog and Learning Movable Type One of the key features that Six Apart promotes about Movable Type is MT's ability to publish dynamically. What is dynamic publishing? And what are the benefits (and downsides) to dynamic...

Continue reading "Dynamic Publishing - Pros and Cons"

Posted on 05/28/2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Troubleshooting Smarty Errors

Tutorial cross posted on Movalog and Learning Movable Type If you move from static publishing to dynamic publishing in Movable Type, you may encounter a variety of confusing error messages in Smarty, the system...

continue reading ...

Now that Movable Type supports a real database with the MySQL support in version 2.2, it's time for some new tags that can let you select entries, comments and categories using any criteria you'd like. Click the 'more' link for full docs and download link.

Availability

You can download this plugin here: mtsql-1_52.zip

Installation

To install, place the 'sql.pl' file in your Movable Type 'plugins'...

continue reading ...

Upgrading Movable Type

Problem

You want to upgrade the Movable Type software.

Solution

Upgrading follows nearly the same steps as installation except that you will want to perform a backup of your system before attempting the upgrade. If you are upgrading from Movable Type 3.1x or before, you will also want to migrate to the new configuration file: mt-config.cgi.

Discussion

If you're on any past version of Movable Type, version 3.2 offers a lot of features and improvements that will make managing your blogs easier. To take advantage of them, you'll need to install the latest...

continue reading ...

I did a small design change for enhancing the weblog's usability. Moreover, an FAQ is now included.

Design Change

If you click on an archive (either category or month), the name of the archive is printed with a bold typeface in the sidebar. This feature already existed yesterday.

I have extended this behavior slightly. Now, if you are reading an individual entry, the primary category for that entry will be printed with a bold typeface in the sidebar. Currently you are reading an entry related to this weblog, so on the right side the category »Movable Type Weblog« is highlighted.

It is a small step towards better usability. The reader now always knows, which part of...

continue reading ...

Ben and I gave a talk at BlogTalk in Vienna on Tuesday. Unfortunately, because of jetlag and some bad timing, we weren't able to convey all the points we wanted to make in the talk itself. So, I'm posting a transcript of the speech we prepared.

I realize that we've never really communicated these messages. I feel strongly — and have always — that personal weblogs are often marginalized because of their presumed triviality. Weblogs are going to hit the mainstream and they're going to be a new method for communicating with small, intimate groups in a more optimized manner.

---

Good morning. My name is Mena Trott and this is Ben Trott, my husband and co-founder of Six...

continue reading ...

Creating a Comment Submission Form

Problem

You want to create a form that accepts comment submissions.

Solution

Create an HTML form that submits its input to the Movable Type comment script or instead use the MTCommentFields tag.

Discussion

"Displaying Comments" discusses how to lay out comments. If there isn't a way for readers to make comments, then there won't be any to display. Here is a simple, example form layout that could be used in an individual entry archive template. <form method="post"...

continue reading ...