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...

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Question

In Movable Type, entries or comments or other objects are often shown in lists. For example, the main index shows the most recent entries, a category archive also shows entries, or an individual entry archive shows comments. I preferred if not all items in such lists were styled the same. For example, there should be an alternating white / gray background. How can this be done?

Answer

Fortunately, the answer can be given in a generic way. The technique that I am going to show can be used with all types of objects (entries, comments, categories, etc.) and any number of different styles.

For showing the basic idea I will create a list of entries using 3 different styles....

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Question

When looking at my generated webpages, some of these pages contain characters that really look strange. When looking at the same text in Movable Type, anything looks fine.

Answer

The problem occurs rather often in varying situations. Most of the time it has something to do with the character set. Let us first have a look at the basics...

Character Set

Anything that is stored in electronic form is saved as a series of 0s and 1s. Usually, these are combined to form a string of numbers, ranging from 0 to 255. Even a text, as the one that you are currently reading, is stored as a sequence of numbers.

A charset defines which characters belong to which number. For...

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The FAQ has been extended, explaining the following questions.

June 2nd, 2005: In Movable Type, entries or comments or other objects are often shown in lists. For example, the main index shows the most recent entries, a category archive also shows entries, or an individual entry archive shows comments. I preferred if not all items in such lists were styled the same. For example, there should be an alternating white / gray background. How can this be done? Read FAQ: Entries or Comments with alternating Style

June 1st, 2005: I have a couple of categories. When using the MTCategories tag, these are sorted by name. However, I preferred if I could choose the order manually. There is a...

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Question

I have a couple of categories. When using the MTCategories tag, these are sorted by name. However, I preferred if I could choose the order manually. There is a logical order of the categories, and the categories should be listed in that order. Can it be done?

Answer

Movable Type does not have a built-in function for achieving an arbitrary ordering of the category list. We have to use a plugin for that.

The idea for implementing the ordering is as follows: we will prefix all category names with some text, which is removed right before the category name is output to HTML. As an example please look at my top-level categories in the sidebar. These are... • Basics • Installation...

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CNET News.com has published a FAQ about Blogging on the job. While there's some of the usual hype about people getting fired for blogging, they do point out that their own research didn't show anyone in their sample who'd had to fire someone for blogging. There's also a mention that "corporate policies already address many issues related to blogs, such as protecting confidential information, upholding the company's reputation, and Internet use at work".

Some of the most interesting discussion in the piece has to do with the opportunity for blogging as part of one's job or to advance one's career. In all, it's a well-balanced resource worth saving for future reference.

Trackbacks...

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Question

What are all those templates used for? Will I need each and every one, if I want to work with Movable Type? What template should I try to understand first?

Answer

Actually, you do not have to look at the templates at all. If you are satisfied with one of the default templates, or you find a template for download somewhere, you will not have to dig into this subject.

But even if you want to change your weblog's style, you will not have to look into each and every template. Fortunately, most templates are not needed in the beginning. The most important templates are as follows: • The Main Index Template is responsible for creating the start page of your weblog. It is...

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Question

Movable Type does not allow duplicate category names, even if the two categories are under different parent categories. Can this restriction be avoided?

Answer

There is a way, which makes Movable Type see all your category names being unique. And at the same time, if the user sees the categories, there may be duplicates.

Please read FAQ: Sorting the Categories and avoid alphabetical Sequence, where another question is answered but also solves this problem.

mgs

Feedback is welcome!

What do you think about this entry? Was it interesting or boring? I would like to hear your comments. If the text was helpful, please consider setting a link to...

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Question

I have a couple of categories in my weblog. By default, these are listed on the start page. I want to hide a certain category. How can I do that?

Answer

The start page is based on the »Main Index Template«. We have to change that template for making categories disappear.

If you do not know the term »Main Index Template«, then please have a look at FAQ: Explaining the Templates. Moreover, we will need the Compare Plugin. If you do not know it, or it has not yet been installed, please read the entry Comparison needed for conditional Generation.

Open your Movable Type project. Click »Templates« in the left navigation bar. A list of...

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Question

I just installed Movable Type. After having created my first entry, the »Rebuild Site« will produce the following error message.

Build error in template 'Main Index': Error in tag: <$MTCategoryArchiveLink$> can be used only if you have enabled Category archives.

What might be wrong?

Answer

I do not know the reason, but the installation procedure will not enable the category archives by default. You have to manually perform the following steps. • Enter the Movable Type project. • Select »Templates« from the left navigation bar. • A list of templates will appear. It is structured into the following groups: Index Templates, Archive...

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Question

Which one is better? MySQL or Berkeley DB?

Answer

If Movable Type has been installed, Berkeley DB will be used by default. This product is not a real SQL database, such as MySQL, or MS SQL Server or Oracle. It is not managed by a separate process. The client application - in our case this is Movable Type - will access the data by means of functions running in its own address space.

I have no detailed knowledge about Berkeley DB, but regarding architectural questions it might be compared to MS Access.

MySQL is a true database. A separate process will be executed on the server. All data access will not be done by reading and writing the data files directly. Instead,...

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Question

I just installed Movable Type on a Windows 2003 Server. When looking at the weblog's start page, there is a »Syndicate this site« link. However, clicking results in a »File not found« message. The file does exist. I can see it on the server.

Answer

The file, which has the »rdf« extension, is generated correctly and it is at the correct location. However, your IIS does not yet know the extension. You have to inform IIS about the extension, so IIS knows how to serve this file. You have to do so by creating a new MIME-type.

In IIS Manager open the virtual directory's properties, then open the dialog page »HTTP Headers«, then...

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Question

I have installed Movable Type and MySQL. When trying to use Movable Type, the following error message will be shown.

Bad ObjectDriver config: Connection error: Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client

Answer

The message results from MySQL having changed an important detail with its latest release. With version v4.1, MySQL changed the way users are authenticated. Obviously, passwords are stored differently in this version than in previous versions. You can read more about this problem and how to solve it in Migrating to MySQL.

mgs

Feedback is welcome!

What do you think about this...

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Question

I installed Movable Type and did some tests. Anything works fine. Now, what should I do for styling the generated pages according my need?

Answer

Movable Type uses templates and contents for generating the HTML pages. The templates are made up of HTML and markup. The HTML is left untouched by the generation process. However, the markup is processed. It defines the structure of the final pages. It allows flow control - such as "loop over all entries" - and it is used for accessing the database (such as "insert the entry's title here").

So for styling the website, the templates have to be modified.

mgs

Feedback is welcome!

...

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Question

Is this website generated by Movable Type completely or are some parts edited manually after generation?

Answer

The entire website is created by Movable Type. Some features were rather difficult (for me as a novice). For this, the templates had to be enhanced substantially. For example, the sidebar shows the selected archive (category and month) in bold typeface. I did not find an easy solution and had to do some work on the templates.

mgs

Feedback is welcome!

What do you think about this entry? Was it interesting or boring? I would like to hear your comments. If the text was helpful, please consider setting a link to...

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Question

I understand that English is not your primary language. There are some typos and even some bad grammar. Would you mind if I collected some of these errors and sent them by email?

Answer

I would very much apprecitate that. I do know that my English is not perfect at all. Use the address listed on page Contact. Please do not hesitate to point out errors.

mgs

Feedback is welcome!

What do you think about this entry? Was it interesting or boring? I would like to hear your comments. If the text was helpful, please consider setting a link to http://www.movable-type-weblog.com/.

No spam please!

For protecting this weblog I have...

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Question

I do not like the directory structure that results from rebuilding the site. Can I change this somehow?

Answer

You can change both, the names of the generated files and the directory structure. We have to look at two different components. • There are several Index Templates. Each of those templates results in exactly one output file being created. The Main Index is most important, as it is responsible for creating the start page of your weblog. • Moreover, there are Archive Templates. Each of those templates may result in many different files being created at several locations. For example, there might be one HTML file for each month. And there might be one HTML file for...

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Question

The start page of my weblog only shows one entry. However, there are several published entries in the database. What has happened?

Answer

The start page is styled by a template. It is the so-called Main Index Template. Within this template you will find an MTEntries tag. This tag loops over all published entries and outputs a defined number of all entries to the start page.

If the template only shows...

<MTEntries>

then all entries that were published during the last X days are printed. The number X is taken from the weblog configuration (see weblog config, preferences, general settings, number of days displayed). If nothing has been published within...

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Question

I would like to write about Movable Type. Might the text be published here? Will I get paid?

Answer

Yes, I do welcome text written by you. You should write the text without special formatting. For example use MS Word for writing and only use the basic styles. If the text is finished I will bring it into this weblog. You should contact me in advance. Use the address listed on page Contact.

Unfortunately paying is not possible. But you will keep the rights and your name will be mentioned.

mgs

Feedback is welcome!

What do you think about this entry? Was it interesting or boring? I would like to hear your comments. If the text was helpful,...

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Question

I want to have the most recently published entries in the sidebar. My code works most of the time. However, the category archive and the date-based archive only show some of these entries. How can I show all entries?

Answer

You have probably saved the code for the sidebar in a module template, and include that template from the Main Index Template, the Category Template, and the Date-based Template. Alternatively, you simply copied the code for the sidebar into the three templates (if so, please read Organize your Templates with MTInclude for learning an important feature of Movable Type).

Your code for showing the ten most recently published entries might be as...

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