06.26.2002

Version 2.2 Released

Movable Type 2.2 is now available for download.

Amongst the small fixes and improvements documented in the changelog, there are two very large new features with this release. • TrackBack is a framework for peer-to-peer communication between weblogs; it can track cross-weblog discussions, it can provide remote content repositories, it can emulate guest authoring, etc. A more detailed introduction to TrackBack is available here. Please read through the documentation to learn how to set up TrackBack on your blog. • The system can now use a MySQL database for backend data storage, as an alternative to the Berkeley DB...

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Seed Magazine, a magazine devoted to the connections between science and society, wanted to relaunch their website along with the redesign of their site. It's a beautifully designed, intuitive site, making full use of some of our favorite features of MT. Tim Murtaugh, the designer, explains why he chose Movable type thusly:

The site needed a new face, a new undercarriage, and an architecture that could handle their lofty goals of millions of unique visitors per month. Oh, and it needed to happen in two and half months.

It seemed clear to us that the only way this could happen was to use an off-the-shelf product, rather than build a custom CMS. We considered a number of options, but...

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I've just completed the installation of Movable Type 3.17, released earlier by Six Apart. The installation went well. Anyone looking for assistance in upgrading, let me know. We do Movable Type Consulting, you know.

If you do it on your own and you use dynamic publishing and you install things into a new directory, remember to rebuild the mtview.php file. This one caught me, as I put new releases into a new directory to make things easier on myself. The problem is my mtview.php pointed to the old directory, and I could not for the life of me get my dynamic archives to rebuild. Luckily the fix was a simple one.

Why do I change directories? To keep things simple. Rather than trying...

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As most of you know, simultaneous with the release of Movable Type 3.2, we introduced the new and vastly improved User Manual. The manual is built using Movable Type and offers to all of our customers not only an excellent search functionality but the ability to give feedback directly on every single item.

Of course, with any major change, there are always things that fall through the cracks and this was no exception. You let us know through the comments on the manual and many blog posts that the manual still needed some work. So a few weeks ago we rolled up our sleeves and got to work on filling in the gaps and fixing the problems you highlighted. We're now happy to say...

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Arvind of Movalog has just released a useful new tool for MT3.2 - the Movable Type Style Generator. Just click on any element - background color, banner, font - to change the element's properties. When you are all done, you can click on the Download button and voil, you have the stylesheet, all ready to work with the new MT 3.2 templates. Works with Typepad and LiveJournal too. For all of us who hate messing around with CSS, thanks Arvind! Have you found the tutorials at Learning Movable Type helpful? Please consider linking to LMT at http://www.learningmovabletype.com/ . Thanks!

Posted by elise on August 27, 2005 to Announcements | Email to a friend | Comments(0) | Printer-friendly version...

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A client recently asked if I could install FCKeditor into Movable Type. Thanks to some detailed instructions, it was surprisingly easy.

In a nutshell, declare the FCKeditor javascript, then later on you need to load the instance of the editor. The instructions above actually point to loading it during the onload event, so that all three default MT text areas (entry body, extended entry and the entry excerpt) are running FCKeditor when you pull up the page.

This is a bit slower, and perhaps overkill, so we found some other directions about loading the editor on demand. These are for a different CMS, but they will certainly work. I modified the instructions slightly and created a...

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David Michael Allen has posted a very elegant redesign of the Movable Type posting interface, complete with screenshots. Movable Type's interface is managed entirely with CSS since version 3.0, so it's easy to make customizations like these, or to even choose to show and hide entire facets of the interface, just by modifying the CSS included with the application.

Trackbacks:

DMA Projects - Movable Type backend - November 1, 2004 04:57 PMAfter being bombarded with the busiest of busy, I've taken it upon myself to make life a little easier. I use MovableType for everything, so tweaking the admin for regular consumption proved to be worth its weight in time. Some...

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I've just completed the changes to move the site to Movable Type v2.65. If you're upgrading from v2.64, there are really only a few files that need replacing, and none of them should affect any of my plugins or hacks. The files that need replacing: MT_DIR/mt-send-entry.cgi MT_DIR/lib/MT.pm MT_DIR/lib/MT/ConfigMgr.pm MT_DIR/lib/MT/default-templates.pl MT_DIR/lib/MT/XMLRPCServer.pm MT_DIR/lib/MT/Template/Context.pm

There are also some updates to the online documentation (three of the files, I think), so if you'd like to have those changes, update the contents of the docs directory as well. These changes are minor and are not required for the operation of MT, only for the...

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If you're new to Movable Type or want to help get a friend or co-worker up to speed, there's a few good posts that cover Movable Type for Beginners as well as tips and tricks that come in handy while learning the application.

We'll be working to make it easier to get a full grasp of what Movable Type (and TypePad) are capable of, but in the meantime you can check out these great contributions from our community.

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Previous Entry: Migrating from mBlog

Next Entry: Roundup of political blogs

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Congratulations to Ben, Mena and the 6A team AND to the awesome Movable Type user community. The blogging world is a richer place thanks to your efforts!

I became an MT convert about three years ago and will always fondly remember my first installation (I'm pathetic, I know) -- once I finally decided to take the leap to MT, it took another three days just making the decision to install it myself. Sweating bullets (on a cold winter night), I proceeded with fear and trepidation through the installation process. Although the installation was straightforward, I entered into it with a deficit of knowledge and experience in such matters. Thus ensued a bit of bumbling, a fair amount of...

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Question

Is Movable Type the only software for producing weblogs? Is it the best product for creating a weblog? Why did you choose it?

Answer

Movable Type is not the only such product. There are a couple of other products with similar functions. For example two well-known applications are Blogger and WordPress.

I discovered weblogging by coincidence. Movable type was the software that I found first. Absolutely no evaluation took place. I assume most well-known products have similar functions.

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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Movable Type 3.16 has been released! The upgrade was rather painless - most of the difficulty lies, as it always does, in making sure that I get the plugins in the old install into the new one (I typically install into a new directory rather than try and update an old one). Thus far, looks like it's going okay. Please let me know if not.

One of the coolest features is that the category list on the entry is now sorted with sub-categories. Sweetness indeed! I don't know if they took Arvind's hack to do it, but someone took the time to make it happen, and it looks good.

I'll be spending the next day or so getting everything running as it should, then I'll likely do a bit of plugin...

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One of our goals for Movable Type 3.2 was to make the system more pleasant to work with every day. And one of the small improvements in this version that we think will help save the time (and sanity!) of all of us who use Movable Type every day is a revamp of the way authors can select multiple categories for an entry.

Movable Type has long supported assigning multiple categories to any entry, and since version 3.1, you've also been able to easily create an infinite number of subcategories as well. But the default drop-down box hadn't evolved to accommodate these powerful new options, and solutions like putting a giant collection of checkboxes next to every entry would add to amount...

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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...

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April 2004

04.17.2004

Movable Type 3.0 Beta Testing

We'll be starting the Movable Type 3.0 public beta test next week, the week of April 19. It's taken longer to get to this public beta because we made the decision to extend the alpha process to catch as many bugs as possible before introducing MT3b to the general public.

The alpha testing started about one month ago on March 17, 2004. As anticipated, the alpha uncovered a number of issues that are now fixed, and we thank our alpha...

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Neil has apparently turned the corner with his second upgrade of the 3.2 beta. The first didn't go quite so well. This is a conversation that pops up all over the place when this sort of thing comes up. Invariably there are problems and everyone is scrambling to get back to where they were. With Movable Type, I don't understand.

This is because of the easy configuration of the product. All you need is a little extra space on your account, an extra MySQL database and a text editor.

When I get a new upgrade, even one that is a tiny upgrade that's said not to need any major changes, I take that upgrade and compare the files to the ones from the currently running version. Typically...

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September 2003

09.01.2003

Localization Weblog and Language Packs

One of Movable Type's less-trumpeted features is its ability to support localization, which lets you download a language pack in order to display the user interface in your language of choice. Like all of our features, localization shows how much Movable Type is improved by the contributions of our user community, as dozens of translators from around the world have contributed to the language packs that are now...

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Chad Everett's another popular Movable Type plugin developer who's considering the cost not just of developing plugins, but in supporting them as well. In a thoughtful post on his blog, where he says, "Add all that time together, and the development of the plugin is definitely not the great consumer of time. It's what I'll call the 'support' of the plugin."

One of the reasons we've been encouraging the ecosystem of services and support around plugins to grow (whether paid or free) is the increasing recognition that Movable Type's professional user base is willing to pay for quality code and support. In many cases, the paid commercial use of a plugin or application can let a developer...

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Skip navigation. • TypePad • Movable Type • LiveJournal • About Us • Support

December 2005

12.12.2005

Blogging with Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting

We're thrilled to announce the newest, and easiest, way to get started with Movable Type: Yahoo! Small Business web hosting now includes Movable Type. All of us on the Movable Type team have worked with the folks at Yahoo to make this the best experience possible for professionals who want to get started with blogging.

If you sign up for Yahoo! web hosting, you get a reliable, robust web hosting account with...

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InfoWorld has just published a review of Movable Type 3.15, with the ultimate conclusion that "Overall, Movable Type delivers a solid blogging experience." There's a useful overview of the platform's features, along with some legitimate points about what needs improvement, but we're just as glad to see users explaining why Movable Type is the right choice for them as well.

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