In the past few weeks I've managed to make MT Blogroll work on a Windows/IIS environment. I have only tested this plugin on one server so I'm not entirely sure how well this works. So Download MT-Blogroll_2.02.zip and follow the installation instructions. The only difference for you Windows users is that the contents of the lib/ folder in the distribution must go into the extlib/ directory hence you get extlib/Blogroll etc.

The only requirement is that you have MT 3.16 installed as important bugs were fixed.

continue reading ...

Question

After upgrading to 3.2, none of my authors was designated the System Administrator. How do I correct this?

Answer

This can be corrected by forcing the upgrade script to run again.

First, you'll need to remove the database information which tells Movable Type that you've already upgraded: • For MySQL users, drop the mt_config table through phpMyAdmin or the mysql console.

• For BerkeleyDB users, delete the config.* files in your DataSource directory.

Then, log into Movable Type with the user who should be made the System Administrator. At...

continue reading ...

Question

When installing Movable Type, I get an error message that says Can't find default template list; where is 'default-templates.pl'?

Answer

First, make sure that a folder named lib exists in the same folder where you installed Movable Type, and that there are several folders and files inside of it. Then, make sure that the specific file lib/MT/default-templates.pl was uploaded there, and in ASCII mode.

The files are also case sensitive, so make sure it is lib/MT/default-templates.pl, not lib/mt/default-templates.pl, or Lib/Mt/Default-templa...

continue reading ...

Question

When trying to install Movable Type on GoDaddy, I get a 500 error.

Answer

The 'sbox' software which GoDaddy uses on their servers rewrites the current working directory for all CGI scripts to its own directory. Because of this, Movable Type can't find its own library modules.

To get around this, you will need to edit the first line of all of the *.cgi scripts to look like this: #!/usr/bin/perl -w -I/path/to/mt_dir/lib

where /path/to/mt_dir/lib is the full path to the lib folder in your Movable Type installation directory....

continue reading ...

Making posts quickly from your browser

Problem

You want to be able to make posts quickly from your browser.

Solution

Set up a QuickPost bookmarklet using the link on the Main Menu.

Discussion

A bookmarklet is a small JavaScript program that can be stored as a URL within a bookmark in most popular web browsers, or within hyperlinks on a web page.

Setting up a QuickPost bookmarklet to post to Movable Type allows you to perform one-click posting and publishing without ever using the Movable Type CMS interface.

Movable Type's QuickPost utility allows you to customize the layout...

continue reading ...

Setting Up Scheduled Post Services

Problem

You want to enable Scheduled Post services on your Movable Type System.

Solution

Install the run-periodic-tasks to run under cron or other similar system utility.

Discussion

To set up scheduled posting you need to be able to set up a "cron" job on the server. There a number of ways these services can be implemented and will vary depending on your server environment. Some hosting providers will allow one and not the other.

After you've set up post scheduling, when you save an entry with a post status of "Scheduled," it will be...

continue reading ...

Probably the most important element to maintaining a web site with Movable Type (or other CMS) is the database. If something happens to the database, you're in trouble. If you keep backups (and you should!) you can go back to the last copy. But how old is that - a week? A month? Nightly, automatic backups of your database are the best way to handle such a problem.

So, for a little while I was searching for a good way to make nightly, automatic backups. I've found a good, free tool for the MySQL databases I use: MySQL Database Backup. Setting up the script as a Cron job let's me make nightly backups, and the script can be set to keep as many nightly,...

continue reading ...

Question

Visitors who are trying to comment on my weblog with some browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari) aren't able to do so; they still see the sign in link, instead of the comment posting form. If they use another browser (Firefox, Netscape), they don't have this problem.

Answer

There are several reasons why this might occur in some browsers but not others:

Caching issues

The browser is caching the page; have your visitors refresh the page after signing in to force the page to update.

Your pages are encoded with UTF-8.

Some browsers are more likely...

continue reading ...

Question

I've logged in to Movable Type, but everything I click takes me back to the Login page again.

Answer

This is related to the cookie Movable Type must set to keep you logged in during your session.

Note: There is a Known Issue in version 3.16 which prevents the login cookie from being set correctly when Movable Type is installed in the root folder of a domain. This issue was resolved in version 3.17 (released on June 2, 2005), so you should upgrade in order to correct this particular type of login problem.

If the Known Issue above does not...

continue reading ...

MT Blogroll has been updated to be compatible with Movable Type 3.2 and includes some new features too: • Improved UI - The UI has been drastically improved to fit in better with 3.2, you can see the new UI elements on the screenshots page. Along with the UI there are a few javascript tricks I've borrowed from Movable Type that should make your life somewhat easier • Greater Control - With MT Blogroll 2.1, you have far more control over your links, you can customize the link adding page in a fashion that is similar to MT and display the links with ease on both static and dynamic pages. • Priority Sorting - I have added a priority field and this has become the default sorting column. As a...

continue reading ...

This plugin has been deprecated. The Santize plugin was incorporated (and extended) into Movable Type 2.6. For more information about this and how you would go about uninstalling this plugin, please read this article.

Sanitize is a Movable Type plugin that allows you to clean HTML and other markup that might exist in an comment entry. Read on for more information about how it works and what it's for. If you're using Movable Type and allow HTML comments on your site, you really need to read this...

...

continue reading ...

0.03 (2001.09.26)

• Added Bookmarklet posting functionality, with a link to setup on the main project administration menu. • In List Entries, if a post does not have a title display [No title] instead as a link. • Changed login cookie path from / to /path/to/mt/. For example, if you installed MT at /my/mt/mt.cgi, the path for the cookie would now be /my/mt/. • MT::Util::send_mt_mail now checks for more default locations of sendmail, instead of giving up, until it finds one that works. It now checks /usr/lib/sendmail, /usr/sbin/sendmail, and /usr/ucblib/sendmail...

continue reading ...

Looking for a way to incorporate a Photo Gallery into your MT blog? Check out Photo Gallery Templates from StopDesign.com.

There are many ways to create a web-based photo album or photoblog in Movable Type. This tutorial addresses just one method for creating a photo album, and is based on the steps I took to create my MT-based photo album. This tutorial is for experienced MT users and assumes familiarity with plugins, CSS, creating a new weblog, category archiving, and uploading images. Although long, the tutorial is easier than it looks, especially if you want a photo album that works just like mine. It's always the customizations that take time. In this tutorial I will give...

continue reading ...

Editing a Template

Problem

You want to create or edit a template for your weblog.

Solution

Use the template management screen.

Discussion

Movable Type automatically installs a number of default templates when a weblog is created. These templates are fine for getting started quickly; however most users will want to customize the templates to suit their own tastes and needs.

In order to edit a template, click the Templates button in the Weblog Toolbar to get to the Templates Listing Screen. The screen is divided up using tabs, one for each template type. Find the template and...

continue reading ...

Running Movable Type With mod_perl

Problem

You want to improve the performance of Movable Type by eliminating the overhead of CGI.

Solution

Run Movable Type under mod_perl 1.x.

Discussion

mod_perl embeds a Perl interpreter into the Apache server, so that dynamic content produced by Perl scripts can be served in response to incoming requests, without the significant overhead of re-launching the Perl interpreter for each request.

Movable Type can run under mod_perl 1.x in either Registry mode or as a set of full-fledged handlers. Note that in order to run under mod_perl, you must...

continue reading ...

Update April 9, 2005: Brad Choate has released a new anti-spam plugin called SpamLookup. Jay Allen, the creator of MT-Blacklist recommends SpamLookup over MT-Blacklist.

Spammers have discovered Trackback and have recently been leaving their trail of unwelcome links all over the blogosphere. To get a sense of what we are up against, read The Register's interview with a link spammer. Listed here are some defensive measures you can take.

MT-Blacklist

As with comment spam, your first recourse is Jay Allen's MT-Blacklist. The blacklist will help you delete the trackbacks and ban the URLs the spammers leave. Note that if you are using MT2.661 and MT-Blacklist 1.65, Jay has special instructions for deleting trackback spam pings....

continue reading ...

Enabling Dynamic Publishing

Problem

You want to enable the dynamic publishing features in Movable Type.

Solution

Configure your web server so requests are routed through mtview.php, the Dynamic Bootstrap Handler.

Discussion

• 1. Turn on the dynamic page option in Movable Type.

Select whether to publish all of your archive templates dynamically or set your templates' publishing modes individually. See Specifying the Publishing Model. • 2. Set up the template cache directory.

In your weblog's root directory, create a new subdirectory named templates_c. The directory should...

continue reading ...

In order to provide extra functionality to Movable Type users not tied to normal release cycles and to provide solid examples for developers of use of the Plugin API and best Movable Type prorgamming practices, we will from time to time bundle plugins with Movable Type.

With Movable Type 3.2, there are three included plugins which we will detail in their own sections. • Nofollow • SpamLookup • Template Backup/Refresh

Like the Movable Type application, these plugins are supported by Six Apart. If you experience any problems using these plugins and you are a paid licensee, you can submit a help ticket with our Technical Support staff....

continue reading ...

This page lists all plugins which specify weblog-level configruation settings. From here, you may configure the way your installed plugins act on the weblog in question.

Note: This page does not list all plugins installed on the system. For that listing, go to the System Overview » Plugins section of the application.

Back to top | Permalink | Comments (0)

...

continue reading ...

This tutorial is written by LMT guest author Mike Everett-Lane of Ishbadiddle.

A Subject Index can give context to your posts and makes it easier for your readers to browse what you've written on specific topics. Unlike Categories, which are limited, top-down, and hierarchical, Subject tags are open-ended and limitless. While your blog's Category system is like the Table of Contents of a book, a Subject Index is like the book's Index, one that is constantly updated.

First, you might want to read my blog post on how the use of Subject Indexes can improve the organization of your blog. You can see it in action there as well as here on LMT. For instance, here's the index of all my subjects, and the index of all my posts on the subject of...

continue reading ...