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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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"...

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04.28.2005

Blogs as a complement to newspapers

Forbes online picked up an Associated Press story about the eleven blogs being published by the editorial staff of the News & Record in North Carolina.

The broad range of Movable Type-powered blogs have earned high praise from others in the journalism business. As Editor & Publisher said:

"When the paper's overhaul is complete, it may be a model for the sort of 21st century paper that many journalism big thinkers have been talking about, chewing over, and confabbing on for the last few years," wrote the industry-watching magazine Editor & Publisher. "Greensboro will be the first place where this conceptually...

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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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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

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...

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Question

How do I show all entries from the same month or category as the current entry on an Individual Archive?

Answer

If you want a list on the Individual pages which only shows entries in the same month or category as the entry, you will need to do this with a second Archive Template and a PHP (or SSI) include.

Create The New Template

Navigate to Templates and click the Archives tab1. Click Create New Archive Template.

Assign the template a name of your choosing (to distinguish it from your normal Monthly or Category Archive Template). In...

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Question

When running the script, I get an error message that says Got an error: Bad ObjectDriver config: Connection error: [some error].

Answer

Too many connections

Your MySQL server is not permitting any more connections to your database; you'll need to contact your host for resolution of this error.

Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/path/to/socket'

• If your SQL database server is on localhost, but the socket is not in a standard location, you'll need to set the path using the DBSocket setting in mt-config.cgi1: DBSocket /path/to/mysql.sock...

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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

My permalinks are pointing to the wrong archive type. For example, I want them to point to the Individual Entry Archive, but instead they point to the Monthly Archive for the entry.

Answer

When you use the MTEntryPermalink tag, Movable Type will create links that point to the archive type you have set as your Preferred Archive Type in Settings > Publishing : Publishing Preferences1.

So, you can either change your Preferred Archive Type to Individual, or you can add the archive_type attribute to the MTEntryPermalink or MTEntryLink tag:...

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When I started to work with fulltext search in Movable Type, I enhanced my Movable Type Weblog with a native MySQL fulltext search engine. Later I created a new website called MTLookup, which could be used for searching several websites at the same time.

After MTLookup was released, the search within the Movable Type Weblog was still based on the initial release: no Google-like keyphrase, only my weblog being indexed, some of the most recent articles not included at all.

Starting today, the search within the Movable Type Weblog will be powered by MTLookup, making all the enhancements of MTLookup available within the Movable Type Weblog.

Some more details

Although both websites - the...

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After the second version of MTLookup has been released some days ago, more websites have been added to the database. These are: Murky, alogblog, David Raynes, Brad Choate, Don't Back Down, and Everitz Consulting.

Welcome on board.

Currently, MTLookup knows 26 websites with 2400 articles.

Websites and User Profile

MTLookup remembers which websites you used for your last query. This information is stored in the user profile, which also contains the query history and several settings from the search dialog. If you later return, MTLookup is able to select the most recently used list of websites.

However, if a new website is inserted into the MTLookup database, that website will...

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Movable Type knows templates and entries. The templates define the structure of the HTML pages. Inside the entries there is the content for those pages. Unfortunately the tags, which are used in the templates, are forbidden inside entries. But there is a way out.

In Entries there is Text. Why do you need Tags?

Entries mainly consist of text. But there are situations where you wished that tags were allowed. Using tags for control flow is probably not the primary wish. But using tags as variables is very reasonable.

Let us make a simple example. Most weblogs also contain images. These are usually saved into a directory »images« under the root folder. But how do you...

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Question

What is Movable Type?

Answer

Movable Type is the premier weblog publishing platform for businesses, organizations, developers, and web designers. The application is installed on your web server, and is flexible and appropriate for use by web developers, professionals, organizations or businesses with customization needs. For a simpler start to weblogs, you can try our TypePad service, which includes many of Movable Type’s features on a centrally hosted server that requires no configuration.

For more information on the features and...

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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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If an entry is created with Movable Type, the date of creation is given above the title. Initially this is in a standard format, but it can be changed easily.

If you create a new entry with Movable Type the date of creation will be given above the entry's title. Initially the date is in a default format, but you can change the format easily.

Modifying a Template

The layout of the generated HTML files if defined by several templates and the variables appearing in those files. These can be changed to your liking.

Open your Movable Type project. Then on the left navigation bar select the menu item »templates«. Next a list of templates appears. Among others you will find...

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After you have started to modify the Movable Type templates according to your own style, you will probably find out, that this "programming by tags" is a little bit restricted. Often you want to use a condition for creating the HTML output in one or the other way. But Movable Type isn't able to support this very well.

And again, a plugin will do the work.

What do you need Comparisons for?

In this weblog an entry's title area consists of two parts. On the left side there is the title describing the subject. On the right side there is the date of creation.

With some entries I do not want the date to be visible. For example the entry »help« should be...

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Question

Can I use PHP code in my templates?

Answer

Movable Type templates generate standard HTML pages; so any coding language which can be used in a standard web page can also be included in your templates.

Here are some important tips to remember about using PHP in your templates:

No shortcut tags in dynamic templates

If you are using PHP in a dynamic template, you should not use the "shortcut" opening tag: <?

Instead, you should use the full version: <?php

Template Tags are processed differently in static templates than...

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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

Do you offer any installation instructions which are specific to Windows environments?

Answer

See Installing Movable Type on Windows in the 3.2 User Manual.

For more detailed information on configuring your Windows server to support a Movable Type installation, please see Installing Movable Type on Windows on the Six Apart website.

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