Installing Plug-ins

Problem

You want to extend Movable Type's functionality and install a plug-in.

Solution

Installing a basic plug-in requires you to place a file with an .pl extension into the plugins directory; however more advanced plug-ins may have additional steps.

Discussion

Plug-ins are Perl scripts with a .pl extension that reside in the subdirectory named plugins under the Movable Type application directory. (If you are running an older version of MT that was upgraded and have not installed a plug-in before, you may have to create this directory.) Each time MT is...

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The full URL (including http:// and your site's domain name) to your public weblog. This URL should not include the filename of your index file; for example, if your index file is located at http://www.example.com/blog/index.html, then the value for Site URL should be http://www.example.com/blog/.

This is a required field.

Example: http://www.example.com/blog/

You should never set your Site URL to the same value as your Movable Type application URL (i.e. your CGIPath). Publishing your weblog content to the Movable Type directory is a security hazard and can lead to numerous problems such as...

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Configuring Search for One or More Weblogs

Problem

You want to enable your system to provide users with search capabilities across one or more weblogs.

Solution

Add configuration directives to mt-config.cgi that are related to the search engine.

Discussion

The MT search engine features a number of configurable options which are maintained in the mt-config.cgi file rather than in a web interface. The search functionality is not tied to a specific weblog, and its configuration is applied system wide.

Because these functions are not tied to a specific weblog and due to...

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All roads in weblogging lead to posting entries, for without posted entries there is no weblog. It should come as no surprise that the Entries Listing and New/Edit Entry screens are where most users will find themselves when working with Movable Type.

In these screens a user can view what entries are in a weblog, filter them based on certain criteria, make new posts and edit existing ones.

Entries Listing

The Entries Listing screen displays either all the entries for the weblog or just the entries made by you. What gets displayed depends on whether or not you have been granted Edit All Posts access.

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This document describes the format required by the Movable Type import mechanism, which can be used to import entries and comments from other content management systems.

The basic import format is a list of entries, separated by the string -------- (that is eight - characters, followed by a carriage return). Each entry can be broken into two main sections; these sections are separated by the string ----- (that is five - characters, followed by a carriage return).

If you have HTML in the data that you are importing, it should not be encoded into HTML entities; the data that is in your import file is...

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While entries make up the content of a weblog and templates control how these entries are displayed, it is the process of publishing that makes a weblog go. Movable Type refers to the process of publishing as rebuilding -- a reference to its static page generation roots. When a rebuild is performed, templates and your content are merged to publish a page that visitors can view in their browsers.

Choosing Between a Static or Dynamic Publishing Model

Movable Type provides the flexibility to choose between either static page generation or dynamic pages to optimize weblog performance on a per-template...

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A container tag whose contents will be displayed if the entry in context was posted on a different day than the following/next entry in the list.

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MTDateHeader

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Configuring the System

Problem

You need to configure a Movable Type system.

Solution

Add to and modify the configuration directives in mt-config.cgi, the Movable Type configuration file.

Discussion

Configuration directives define the baseline information Movable Type needs to run in any given environment. These should not be confused with the system and weblog settings accessed through the MT interface. The configuration contains only the basic information that MT needs to get running.

The following steps detail the basic configuration each installation will initially need in...

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2.5 (2002.10.08)

• Localization: the MT interface can be available in multiple languages, on a per-author setting. • Integrated Jay Allen's mt-search (Thanks, Jay!). We've made the following changes from version 1.31b: • Rewrote ``new comments search'' to make it more scalable (using recently_commented_on functionality) • Added a search log through the Activity Log. • Added search request throttling, to help against denial of service attacks. • Merged mt-search.cfg directives into mt.cfg....

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Introduction

Movable Type is the premier weblog publishing platform for businesses, organizations, developers, and web designers. Powerful customization gives you control over everything you publish and the elegant interface keeps things simple and clear.

Features

• Unlimited Blogging

Movable Type offers the ability to publish an unlimited number of blogs quickly and easily through a single installation of the application. And the platform supports posting by as many authors as you need, with no limit on the numbers of entries, comments, or TrackBacks the system...

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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...

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Ok, I entered the weblog arena rather late. Initially I probably did not estimate the consequences correctly. For me blogging meant users who sat down in the evening for telling the world about their daily problems. There were cooking recipes here, and essays about presidential elections there. Sometimes interesting, sometimes boring - but nothing I was interested in doing myself.

When working and reading in the internet you can hardly avoid finding weblogs all over the place. Sometimes I quickly move on, sometimes I start reading a bit. But starting a weblog myself? I really had no interest in this.

This month I had found the way to Six Apart. Six Apart is a company offering products...

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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...

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We should probably included a full explanation of TrackBack and how it works, but there isn't enough time to do it justice.

Needs refinement. This comes in out of nowhere. better define "resource" and "communication."

Weblog comments still require the use of that particular site's interface and the content is limited to that one weblog unless it is cut, pasted, and posted elsewhere.

Released in August 2002 as both an open protocol and new functionality in MT version 2.2, TrackBack was designed to provide a means of notification through a small message called a ping that establishes a link between...

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By default, Movable Type offers two formatting options for the text in your entries: None and Convert Line Breaks. The former leaves your entry intact without any conversion and is appropriate for HTML-formatted entries. The latter includes basic formatting of paragraphs and line breaks allowing you to write as you would normally.

The Movable Type Plugin API allows you to add additional options via plugins such as the popular Markdown and Textile.

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With the most difficult part of running Movable Type -- the installation -- behind you, it is time to get started using MT.

It all begins with The Movable Type Content Management System (CMS). This script is the heart and soul of what makes powerful weblog publishing possible.

The CMS contains the majority of the intelligence and work flow that makes Movable Type what it is. Whether it involves posting an entry, adding a colleague as an author, or publishing your content with a whole new style, it is the CMS that is doing the heavy lifting.

By default the CMS script is named mt.cgi, although this...

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I am going to describe the basics of Movable Type in a short introduction. You do not have to know anything about Movable Type for understanding it. However, when following this three-part introduction, you will learn to know the most important components and gain a good overview. • Movable Type Basics / 1 • Movable Type Basics / 2 • Movable Type Basics / 3

Templates

In the previous part we explained that entries are stored in a database. However, you will not find the website's HTML in the database. Instead, just the attributes of an entry are stored as columns in a database table. But how does Movable Type create HTML out of this?

In Movable Type there are a number of...

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After you have uploaded a file, you have the choice of either creating a new entry using that uploaded file, or just displaying the HTML used to link to the file. For example, if you have uploaded an image, and would like to create a new entry with a link to that image in a popup window, select Create a new entry using this uploaded file, and press POPUP IMAGE. If you are already editing an entry, then you won't want to create another new entry (and perhaps lose the one that you are working on); so in that case, click the Show me the HTML button and click POPUP IMAGE. This will display the HTML code for...

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SpamLookup is an anti-spam plugin created by Movable Type engineer Brad Choate, which identifies spam based on a number of unique characteristics and administrator based tests. It includes: • IP address blacklist lookups • Domain name blacklist lookups • IP address source correlation • Lookup whitelists • Link limits • Email and Link memory tests • Keyword filtering

This plugin has been updated for Movable Type 3.2 and utilizes the feedback rating framework. Each test that is enabled contributes to the final composite score of a feedback item. The final score after all tests (SpamLookup and other plugins)...

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Introduction

One of Movable Type's most powerful traits is its flexibility to adapt to practically any weblog design or use you can imagine. For the average user, most of this flexibility comes from Movable Type's template engine.

The template engine is crucial to automating the process of publishing and is what makes a publishing system go. When a rebuild is performed, templates are merged with content to create a page that visitors can view in their browsers.

These templates are what control the design and layout of your site and what keeps that design separate from the...

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