Movable Type 4+

The Future of Movable Type??

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:00:38 +0000

With the announcement that SixApart is merging with VideoEgg to become Say Media it is effectively "the end of an era".

Seemingly SixApart Japan will retain its name and the development of Movable Type for the moment.

Movable Type Theme Contest

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:41:46 +0000

A Movable Type design (theme) contest has been launched with some pretty good prizes:

Adobe Creative Suite
iPad

Full details are available here

NB: The theme has to work with Movable Type 5, which is the most recent version

Sharing Content Via AddThis

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:01:46 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Being able to share your content easily is always a good thing. If someone can "tweet" your post or share it on Facebook, then you might get more traffic .. How can that be a bad thing?

The AddThis service offers a very nice selection of features and their plugin for Movable Type is very simple to implement

Simply download the plugin. Upload the entire "AddThis" folder into your MovableType plugin directory and you're practically done. All you need to do then is add the new template tag to your site and you can start using it.

Full details here

I intend to add it to several other MT sites that I run over the next few days.

Movable Type 5 Release Candidate Available

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:16:20 +0000

SixApart have made available a release candidate of Movable Type 5

RC1's release announcement includes plenty of detail on which bugs have been fixed, which ones haven't and how to let them know about problems.

It also comes with a new theme

Full details here

MovableType 4.31 Released

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:03:14 +0000

Earlier this evening SixApart released MovableType 4.31 (though they're referring to it as 4.3)

The latest release brings several enhancements to the software which are detailed by Matt Jacobs here

Movable Type 4.3 Released

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:10:23 +0000

Sixapart announced the release of MovableType 4.3 last night.

The new release brings improvements in a number of areas, with emphasis on performance and functionality.

Full details of the new release are here, while more details may be found here

Twitter Comments Now With OAuth

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:35:14 +0000

MT Hacks have released an updated version of their Twitter Comments plugin which now supports OAuth.

OAuth support is a welcome addition, as it means that you do not need to share your Twitter login details with a 3rd party website.

Full details, demo and download from their site

Using TypePad For OpenID

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:29:57 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Since Typepad is a SixApart service ...

Anyway, if you have a TypePad account you can use it as your OpenID on a growing number of sites and services.

If the site / service does not explicitly mention typepad the address (URL) you need to use is:

profile.typepad.com/username

You just need to replace "username" with your actual TypePad username and off you go!

New Twitter Plugin With Hashtag Support

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:21:39 +0000

Ian Fenn's Twitter plugin works really well, so I won't be changing as yet....

However there's always room for new and more feature rich plugins, so the latest Twitter plugin is very welcome.

Rob Kenny's Hashtag plugin adds support for hashtags - which are becoming increasingly popular among twitter users.

movabletype, plugins, twitter

Movable Type 4.24 Released

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:31:15 +0000

SixApart have released MovableType 4.24.

This release, while minor, is aimed at addressing a security issue which SixApart informed its partners about earlier during the week. They released a patch at the time, though have not provided any details as to what the actual security problem was.

The new version of MovableType does, however, bring one new feature - an improved password recovery method:

Rolled into the MTE 4.24, MT Pro 4.24, and MTOS 4.24 release, however, is an improved Password Recovery mechanism. Now only an email address is required for MT to trigger the recovery email, making the Password Hint obsolete.

This is a welcome improvement!

SixApart Consolidates Community Support

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:00:44 +0000

If you frequent the 6Apart websites for Movable Type you'd be forgiven for getting a bit confused at times.

Up until earlier tonight there were two user support forums in operation!

Why?

Legacy issues basically...

As of a few hours ago the old forums are dead and everyone is being directed to the new ones... which are powered by Movable Type

MT Motion New Beta Released

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:24:49 +0000

Beta 2 of MT Motion has been released.

I've been trying to get my hands on a changelog, but haven't had any success yet :(

Custom Headers For Movable Type

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:25:05 +0000

Byrne has released another plugin for MovableType that allows users to easily customise their header image:

The Custom Header Plugin for Movable Type makes it easy for users to upload and customize the header for their blog. It uses javascript and Ajax to make the customization process as seamless, intuitive and painless as possible. No knowledge of HTML or CSS is required, but the theme you are using must explicitly support this plugin

Further information and download on his site

The Power Of Widgets

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:26:31 +0000

Image via CrunchBase, source unknown

Movable Type 4's widget system may seem a little bit confusing at first, however it's not that daunting once you get your head around it.

Widgets are like snippets of code. You can have lots of widgets that do lots of different things.

For example, on several of the MT powered sites that I manage I use the widgets to handle my Google Adsense and other affiliate banners / buttons.

By using a widget to hold the code I can achieve several things:

The widget is self-contained, so if I need to update the code I don't have to poke through lots of different templates - I just update it in one place
You can move the widgets around ie. decide which one displays first in a widget set
You can remove a feature by simply removing the widget from its parent set

On a another site we're using the widgets for things like "useful links" and "blog rolls".

They're handy!

Simple Guide To Installing MovableType Plugins

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 09:05:00 +0000

Byrne has posted a useful guide to help people extend their MovableType powered site via plugins ie. how to actually install plugins step by step.