Movabletype: December 2007 Archives

I've updated the site to Movabletype 4.1 beta 2 just a couple of hours ago. Thus far I haven't had any issues but as with any beta it's always possible that something will act screwy. If you notice anything weird just email me.

This is NOT the open source version. If you are looking for MTOS you can try the web site.

Here are a couple of additions and enhancements in MT 4.1:

• AtomPub Support - Atom is something Six Apart has been very involved in since it first emerged as potentially the first Internet standard for syndication over four years ago. We released one of the first implementations of the fledgling protocol over 4 years ago and we were also among the first to support the Atom syndication format when it emerged as an official standard across all of our products. And while Movable Type has long supported the Atom Publishing Protocol in MT4.1 Beta 2 we introduce support for the official AtomPub standard, making it easier and more reliable then ever to use third party posting clients with your Movable Type installation.

• Redesigned Asset Listing and Editing Screens - Beau Smith took the lead on redesigning the asset listing screen to include thumbnails of the assets you have created in your system. In addition, he designed the Edit Asset screen which includes such valuable information as a list of posts/pages in which that asset it utilized, embed information for including that asset elsewhere on the web and additional meta data about the asset. Good work Beau!

• Turing Complete Templating Language - The development team checked in the last of many enhancements to our templating language that dramatically improves upon what one can possibly publish using Movable Type. MT4.1 introduces additional looping constructs, additional variable types (like hashes and arrays) and control flow structures like If-ElseIf-Else).

I ended up trashing the templates I had going and moved to a dedicated MT install because of some issues I was having with plugins. The header is up now (obviously). What do you think?

I will have my links and sidebars back in shortly, along with some of the widgets and blogrolls that were there. I mainly want to make sure that everything is working correctly prior to putting any of that stuff back on.

The dragon mascot was done by S.O.S. Factory and I added it in to the banner. I may change the banner itself around. I am certainly not an expert with the Gimp or Photoshop so it may be a while before I get it just the way I want it.

I have also just re-installed Ajax Comments here. Basically what it does is to allow you to post a comment from the entry page and keeps you on that page. It will show you the preview but since I am using background publishing to speed things up, the comment may actually take five to ten minutes before it is actually posted. Try it out and see what it does. I will also be adding user profiles to the system shortly so that pertinant info and profile pages can be added as well as user pics. I am still not 100% sure how I am going to implement them so we will just have to wait and see about that.