Babble On

Send Entries Using HTML Formatted Email

2008-12-29T01:17:01Z

There used to be a plugin for earlier versions of Movable Type called MT-Mail-Entry that allowed you to send friends a HTML-formatted email that included the entire entry. For 3.5 users, it works fine. For anyone that upgraded it's no longer an option.

I've seen several requests from MT4 users for a plugin to send emails and Dan Wolfgang has provided a solution with a plugin called Share. Here's what he has to say about it:

]]>

At its core Share will let you add an "email this to a friend" form to entries -- but it goes far beyond that!

Share will let you create a plain text or HTML formatted email through a template, which means email can be branded with your site logo and can include not just a link back to the selected page, but also related entries or category links or anything else MT can generate! The email subject line can also be customized.

Maintaining your site's design is important: the Result template will provide feedback to users about Share's success or failure while maintaining your site's look.

Oh, how I hate spam! Spammers will submit to any and every form that they can find, including comments, search boxes, and even Share's form. Spammers will be kept at bay through email address validation as well as by using the installed junk filters to test for validity, such as SpamLookup and TypePad AntiSpam.

You can try it out on entries on this site by clicking on the email link in the entry footer. The link will take you to the "Email this to a friend" form at the bottom of the page.

Dan makes some persuasive points for using his plugin. It's easy to install following Dan's instructions. Style the form to look like your comments form and add header and footer styles to the Share Email Body template. You'll find these styles if you look at your site's CSS.

For corporate bloggers, this is a fantastic way to brand your emails so they retain the look of your site and I recommend this plugin to all bloggers who use Movable Type.

All Comments Not Getting Published

2008-12-29T00:47:56Z

I had a problem viewing some of the comments on one of my posts. I thought it must be a comment limit somewhere in the code, and after checking all the templates and scripts, I couldn't find anything that limited the number of comments displayed.

I read through the Activity Log, which I've found to be a great troubleshooting tool.

I found the following 3 errors:

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Page Layout died with: Can't call method "text" on an undefined value at /home/juneeonline/mt4.juneeonline.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/PageLayout/lib/PageLayout/Plugin.pm line 41. 

QuickRebuild died with: Can't call method "translate_templatized" on an undefined value at /home/juneeonline/mt4.juneeonline.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/QuickRebuild-0.3.3/lib/QuickRebuild/App.pm line 91. 

Template Shelf died with: Can't use string ("") as a subroutine ref while "strict refs" in use at /home/juneeonline/mt4.juneeonline.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/TheHandyman/TemplateShelf.pl line 43.

I disabled the Quick Rebuild and Page Layout plugins and rebuilt the entry archives using the conventional Publish Site button. All comments were displayed. I had previously used the Quick Rebuild button to publish just the entries, so I'm guessing this plugin was the cause of the problem.

The Template Shelf plugin stopped working with the release of Movable Type Pro version 4.23. A shame, because it was a very handy tool.

MT 4.23 Update Released

2008-12-04T22:46:07Z

Movable Type has released a security upgrade that fixes XSS vulnerabilities, and recommends updating to 4.23 as a mandatory. The vulnerability hasn't been exploited yet, but this update will ensure that your installation is secure.

I read one problem in particular on the MT forum that I took into account when updating. If you've installed the recent update for StyleCatcher, then do no update this plugin. The version included in the release is an older version than the one recommended for use with the Sandbox Plugin version 1.1.

Remember to keep a backup of your old directory before updating. That way you have a copy of your previous version and can reinstate if anything goes wrong. My upgrade was smooth and hassle-free. I hope your is too.

Updated Joost Action Streams Plugin

2008-10-25T07:04:22Z

The plugin for Joost Action Streams has been updated to include favourites. If you've previously installed this plugin I recommend deleting Joost from "Other Profiles" and all the Joost activity and re-adding it to your "Other Profiles".

If you've turned in to a Joost junkie like I have, you may find this useful. I came across a handy script today on Libby's site for showing the latest watched videos on Joost and have included it in the sidebar on my Activity Stream. It didn't show the thumbnail for the video, however the possibility was included in the code, so after some editing, I was able to get it to show up.

]]> Create a new template module and call it "Last Watched on Joost".

Paste the following code:



      Last Watched on Joost

You'll need to change Toni_H to your own user name and "Toni just watched" to yourself. Otherwise you'll be getting my feed. Save the template. You could add this code directly into the sidebar template where you want it to appear, or create a widget template instead of a template module (which is what I did). Add this line of code to your sidebar for the template module you created.

Or in the case of a widget, change module= to widget=.

Publish your blog.

Adding the ShareThis Button to Mid-Century

2008-10-25T06:26:25Z

There's a tutorial on Rob Kenny's The Composing Stick with instructions for adding AddThis or ShareThis buttons to your posts. After receiving a request today, I decided to show where the code goes if you're using the Mid-Century Template Set.

How do you add the ShareThis link on your post? I use the same theme, but I don't know how to do it. Can you please put that as a tutorial on your site?

]]> Follow the instructions from The Composing Stick. I might note here that I only added the code to the entry template. When you sign up on ShareThis, they give you the option to customise the look of the ShareThis popup window to match the theme of your site. Look at the CSS for your stylesheet to decide on the link and text colours to use.

After you create the new template module, go to the entry template and look for the following line of code:


<$MTTagName$>

Replace with this:


<$MTTagName$> | <$mt:include module="ShareThis"$>

Rebuild your blog.

Joost Action Streams Plugin

2008-10-21T10:10:31Z

Joost is a website where you can watch good-quality videos of music, TV shows, movies, etc, and where members can add their own or one of their friend's activities to a feed reader. Now you can add Joost to your Movable Type activity stream with a few simple steps.

You need to have Action Streams up and running on your site. I've tested using Movable Type 4.2 but it should work with 4.1.

]]> Download the Joost Action Streams Plugin, and upload to the appropriate folders on your site.

If you installed the previous version 1.0, I recommend deleting Joost from "Other Profiles" and all the Joost entries in your Activity Stream. Version 1.1 adds favourites and uses XPath.

Drop the joost folder out of the plugin directory into /cgi-bin/mt/plugins/ and the joost folder inside mt-static/plugins into /mt-static/plugins/.

Configure the "Other Profiles" by adding the Joost service with your username, and if all went well, the list will appear in your activity stream.

Add the following CSS to include the Joost icon in your published feed, at the end of (or after) the action-streams.css:


.service-joost { 
background-image: url(mt-static/plugins/joost/images/joost.png); 
}

If anyone knows a way to add the thumbnails for the videos I'd love to know. In the meantime, enjoy.

A Love Affair With Movable Type

2008-10-15T12:12:26Z

I spent a few hours last night reading through my early blog entries on Toni's Corner of the World while I re-established comments on the old posts that I'd disabled after reading The Price of Closing Comments on Old Posts. Since upgrading to MT4.2 with TypePad Anti-Spam the need for comment moderation has practically ceased. This anti-spam program catches all the nasties and the reason for disabling older comments no longer exists.

]]> It was an interesting look at my early blog experience while I went through each post to turn comments back on. I started using Movable Type back in December 2004 on Toni's Corner of the World, and the learning experience has been an upward curve ever since. During April 2005 I started learning CSS and was posting entries every day. Many of my posts during that time were short, just a paragraph with very few links to what I talked about.

Around that time I started to take a closer look at the Movable Type template system and discovered plugins. I was looking at photo galleries. I discovered Learning Movable Type and spent a whole month adding examples from LMT to my site, fluid layouts and converting to PHP were all new experiences for me. Until then I didn't even know what PHP was, and a fluid layout???? What is that? During April I was staying up till 2 am deep in code. I integrated Gallery into my MT blog, a task that required me to add an extra 13 templates, and then getting the CSS right was a major feat for somebody who had previously used tables and old font calls.

By the end of April 2005 I started sharing code snippets. By May 2005 I was obsessed with valid XHTML, which I attributed to using Markdown for MT posts. The code was valid without me having to know anything about it. I redesigned another site, using all my new-found skills, changing it from tables to CSS and made it fully XHTML validable. The project took me over a month and it was something I was immensely proud of.

In August 05 I had a go at Blogger and I still manage to post there quite regularly (Toni's Alternate World). I had a go with MSN Spaces in October 2005, but it wasn't long before I realised the limitations with Spaces. You couldn't add any extra code: it was stripped out of the posts, and before long I was frustrated and moved everything to a new MT blog. My favourite blogging platform was Movable Type.

By August 2006 I was had 8 weblogs, something I attribute to the Style Contest, where I kept discovering themes that I totally loved, and so designed new sites around.

December 2004: Toni's Corner of the World
April 2005: Inspirational Tidbits
August 2005: Toni's Alternate World
November 2005: Spitting Into the Wind
December 2005: The Playground
May 2006: The Billy Lids
May 2006: Loving You
June 2006: Fully Sick
June 2007: Babble On
March 2008: Toni Hambilton Online

My love affair with Movable Type has only intensified over the years, and over the last 4 years I've learned so much about the blogging platform that these days I'm a passionate advocate for MT with new bloggers. Through reading these older posts I realise just how little I knew when I first started out but I've kept at it, learning all the time.

To all those people who give up quickly and say MT is too hard to learn, I say there's plenty of support out there if you look for it. Every problem I've had, I've searched through the forums and site searches until I've found a fix. Most MT bloggers are more than willing to help if they can. It's as easy as leaving a comment.

Pagination in Movable Type

2008-10-10T11:03:40Z

Much has been written on the various techniques for using pagination in Movable Type. Jesse Gardner posted an entry on PlasticMind that gives a good explanation of some of the more popular approaches, their benefits and drawbacks.

]]> I tested Chad Everett's Smarty approach on a blog where the category archives were getting out of hand. (And it's still using the 3.5 templates though powered by 4.21, so monthly categories are not used). Chad's example works, but I had to change the publishing for categories to dynamic and wanted to show page numbers and style them to fit with the blog's theme.

Previous | Next

Mark Carey's Pagination Plugin will only work with the index page. You need Pagination Pro to paginate your Category, Author, date-based archives, and Entry archives.

Creative Spirits offers a javascript approach to pagination. It requires 3 plugins to work and will create hidden "pages" that are viewable on request. An interesting tutorial but not for the faint-hearted.

After much searching, I found a plugin called Paged Archives that requires very little template editing and can be used on the main index, category and date-based archives that use static publishing. This plugin is free, and can be styled however you wish.

Styled "out of the box"

Check out the comments on the site to see how the additional styling is added

TypeKey Validation Error

2008-09-26T10:39:31Z

For the last week I've been trying to fix an issue with the TypeKey login. Initially I was alerted by a commenter to the problem and it turned out I didn't have the website configured properly with TypeKey. The web address needs to have a trailing slash, ie http://www.sitename.com/. Once I corrected that, it worked.

]]> Then a couple of days later when I logged in I was met with the upgrade screen, though I didn't think anything had changed, and as far as I could tell, everything was okay. But then I was alerted again to the fact that the TypeKey login wasn't working. So for 3 solid days I read everything I could about TypeKey login problems, changed settings, reset keys, even set up a new authentication key and nothing made a difference. The Sixapart forum must have put this one in the too hard basket because I got no response from the post I added.

An error occurred: The sign-in validation failed.

Pretty vague error. I searched using Google and came up with an error response in the comment.pm file that said:


# Signature didn't match, or timestamp was out of date.
# This implies tampering, not a user mistake.
return $app->error($app->translate("The sign-in validation failed."));

Six Apart's Knowledge Base had an article on TypeKey errors that explained what to do in the event of this particular error, though it didn't help. I tried testing the timestamp issue, and that seemed to be okay. As for the advice on changing links in the template, since it related to MT3.2 it wasn't really applicable.

Around this time too my MT install was getting really sluggish. It was taking forever to log in and to go from one screen to another. This made me think there was a problem with the latest update, namely the 4.21 update, and so I updated again, just to make sure there wasn't any problem. When I updated, I didn't even get the upgrade screen, so I assumed that was a wasted exercise.

The next stop was the activity log to see if any errors were recorded there. All my failed login attempts were recorded here, along with a couple of commenter's failed attempts, but no real clues as to the problem. I even checked the errors against the TypeKey API to see if there was a problem somewhere there, but everything seemed right. By now, around day 3, I'm pretty frustrated and greatly bit pissed off, so then I head to the server error logs to see what I can see.

Wow, lots of mod-rewrite errors.

[Thu Sep 25 01:56:25 2008] [error] [client 74.6.17.151] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.
[Thu Sep 25 01:57:10 2008] [error] [client 74.6.17.151] mod_rewrite: maximum number of internal redirects reached. Assuming configuration error. Use 'RewriteOptions MaxRedirects' to increase the limit if necessary.

Next I check out the htaccess file in the root folder and there's a mile of MT specific code. So I delete all that. None of my other websites have it so I figure I'm not doing anything drastic to the install. And what do you know? I try to log in with a TypeKey username to comment and it works. Relief.

I could have just disabled the TypeKey authentication and not worried that it didn't work but that's not how I play. Dammit... I wanted everything just right. No errors. No problems. And so I persisted until I found the problem. So if you ever you have that particular TypeKey error, you might try looking at you htaccess file in the root folder and see what MT has added. It might be the culprit.

Sandbox Plugin

2008-09-10T13:10:10Z

A new Sandbox plugin has been released for Movable Type that enables users to benefit from the many themes available from the Sandbox Design competition launched last year for Wordpress users. The idea is reminiscent of The Style Contest that was held in 2006 for designers to come up with new themes for MT 3.x. The plugin provides an ideal opportunity for those users who've been complaining about the lack of styles for MT4 to give their sites a facelift. And finally, you can choose from either fixed-width designs that are preset to a certain pixel width or fluid designs that will automatically enlarge to fit the width of the browser screen.

]]> Beau Smith has created a beautiful and functional site using one of the Sandbox themes that is a perfect example of how to build a targeted website, as well as offering some valuable tips for Movable Type users. You'll find everything you need to know about the Sandbox plugin on his site.

A new version of StyleCatcher comes with the plugin that makes it easy to switch between the available styles. You can also download styles from the Sandbox Designs site and installing them is easy. The live demo site lets you see the designs in their entirety. I spent hours last night playing with the new plugin, switching between themes and browsing the live site. Below are two themes that I downloaded and installed that are available from Sandbox Designs.

Notepad Chaos: A Template Set for Movable Type

2008-09-01T08:21:10Z

Movable Type users looking for something different for their personal blog will love this template set. The design features a notebook look on a striking and vibrant background. "Personal" elements include hand-written search, headings and comment form, and post-it note styled sidebar and date tags.

]]>

Notepad Chaos was designed by Evan Eckard for Smashing Magazine, who made it freely available for Wordpress users, and who kindly gave their permission to re-distribute it for Movable Type.

The conversion to Movable Type required quite a bit of template tweaking and so I've packaged it as a plugin for easy installation.

Installation

Unpack the NotepadChaosTemplateSet archive.
Copy the contents of NotepadChaosTemplateSet/plugins into /path/to/mt/plugins/
Copy the contents of NotepadChaosTemplateSet/mt-static/plugins into /path/to/mt/mt-static/plugins/

To create a new blog using this template set, simply select "Notepad-Chaos Template Set" as the template set on the Create Blog page.

To use it on an existing blog, go the Design > Templates screen in Movable Type and click "Refresh Blog Templates" under Actions in the right column. Choose "Apply new template set" and select "Notepad-Chaos Template Set" from the options. Press the "Continue" button and then the "Confirm" button and then republish your site.

To Do

You will need to create an "About" page. Save the page in a folder called about, and name the page index.html. Tag the page @about.

The links in the sidebar need to be created. Edit the sidebar template module and add the website paths and titles for your link list.

Edit the footer template module to add some text that will be appropriate there.

Using the Command Line for Fast Upgrades

2008-08-23T09:11:14Z

My site is hosted on Dreamhost, and the reason I signed up with them was so I could use a command line for direct access to my hosting account on the web server to easily configure accounts, transfer large files, setup cron jobs, make backups, etc. No more hours of waiting for conventional FTP installs! I use WinSCP, an open source SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is the secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers basic file manager functionality. It uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports, in addition to Secure FTP, also legacy SCP protocol.

Prior to using this program, I used a conventional FTP program to upload the uncompressed Movable Type install. The process was slow and could take a couple of hours to move all the files to the server. It's no wonder that some people put off upgrading their installations. These days I just upload the compressed file to my server, uncompress using the secure shell command and drag and drop files and folders. The whole process takes less than half an hour.

]]> Today a read a fantastic tip on movabletype.org that has cut the upgrade process down considerably more. Upgrading from MT4.2 to MT4.21 took less than 3 minutes. I'm using Movable Type Pro so my instructions vary slightly to those posted by phretor.myopenid.com.

First, you need to know the path to the version of MT that you're upgrading. Go to the download page and choose your download format (zip or tar.gz). Either will work but the command will be different. Click to download but cancel the actual download. You don't need to download the file. You'll see a thank you page with a link to directly download the file if the automatic download doesn't start.

If your download does not begin within 5 seconds click here.

Use your mouse to right click on the "click here" link and choose to copy the link location.

Open your secure shell window (or command line interface) and navigate to the folder that has your mt folder in it.

Enter the following lines into the command line:


$ cp -pR mt mt-bak
$ wget wget http://www.movabletype.com/downloads/blogger/MT-4.21-en.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz MT-4.21-en.tar.gz
$ rsync -a --progress MT-4.21-en/ mt/

The first line creates a backup of your mt folder.

The second line gets the file from Movable Type and puts it into the folder. You can paste the path in that you saved previously.

The third line uncompresses the file. If you saved the link for the zip file, change tar xvfz to unzip.

The fourth line uses the rsync command to copy the files that have changed in the new version.

If you have the mt-static folder in a different location, rename the one inside the mt folder to mt-static-new and drag it across to the same directory as the old version. Type in the following line:


$ rsync -a --progress mt-static-new/ mt-static/

Any files that have changed in the mt-static folder will be upgraded.

Before deleting any folders or files on the server, log in to MT and go through the upgrade process to make sure everything went smoothly.

A great tutorial on Dreamhost's Wiki explains in detail how to do an automated MySQL database backup, with the option to zip the file and email it to you. Instructions are also available for a complete domain backup.

Computer Jargon

2008-08-17T06:43:00Z

A post on the MT forum called Cruft-free URL annoyances got my attention today and sent me scurrying for a definition.

According to Wikipedia, Cruft is computing jargon for code, data, or software of poor quality. The term is also used for the fluff that accumulates on computer equipment.

My hackles went up as I continued to read...

Cruft is computer jargon for something (especially code) that is obsolete, redundant, over-complex, incomprehensible, or superfluous.

It really does pay to read complete articles before jumping to conclusions.

When referring to URLs, 'cruft' is the parts which are only relevant or meaningful to the people who created the site, such as implementation details of the computer system which serves the page. Examples of URL cruft include file extensions such as .php or .html, and internal organisational details such as /public/ or /~users/john/work/drafts/.

]]> I also discovered that I have a cupboard full of cruft, and am a collector of cruft. Who would have known? This is a new word for me so perhaps I'm not as geeky as my friends seem to think.

Cruft can also be used to describe the unused and out of date hardware and computing paraphernalia that is collected by geeks either through upgrading, inheritance or simple acquisition, both deliberate and through circumstance.

Do I Need To Go Pro?

2008-08-13T08:43:32Z

With the release of Movable Type Open Source version 4.2, co-inciding with the release of Movable Type Pro, the biggest decision now is which one to install? Do I want to go with all the additional features offered with Pro?

MT Pro combines the power and flexibility of the open source core Movable Type with the rich content management capabilities of the Movable Type Professional Pack, and all the community features of the Movable Type Community Solution.

After reading that the new Pro version is free for personal use, it makes the decision to upgrade to Pro that much easier. There's plenty of new documentation to take advantage of the community features, and tips for improved performance.

Up and Down On a Learning Curve

2008-08-05T09:49:48Z

I've made a few changes to the theme, and noticed a couple of things that happened when I transferred this blog rather than just updating the templates to use the new theme.

Using the current Mid-Century theme required installing a new template set. Rather than editing every template, I created a new blog and imported all the entries and assets across. The only change is the blog id number.

First, the assets had to be imported and the ID's are probably different. I wouldn't recommend my approach if you had lots of images in your posts. Luckily I had very few to fix up.

]]> Something else I just noticed is the feeds. All my posts are out of order because the feed must look at the created on date instead of the publish date, and so it looks as if I haven't posted for 2 months. The older posts are being read first, because the create dates are all the same. All created on the day I imported the entries. This isn't something I considered when I created a new blog. I would have been better off copying all the new templates over to the old blog.

My comment forms weren't working and when I fixed them I think I discovered a sure-fire way to get the reCaptcha plugin working. This has been a problem from day 1 for many people, and I've always used 2 recaptcha plugins at the same time to make it work. The MT plugin from recaptcha.net doesn't work in MT on it's own, and MT's own recaptcha plugin has had its problems. Using the two together, with the tag guarantees the captures will work. You'll also be providing a community service by helping in the process of digitizing books that send words that can't be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher. More specifically, each word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is placed on an image and used as a CAPTCHA.