Movable Tips tag:www.movabletips.com,2009-12-09://2 2010-09-02T14:41:00Z Tips, tricks and hints for all your Movable Type needs, shared by Maarten Schenk Movable Type Pro 5.02 Automatically Posting Movable Type Updates on Twitter and Facebook tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.91 2010-09-02T14:29:33Z 2010-09-02T14:41:00Z Maarten Schenk Mark Carey, the accomplished Movable Type plugin writer, has recently released two new ones: Twitter Tools and Facebook Tools.  Both allow you to post your latest Movable Type entries to respectively Twitter and Facebook, all fully automatic.  The Twitter version even comes with support for optional URL shortening and automatically using MT tags as Twitter hashtags.  Neat!]]> The Movable Type 5.1 Presentation... in English tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.90 2010-08-03T20:13:50Z 2010-08-03T20:19:08Z Maarten Schenk MT 5.1 presentation.  Looks like most of the things I spotted in the images will indeed be in MT 5.1.  Nifty...]]> Movable Type 5.1
View more presentations from Six Apart KK.
]]> First Sneak Peek at Movable Type 5.1 tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.89 2010-08-02T22:07:27Z 2010-08-02T22:25:31Z Maarten Schenk Movable Type Development and Design conference in Tokyo, organised by Six Apart Japan.  Jun Kaneko, community manager for Movable Type, gave a presentation (in Japanese unfortunately) with slides.  I hope he puts up a translation soon... However, some words and pictures from the slideshow offer an intriguing glimpse of some new features expected in Movable Type 5.1.]]> Listing framework
It looks like there are going to be new options to customize the display of lists inside the application.  Just like with the current Edit Entry or Edit Page screen you will be able to pick which fields will be displayed in the various tables in the application (entries, pages, categories...) and it also looks like you can sort by any column you like:

listing1.gif


Not only that, but filtering also seems to get a lot more powerful:

listing2.gif

Category sorting

From this screenshot it looks like MT users will finally be able to determine an order for the various categories of a blog, which will make it easier to display a list of category archives etc. in just the order you want:

categorysorting.gif

System level
I'm not sure, but I think this screenshot means we will finally be able to manage (publish, delete...) entries from system level.  If this also works for comments, it will be great news for moderators.

system.gif

Include and Exclude
his screenshot seems to indicate that include_blogs and exclude_blogs arguments will finally be able to be used together.  This will make creating custom search results pages for just a subset of your installation much easier I think.

includeexclude.gif


]]> Setting Display Options (and Custom Field Order) for all Users of a Movable Type Blog tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.88 2010-07-15T10:30:42Z 2010-07-15T10:43:08Z Maarten Schenk I wrote about earlier.  But you can do it only for the user that is currently logged in.  What if you want to set these options for all users on a blog?  With a smallish number of authors, you could contemplate doing it manually: logging in and out and rearranging things for each user separately.]]> Six Apart ProNet mailing list recentlly asked.

A lot of discussion followed, until Jun Kaneko (Six Apart's MT Community Manager) pointed out this little gem of a plugin from Japan: EntryPrefsFixer.  (Japanese blog entry about it here).  I haven't tested it yet, but a quick look at the code seems to indicate it should work for MT4 and MT5 (and has both English and Japanese text).
]]> New Documentation for Movable Type 5 tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.87 2010-07-15T10:03:38Z 2010-07-15T10:28:53Z Maarten Schenk Hajime Fujimoto wrote the PDF book "Designer's Guide to Movable Type 5" (part 1, part 2) some time ago but unfortunately he wrote it in Japanese.  The good news is Six Apart agreed with him to have it translated and edited so it could be published on-line... for free!  They asked me for help with the editing and the first result of these efforts is online here.  More is to follow...]]>
There are plenty of example images and code snippets to re-use too.  Go have a look and check back often!
]]> Getting all Entries Linked to an Asset in Movable Type tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.86 2010-07-13T09:53:40Z 2010-07-13T10:07:22Z Maarten Schenk My solution

Back then, I solved this with a very convoluted workaround: first, dump all entries (or at least the 1000 most recent ones) using an <mt:entries> tag, then use the <mt:entryassets> tag to get the images in question.  All this was then put into a large hash with the asset id as key, after which I looped over this hash by key and displayed the relevant entry information.

This works fine, as long as the number of entries is not too large, and eventually it becomes slow.

You'll also notice I don't provide a code example.  Here is why:

The better solution

Byrne Reese of Endevver recently released a plugin named 'ExtraTags'. One of the extra tags this plugin adds to your Movable Type installation is... <mt:AssetEntries>.   Thanks to Byrne, no more slow-publishing kludgy workaround templates are needed anymore to get the entries related to an asset.  Which is nice.
]]> Discovering Preview Context in Movable Type Entry Templates tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.85 2010-07-13T09:10:47Z 2010-07-13T09:26:23Z Maarten Schenk Movable Type Open Source mailing list asked if there was an easy way to determine if an entry was being looked at in Movable Type's "preview" mode as opposed to being published "for real".  This might be useful to hide (for example) statistics tracking code, popups, automatic redirection scripts etc.]]> Endevver came up with this undocumented gem:

 <mt:If name="preview_template">...</mt:if>


]]> Downloading Older Versions of Movable Type tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.84 2010-07-08T13:31:19Z 2010-07-08T13:35:18Z Maarten Schenk http://www.movabletype.org/downloads/archives/]]> TwitterCommenters Plugin and the "Can't call method 'permalink' on an undefined value" Error tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.83 2010-06-29T14:18:51Z 2010-06-29T14:34:09Z Maarten Schenk TwitterCommenters plugin on this site, meaning you can now leave a comment using your Twitter username and password.  However, if you just install this plugin on a plain Movable Type installation you are likely to get an error message that reads "Can't call method 'permalink' on an undefined value", even if you followed the installation instructions to the letter.]]> this comment on the TwitterCommenters home page.  Under 'Design > Templates', open your 'JavaScript' template and look for the definition of the mtSignIn function.  Then replace it with this definition and save/republish your blog:

function mtSignIn() {
    var doc_url = document.URL;
    doc_url = doc_url.replace(/#.+/, '');
    var url = '<$mt:SignInLink$>';
    if (is_preview) {
        if ( document['comments_form'] ) {
            var entry_id = document['comments_form'].entry_id.value;
            url += '&entry_id=' + entry_id;
        } else {
            url += '&return_url=<$mt:BlogURL encode_url="1"$>';
        }
    } else {
if ( document['comments_form'] ) {
var entry_id = document['comments_form'].entry_id.value;
url += '&entry_id=' + entry_id;
}
url += '&return_url=' + encodeURIComponent(doc_url + '#commentform');    }
    mtClearUser();
    location.href = url;
}

The actual reason for the error is that the 'old' mtSignIn wasn't passing on the entry_id of the entry a visitor was trying to sign in from, and the TwitterCommenters plugin needed this info to be able to load the entry and get its permalink so it could redirect the visitor back to it after logging in at Twitter.

(I suspect this is because the plugin was probably developed for Melody, a fork of Movable Type, which probably has a different default mtSignIn function.)
]]> Combining Tag Attributes, AND, OR and Variables in Movable Type tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.82 2010-06-28T14:05:34Z 2010-06-28T14:18:54Z Maarten Schenk This forum posting asks the question if it is possible to do something like 
<mt:entries tag="@sometag AND $somethingelse">...<mt:entries>
to get all entries tagged with "@sometag" and some other tag (which is stored in the $somethingelse variable).
]]>
However, there is a workaround:

<mt:setvarblock name="myarg">@sometag AND <mt:var name="somethingelse"></mt:setvarblock>
<mt:entries tag="$myarg>
...
</mt:entries>​

Simply use the 'setvarblock' tag to create a new variable ($myarg) that will hold the entire argument, tags, boolean operators, variables and all. Then use that new variable as the argument and presto...  This should also work for other types of tags (categories, pages, authors...) and arguments (tags, categories, roles...).
]]> Displaying a Post Differently in Movable Type Depending on Asset Count tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.77 2010-06-22T08:04:30Z 2010-06-21T19:38:14Z Maarten Schenk Xtencil on the Movable Type Forum asks how he can show an entry in a different way depending on the number of assets present in the entry.  For example, if there are no images vs. if there are one or more.  He already attempted to use the EntryAssetsCount tag, which failed because this tag does not exist.  But never fear...]]>
<ul>
<mt:entries>
<mt:var name="thecount" value="0">
<mt:EntryAssets>
   <mt:setvarblock name="thecount"><mt:var name="__counter__"></mt:setvarblock>
</mt:EntryAssets>
<mt:if name="thecount" gt="1">
<li>Entry <mt:entryid> has more than one asset (<mt:var name="thecount">)</li>
<mt:else>
<li>Entry <mt:entryid> has one or less assets (<mt:var name="thecount">)</li>
</mt:if>
</mt:entries>
</ul>​

This bit of code will produce following output:

  • Entry 76 has one or less assets (1)
  • Entry 71 has more than one asset (6)
  • Entry 75 has one or less assets (1)
  • Entry 74 has one or less assets (1)
  • Entry 73 has one or less assets (1)
  • Entry 70 has more than one asset (6)
  • Entry 69 has one or less assets (1)
  • Entry 68 has one or less assets (1)
  • Entry 65 has more than one asset (4)
  • Entry 64 has more than one asset (2)
As you can see, you can play with the number in the 'gt' argument, so you can test for any arbitrary number of assets.

If your goal is simply to display the first asset for each post, if one is available, then use this code:

<ul>
<mt:entries>
<mt:EntryAssets>
<mt:if name="__counter__" lt="2">
<li>First asset of entry <mt:entryid> is : <mt:asseturl></li>
</mt:if>
</mt:EntryAssets>
</mt:entries>
</ul>​

Both snippets use the '__counter__' variable which is available inside almost any loop in MT and which indicates the number of times we have entered he loop so far.  If it is less than two, it means we are going through the loop for the first time. The result would look like this:

  • First asset of entry 76 is : http://www.movabletips.com/index.png
  • First asset of entry 71 is : http://www.movabletips.com/off.png
  • First asset of entry 75 is : http://www.movabletips.com/cup.gif
  • First asset of entry 74 is : http://www.movabletips.com/france.jpg
  • First asset of entry 73 is : http://www.movabletips.com/euroflag.png
  • First asset of entry 70 is : http://www.movabletips.com/ignore.jpg
  • First asset of entry 69 is : http://www.movabletips.com/cashregister.jpg
  • First asset of entry 68 is : http://www.movabletips.com/bug-pbmt-white.png
  • First asset of entry 65 is : http://www.movabletips.com/Cloud.png
  • First asset of entry 64 is : http://www.movabletips.com/moneybag.jpg
Note: if there is no asset available for a particular entry, the EntryAssets loop will not display anything.

]]> Sorting Entries Numerically by Custom Field in Movable Type tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.81 2010-06-21T20:19:01Z 2010-06-21T20:33:49Z Maarten Schenk The simple solution

Zero-pad all numbers you put in a custom field that you intend to sort by: 001, 010, 100... will line up perfectly.  Drawbacks are that you need to type a lot of extra zeroes and you better make sure you use enough places or you will end up with 1000 coming before 110...

The template solution

Compare the output of the first and last bit of template code in this example:

<mt:entries sort_by="field:order" sort_order="descend">
<li><mt:entrytitle> - <mt:entrydataorder></li>
<mt:setvarblock name="thetitle"><mt:entrytitle></mt:setvarblock>
<mt:setvarblock name="thelist{$thetitle}"><mt:entrydataorder></mt:setvarblock>
</mt:entries>

<hr>

<mt:loop name="thelist" sort_by="value numeric reverse">
<li><mt:var name="__key__"> - <mt:var name="__value__">
</mt:loop>​

For three entries, titled 'One', 'Eleven' and 'Hundred' and with respectively 1, 11 and 100 in the 'EntryDataOrder custom field, the result is this:

  • Eleven - 11
  • Hundred - 100
  • One - 1
  • Hundred - 100
  • Eleven - 11
  • One - 1

    • The code makes use of the fact that the mt:entries tag does not have an option to force numeric sorting, but mt:loop does.  By storing the entry titles and custom field values in a hash array and then sorting it on the 'value' but numerically we get the desired output.
    ]]>     Creating a 'Tag Index' on Movable Type tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.76 2010-06-21T08:38:00Z 2010-06-21T11:00:02Z Maarten Schenk Six Apart ProNet mailing list wanted something similar for his blog: an alphabetical listing of all tags along with the entry ID's of the entries that were tagged with each tag. Skot Nelson stepped up with this bit of template code.]]>
    <h2>Tag Index</h2>
    <div ID="tagListing">
    <MTTags>

    <a href="<$MTTagSearchLink$>" rel="nofollow"><span class="size<$MTTagRank$>"><$MTTagName></span></a>...&nbsp;
    <MT:Entries glue=", ">
    <a href="<MT:EntryPermaLink>"><MT:EntryID></a>
    </MT:Entries><br>
    </MTTags>
    </div>

    It produces something like this:

    Tag Index

    5.02...  68 
    announcement...  68 
    author...  63 
    authorship...  63 
    cloud...  65 
    contest...  75 
    design...  75 
    (...)

    Quite nice!  And thanks to Skot for allowing me to share it here!
    ]]>     How to Disable Zemanta on Movable Type 5 tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.71 2010-06-18T08:22:43Z 2010-06-16T12:11:55Z Maarten Schenk ]]> zemanta1.jpg
    (the coloured areas are added by Zemanta)

    Although the sidebar widget does have a 'close' link, it only closes it for the current entry.  The next entry you start writing will bring the full widget and associated tags/links options right back.

    So what is the proper way to get rid of the Zemanta widget?  It is easy if you know it: simply disable the Zemanta plugin from the system plugin settings screen.  First, open the main menu (in MT5) and click 'System Overview'.

    zemanta2.jpg

    Then open the 'Tools' menu and click 'Plugins':

    zemanta3.jpg

    Finally, locate 'Zemanta' in the list of plugins:
    zemanta4.jpg

    Now hit the 'Disable' button, and you are done!
    zemanta5.jpg

    If you later want to re-enable Zemanta, simply click the 'Enable' button again.

    Note: this procedure will disable Zemanta for all blogs on your installation.  There is no way to turn it on or off selectively for certain blogs as far as I know.  If there is, don't hesitate to leave a comment!









    ]]>     Movable Type Designers Wanted! tag:www.movabletips.com,2010://2.75 2010-06-16T12:12:26Z 2010-06-16T12:18:28Z Maarten Schenk announced a design contest for Movable Type, where you can win Adobe Creative Suite 5 Web Premium or an iPad for submitting the winning theme.  As for myself, I'm not much of a designer due to lack of artistic talent, but if you are a design talent who just needs some help with the technical side of things, don't hesitate to drop me a line! ]]>