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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.
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
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
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.
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 pluginFurther information and download on his site
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.
Anil Dash has a post over on the MT site about their latest "cool toy" - Motion for Movable Type
Anil's post goes into quite a bit of detail about how 6Apart expect Motion to be developed and used.
It's currently beta software in the true sense ie. it can and probably will break stuff, so don't try "upgrading" an existing install of MT to use it - seriously! MT's product manager Chris Hall explained in an email last night:
The install is similar to the normal MT install process, so nothing new there.
Action Streams are fully incorporated and, while some services could be improved on, work pretty much "out of the tin". On a related note - if you're trying to setup Flickr in MT you may find this site useful.
For the first time since they introduced it I've been able to get my profile picture to work properly - small victories can be so rewarding!
The post edit screen now includes some really nice and easy links to help you post multimedia content:
Adding an image isn't that hard in the current interface, for example, but the new functions really come into their own when you want to incorporate multimedia - such as YouTube.
Of course the real fun stuff with Motion is the ability to combine profiles and actions from other existing services both in your published content and also in terms of allowing users to authenticate easily against your install.
Admittedly I haven't had a chance to really put Motion through its paces, but it will be very interesting to see how it develops over the coming weeks and months
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Anil's post goes into quite a bit of detail about how 6Apart expect Motion to be developed and used.
It's currently beta software in the true sense ie. it can and probably will break stuff, so don't try "upgrading" an existing install of MT to use it - seriously! MT's product manager Chris Hall explained in an email last night:
... is a beta version of the next version of MT Pro,4.25*, which will include Motion. The Motion plugin required changes to core, so it is not compatible with 4.23 or earlier versions of MT. We are also not advising upgrades from prior versions to Motion at this time, as we've not tested those scenarios. (Of course, if you are really curious, you are welcome to try, but as always when upgrading, BACK UP YOUR DATABASE FIRST.)He added in a further email:
This release bundles the new Facebook Connect Commenters plugin,which we are releasing separately for MT 4.23 tomorrow. This plugin allows users to sign in with their Facebook account to comment on MT blogs, and also gives them the option of publishing their comment to their Facebook news feed, which can help give your blog visibility to the Facebook community, if that's something you desire. The Motion releases also adds many additional OpenID commenting options to MT, including AOL, Yahoo!, Google and WordPress.com.I've setup a test install here (likely to be broken and reinstalled quite a bit)
The install is similar to the normal MT install process, so nothing new there.
Action Streams are fully incorporated and, while some services could be improved on, work pretty much "out of the tin". On a related note - if you're trying to setup Flickr in MT you may find this site useful.
For the first time since they introduced it I've been able to get my profile picture to work properly - small victories can be so rewarding!
The post edit screen now includes some really nice and easy links to help you post multimedia content:
Adding an image isn't that hard in the current interface, for example, but the new functions really come into their own when you want to incorporate multimedia - such as YouTube.Of course the real fun stuff with Motion is the ability to combine profiles and actions from other existing services both in your published content and also in terms of allowing users to authenticate easily against your install.
Admittedly I haven't had a chance to really put Motion through its paces, but it will be very interesting to see how it develops over the coming weeks and months
Mark Carey from MT Hacks has released yet another useful plugin - the SelectiveCloner under a GPL license.
SelectiveCloner bridges a gap left by the "Cloner" plugin that ships with MT, as SelectiveCloner allows you to make a carbon copy of a blog's settings, templates and permissions WITHOUT content. If you want to rollout multiple blogs with the same look and feel Carey's latest release should save you quite a bit of time.
More information on his site.
SelectiveCloner bridges a gap left by the "Cloner" plugin that ships with MT, as SelectiveCloner allows you to make a carbon copy of a blog's settings, templates and permissions WITHOUT content. If you want to rollout multiple blogs with the same look and feel Carey's latest release should save you quite a bit of time.
More information on his site.
Image via CrunchBase, source unknown
One of the common problems when you look at some of the more advanced MovableType powered sites is working out how the creators were able to do certain things.
With Vanilla you can see how certain things work without having to bury yourself in a mountain of documentation.
Nice idea!
You'll find plenty of other Movable Type plugins over on the plugin directory
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If you have the iPhone (iMT) plugin installed make sure you either remove it completely or upgrade it to the latest version before attempting an upgrade to MovableType 4.2.
If, like me, you have a penchant towards installing plugins and then forgetting about them completely, you can end up in "navigation hell" post-upgrade. (I don't even own an iPhone!)
With the old version of the iPhone plugin still installed your upgrade will appear to have completed successfully, but you won't be able to access most of the navigation menus inside your new MT 4.2 Pro install.
The simplest fix is to remove the iMT directories inside both your plugins directory and your mt-static/plugins directory.
Once you've done this you can then actually make use of MT again!
Thanks to Beau for helping resolve this for me on a Sunday afternoon (even though he's currently in Japan and was on his way to bed!)
More on this on the MT forums
If, like me, you have a penchant towards installing plugins and then forgetting about them completely, you can end up in "navigation hell" post-upgrade. (I don't even own an iPhone!)
With the old version of the iPhone plugin still installed your upgrade will appear to have completed successfully, but you won't be able to access most of the navigation menus inside your new MT 4.2 Pro install.
The simplest fix is to remove the iMT directories inside both your plugins directory and your mt-static/plugins directory.
Once you've done this you can then actually make use of MT again!
Thanks to Beau for helping resolve this for me on a Sunday afternoon (even though he's currently in Japan and was on his way to bed!)
More on this on the MT forums
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Image via CrunchBase, source unknown
The upgrade process isn't that painful, though the DB upgrades do take quite a bit of time to complete ie. a good 5 minutes
There is documentation on upgrading on the MT site, as well as a supplemental document which covers some of the "gotchas" for users of various plugins / extensions.
The main "issue" would appear to be related to template differences and conflicts, but these should be easy enough to solve.
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