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Jul 30, 2007 / 7:26 pm

Great features in Movable Type 4.0 I like

in Movable Type

Right now, Six Apart is busy preparing for the great upcoming release of Movable Type 4.0. One the first beta released, I tried it. During the beta development, I found many great and improvement in every release. The latest version I tried is Movable Type version 4.0-rc1. And, I’m impressed. Really impressed. I am a Movable Type big fan, and if you want to find out what features offered in the coming release, you can read some highlights. Well, I can’t cover all features and improvements. There are too many improvements. Here are my personal thoughts:

New User Interface

Movable Type offers a completely different user interface design. When I installed it for the first time, I was a little bit confused. BUT, the new interface is much better I think. Bigger fonts, better menu management, better color contrast. I hope WeblogsActionMenu plugin will be available for MT 4.

Bundled Plugins

Now, MT comes with some new plugins in the package. So, probably-most-wanted plugins are already available. Here are some of them:

• Feeds.App Lite — Feeds.App Lite helps you republish feeds on your blogs.
• MultiBlog Version 2.0 — MultiBlog allows you to publish templated or raw content from other blogs and define rebuild dependencies and access controls between them.
• StyleCatcher Version 2.0 — StyleCatcher lets you easily browse through styles and then apply them to your blog in just a few clicks. To find out more about Movable Type styles, or for new sources for styles, visit the Movable Type styles page.
• WXR Importer Version 0.1 — Import WordPress exported RSS into MT.
• Weblog Cloner Version 1.4 — Clones a weblog and all of its contents.
• Textile Version 2.04, Markdown Version 1.0.1, SmartyPants Version 1.5.1 — These plugins are related to some entry creation mode. If you like Markdown, you can use it now.

Assets Management

Related to files uploaded from MT interface, there will be a new mechanism about this. You will have a better management system for your files. The definition of files here (known as “Assets” in Movable Type) are all files (any types of files) uploaded to webhosting server using MT. All files will be treated better. You can give additional file information like tags and/or description. If you have many files, you will find “filter” and “search” features useful.

(See: Manage Assets Page screenshot — JPG, 47 Kb)

Create Pages (non-blog entry)

It will me much easier to create “Pages” in Movable Type 4. Some other blogtools — for example, WordPress — probably has a simple mechanism in handling non-blog entries. Creating static pages will be much easier in Movable Type 4. Few months ago, Typepad introduced this feature. There are some strategies to create pages in Movable Type. Later, it will be much easier.

(See: Create Page screenshot — JPG, 44 Kb)

Improved Entry Creation Page

Many improvements too here. I feel comfort when writing an entry. You can also choose the text formatting option. It is wider, bigger and cleaner. Just like the previous entry editing screen (in MT 3.3), you can customize elements you want to show. And now, your entry will be automatically saved, just in case your browser crashed or you accidentally close your browser.

(See: Create Entry Page screenshot — JPG, 73 Kb)

Import Entries

I tried to import entries from WordPress, and it works great! All entries (and also pages) can be imported without problem. And the good news is that it can also import entries from WordPress MU. There are some minor bugs, and I have submitted them. I hope they will be fixed in the next release. Are there any import tools for other platforms besides WordPress? I don’t think so. Personally, having a fixed WordPress importer will be great since WordPress seems to have the best importing system. If you ask me how to import entries from other platforms, my answer will be: Use WordPress as a bridge. ;)

You can still use Movable Type standard import format file, of course.

(See: Import Page screenshot — JPG, 53 Kb)

Community-based Weblog

We can have an open registration system for our blog now. There are some options. For example, once a user registered, they can create their own. Other important thing is that we can use this registration system in the commenting system. So, besides using authentication service like Typekey, or OpenID — if they are used — visitor can be “forced” to use internal authentication system.

(See: Registration page screenshot — JPG, 38 Kb)

Comment Authentication Options

Related to above feature, Movable Type 4 offers various comment authentication systems. Six Apart has some other products: Vox and Livejournal. You can have options on how your visitor should authenticate. Using Typekey, OpenID, Vox and/or Livejournal. You can decide what kind of method you want to use from your blog settings.

(See: Comment Authentication Options Page screenshot — JPG, 28 Kb)

Easier Template Management

Movable Type 4 default templates have many modules. Every template file has less lines. You will see many MTSetVar and also &lt$MTInclude module=""$> inside template area. Still confused? Okey, for the Main Index Template, you will have this:

<MTSetVar name="body_class" value="mt-main-index">
<MTSetVar name="main_template" value="1">
<MTSetVar name="main_index" value="1">
<MTSetVar name="sidebar" value="1">
<MTSetVar name="module_recent_entries" value="1">
<MTSetVar name="module_category_archives" value="1">
<MTSetVar name="module_author_archives" value="1">
<MTSetVar name="module_monthly_archives" value="1">
<$MTInclude module="Header"$>
<MTEntries>
<$MTEntryTrackbackData$>
<$MTInclude module="Entry Summary"$>
</MTEntries>
<div class="content-nav">
<a href="<$MTLink template="archive_index"$>">Archives</a>
</div>
<$MTInclude module="Footer"$>

If you’re not familiar with this kind of template system, you still can use the old template system. Both should work. And, we can use “Link to File” feature for easier templating. This is one of my favorite feature in MT. Anyway, there is a new feature also here: template syntax highlight. And, if you want to insert some MT tags, you can select from a list above the textarea. Choose a template tag, and it will be inserted automatically.

(See: Edit Template page screenshot — JPG, 55 Kb)

Improved Users Management

If you have plan using your Movable Type for multi-authored blogs, you can control the author permission. My favorite feature is that: more readable access management. Each “role” will have more descriptive access level. Anyway, there is a new archiving method for authors in the system. Nice.

(See: User: System-wide Page screenshot — JPG, 28 Kb) and Role Details Page screenshot — JPG, 47 Kb)

What else?

There are still many new features I did not mentioned in this post. And I believe there will be another new and improved features in the coming release. So far, I’m impressed. If you want to find out more about Movable Type, you can install it. Anyway, the installation process is easier than before. The hardest part probably in uploading files. If you just want to try the demo, you can visit http://movabletype4.org/ (some links removed there in the administration page), and explore new features Movable Type offers. Anyway, these are another things you might need to know:

• The core files are BIG. It’s 13 MB (for Movable Type 4.0 RC1). I am fine with this since I do not need to upload more files if I want to create multiple blogs.
• For now, the syntax higlighting (in template editing screen) does not work in Opera. MT 4.0 uses Codepress for this feature. And it seems that it does not support Opera (and Safari).
• The menu placement changes. For example, Archive Mapping settings now located in under Template Settings, not Publishing Settings.
• Template tags are simpler. But, you can always use your current template in MT 4.0.
• You will find some “new words” inside MT interface, i.e. assets, address book, folders, blog preferences, etc.

More information? Just visit http://movabletype.org/. You can find updates about MT 4.0 development here including known issues, changelogs, and other new features release.

• July 30th, 2007 • # 7:26 pm