Orangescale.NET

Few things to consider before upgrading to Movable Type 4

Are you running a Movable Type-powered blog? If so, what version you’re using right now? MT 3.x? If you feel that the current version (MT 3.x) work for you, are you ready for the other great features offered by Movable Type 4? When I did MT4 fresh install, and read the buzz about great features offered by MT4, I really wanted to upgrade to the latest version. Why? I have many reasons, but the main reason is that I want to have those new features. Well, let’s take a look at some articles related to MT4:

• What’s New in Movable Type 4 — This is a must-read article. Bunch of new and improved features you did not have in MT3.x. Not all of them are directly related to your installation. There are some improvements on how MT4 can work with you.
• There will be Movable Type Open Source Project. If you’re an open source big fans, this is a good news.
• Getting the most from MT4 will be much easier. There are many new template tags. They will save your time.
• You will have MT4 rock your blog. I also have my own favorite feature list.
• There are still many blog posts talk about MT4. Just head to Learning Movable Type, MT Community Blog, and MT News Blog. They’re all good places to start learning about MT4. You will find many other useful references there.
• MT4 is ready for a community site. You can even have blogs created for each user in your system. There is a built-in user registration. Plus, there is some other methods of authentation systems. A live sample: Boing Boing.

I did not want to be in a hurry switching to MT4. I wanted to make sure that I do not loose any features/modifications I made in the templates. Because of the template tag changes, or the unsupported plugins. Remember, not all MT 3 plugins already supported in MT4. After I was sure that everything would be fine, and I even could have more modifications in my design, I decided to upgrade. Here are my checklist:

• Is it fine for me if I do not have the feature I had in my previous install? For example: I have a completely modified output using plugins. IF the plugin is not supported, is it fine? Well, I probably need to change the template tags.
• Do I need these plugins to generate customized output? For example: In MT3, I needed plugins to create a combined entry listing. I still want this feature. Luckily, I do not even need plugin to have this; <MTEntries lastn="x" blog_ids="1,2,3"> did the trick. Yes, you can have a combined entries using blog_ids="" attribute within your <MTEntries> container. It also works to make a combined RSS feed.
• Do I have time to work with MT4? In MT4, there are a big jump in the interface, settings, and preferences; for global settings and per-blog basis. It’s not complicated at all. Just go to the settings pages, and choose the best configuration for your blogs.

Does it seem too complicated? Actually, it’s not. Whatever your publishing platform, it is recommended that you do those standard things. It’s not only for Movable Type. There are many changes in MT4 (compared to MT3). You will see the same configurations (and some additional settings) in your MT Dashboard. What made them different is that they might have different names, and menu locations. I think the menu configuration is well-managed in MT4. It’s easier to understand.

Now, if you want to jump to MT4, it’s time to do some preparation. And, if you want to see the demo, just head to Movable Type 4 demo site. Use “demo” (without quotes) as username and password.