Hi my fellow MovableType users, after using MovableType for more than one year, I want to keep a record of my current MovableType configuration. Hopefully, it will be helpful to other MovableType users. (Yes. I hope it will be as helpful as my first blog entry of MovableType Successfully Installed on Windows XP)
This Guide
The first reader for this guide is me. In case my MovableType corrupt again, I will have to reinstall the whole MovableType system by following this guide. This can also be the guide for you to setup the MovableType from ground-up exactly like this site.
MovableType Package
Download MovableType 2.64 from MovableType.org. I will choose the “Full Version” option instead of “Full Version, with Libraries”, since the libraries are really HUUUGE.
Following the instructions and maybe refer to MovableType Successfully Installed on Windows XP) to make sure the MovableType 2.64 up and running on your site. I was using MovableType 2.63 and upgraded to 2.64 without any problem.
Change Author Name
According to MovableType documenation, the default author name for MovableType is Melody and the password is Nelson. My suggestion is to change the name and password of the default author instead of creating a new one.
After login, click the “Melody” right to User: on the top bar and change the User Name to “Jian Shuo Wang” and Password to my exisiting password (I will not tell you though :-D). Also, be sure to enter an email address that you can send out email.
Chaning instead of creating another one elminate a lot of trouble regarding permissions and you don’t have to delete this default one – otherwise it will leave a security flaw – everyone knows this account. The author ID also remains 1.
Weblog Config
After entering the “The First Weblog”, the default weblog, change the Weblog name to Wangjianshuo’s Blog. The following parameters are applied to my environment:
Core Setup
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Local Site Path: E:/customer/wangjianshuo
Site URL: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/
Local Archive Path: E:\customer\wangjianshuo\archives
Archive URL: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/
Timezone: UTC+8 (China Cost Time)
Preferences:
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Descriptoin: Events (in Shanghai) that affect my life (and others’)
Number of days displayed: 7
Language for date display: English
Order of entries displayed: Descending
Default Text Formatting for new entries: Convert Line Breaks
Default Post Status: Publish
Number of words in excerpt: 60
Sanitize Spec: Use defaults
Preferred Archive Type: Individual
File extension for archive files: htm
Notify the following sites when I update my blog: [ ] blo.gs [ ] weblogs.com (both cleared)
Allow Pings on by default? [x]
Email new TrackBack pings? [x]
Turn on TrackBack auto-discovery? [ ]
Allow anonymous comments? [ ]
Order of comments displayed: Ascending
Email new comments? [x]
Text Formatting for comments: Convert Line Breaks
Allow HTML in comments? [ ]
Auto-link URLs? [x]
Allow Comments default: Open
Archiving
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Inspired by Anders Jacobsen, I put both date and title into the filename of my archive (for example: 20031109_movabletype_suggestions.htm). The advantages are: I can tell the content of an entry from the file name and the entries are sorted in time order. Also, the name makes more sense to Google and help Google to match my page with keywords. The disadvantage is, it makes the URL too long, sometimes longer than the 75 characters Jakob listed as No. 9 mistake in his article Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002.
Archive Type Archive File Template (?)
Individual <$MTArchiveDate format="%Y%m%d"$>_<$MTEntryTitle dirify="1"$>.htm
Category categories/<$MTArchiveCategory dirify="1"$>.htm
IP Banning
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Here is a list of my current IP banning list. I feel bad that I have ban a wide varity of IP from sending comment to my site. However, I cannot tolerent some spammer just change their IP’s last serveral digit (for example, when they are using dynamic ADSL ip).
194.221.32.17
193.219.66.170
193.219.66.179
213.136.113.
193.219.66.*
193.219.66
12.146.38.
202.146
61.181.5.118
193
208.63
61.181.
65.33.
209.210.176.
203.186.145.253
213.206.
62.42.228
203.186
212.171
62.42
209.21
66.169
66.119.
209.21
212.185
202.146.236.4
Template
Here is a list of templates I used in my website. I’d like to share with everyone so you may get inspired, as I benifit from many well designed websites.
You may need to save the files to your local disk and view it using your notepad.
Category News Feeding VBScript
Backup
Backup is critical especially when content management system like MovableType is used. I will get tearlessly sad if the database get corrupted. Currently, I am using three types of backup at the same time.
Full backup
From time to time (typically at interval of weeks), I will download everything from my website to local disk. The tool I am using is LeechFTP. This tool is really handy to do backup jobs. It let me feel secure that no matter what happened, I still can analyze the files on the disk to restore it. It did helped me in the last serveral disasters.
Export Entries
From time to time, I will also export my entries using the Export functions in MovableType. It is important that you double check that no entires contains a line that starts with many dashes – it is the seperator of MovableType and may cause problem.
MovableType Database Files
The database files of MovableType are also important. It is the easist way to restore from disaster if the database files are backed up.
you covered EVERYTHING – except ImageMagick
Right now, ImageMagick installs with the MOST recent version of perl, and the BETA version of the Image magic package.
Everything is very “PC” during installation, except you must run PPM from the directory that the perl package is located in in the download directory.
the active perl package needed is ActivePerl-5.8.2.808-MSWin32-x86.msi
if you re-install over a previous version, you will have to re-install most of the packages your listed in your other document.
the image magick package is ImageMagick-5.5.8-Q16-windows-dll.exe
it installs a directory in “program files” which is where you will need to launch your PPM command from:
C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-5.5.8-Q16\PerlMagick
is my installation directory
I navigate my command prompt here
then i launch PPM
then I “Install Image-Magick.ppd” at the prompt
everything will work.
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Hello Jian Shuo,
Seems big changes happened to your templates after 2007, would you like to share with your readers? :>
The category in the nav bar is the most interesting part…
thanks~
The good thing about your information is that it is explicit enough for students to grasp. Thanks for your efforts in spreading academic knowledge.