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› June 18, 2004
“Using Movable Type 2.6x/3 for non-weblog content management”
A while ago, after upgrading the K.U.Leuven Japanese Studies website from a bunch of handcoded pages to a small, CMS-powered & standards compliant site, I decided to write a short howto-article. 'Howto', because we used the weblog CMS Movable Type 2.6x for the content management of a non-weblog site - certainly not rocket-science, but well, there was some template and system tweaking involved, so hence the write-up. However, due to several reasons, the article stayed in a forgotten folder on my harddrive. Then, about a month ago, there was the launch of Movable Type 3 (including a new much talked about licensing system), which made a lot of people move to open source alternatives and rendered my article sort of obsolete - or not? Anyway, I decided to give the Web-Graphics readers the last word - feedback, suggestions, additions are welcome (like: does it also work with Movable Type 3? Update 2004-07-12: It does work with MT3! Thanks, Seth.). Here it is: Using Movable Type 2.6x/3 for non-weblog content management
Intro
Recently, I got involved in the redesign of an academic website. Besides reorganising the site's content and giving it an XHTML and CSS treatment, the site had to be easy to update, that is, by both the web developers and the academic staff. The idea of using a content management system was in the air. As we had some experience with Movable Type 2.6x, we decided to see if we could tweak it for our needs.
What follows is a possible approach in setting up Movable Type 2.6x/3 for the content management of a rather small, but frequently updated website. After dealing with the basic setup and template editing, we'll focus on how to add content to your site, and finish with some extra tips for unleashing the functionality Movable Type 2.6x/3 offers.
Basic setup
In the whole setup story, the Individual Entry Archive template plays the principal role. With this template, you define the general look of the pages on your site, while addition of content happens by creating new entries or editing existing ones.
Before all that, we need to adjust some of the settings in the MT Configuration screen, though.
In the Core Setup section, the Archive URL needs to be defined as http://your.spotonthe.net instead of http://your.spotonthe.net/archives as the Individual Entry Archive template will not be used for archiving purposes, but for generating the webpages of your site.
Jumping to the Preferences section, you set the Preferred Archive Type to Individual, uncheck the Allow Pings by default option, and set Allow Comments default to None.
Then, Archiving: you only need the Individual Archive Type, so deleting or unchecking the other ones listed is a good idea. For small sites, it is enough to specify the Archive File Template, that is, the output path for your website's pages, as:
<$MTEntryKeywords dirify="1"$>.htmlMore complex sites that require grouping of webpages into folders are probably better off with something like:
<$MTEntryCategory dirify="1"$>/<$MTEntryKeywords dirify="1"$>.htmlSo, the filename of your webpages will be based on the keyword(s) you add under an individual “entry”, while the folder in which they reside is distilled from the category in which you “post” your “entries”.
OK, time for some template tweaking.
Template time
The body of a very basic Individual Entry Archive template will look like this:
<html>
<head>
<title><$MTEntryTitle$></title>
</head>
<body>
<h1><$MTEntryTitle$></h1>
<div>
<$MTEntryBody$>
</div>
</body>
</html>Of course you could also add some author info in e.g. the footer of the page:
<div>Created by <a href="mailto:<$MTEntryAuthorEmail spam_protect="1"$>"><$MTEntryAuthor$></a>.</div>And maybe a modification date (provided that contributors adjust the date manually when updating a page):
<div>Last update on <$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%d"$>.</div>Needless to say, Movable Type 2.6x/3 also allows you to include other information in your template, such as a Creative Commons license, a description of your website, etc.
Creating webpages
For adding a new page to your site, go to the Create New Entry section and spread out your superb content over the Title and Entry Body fields. Then, decide about the filename of the page you want to create and put it in the Keywords field. So, in case you wrote about, let's say the art of making good sushi, the value in the Keywords field could be something like “sushi art”, which is translated as sushi_art.html once you hit the Save button. The page you created then can be viewed at http://your.spotonthe.net/sushi_art.html.
As mentioned earlier, it is also possible to group pages into folders. In order to do so, you need to define the correct Archive File Template (i.e. <$MTEntryCategory dirify="1"$>/<$MTEntryKeywords dirify="1"$>.html). Back to our sushi example: when working with folders, you do not only assign keywords (e.g. “sushi art”) to your submission, but also a Primary Category – e.g. “food”. So, after saving we would get something like http://your.spotonthe.net/food/sushi_art.html. Creating pages in the root directory – that is, not in a subfolder – is also possible: simply don't add a Primary Category to the respective entries. An entry with “index” as keyword and no category selected then can be found at http://your.spotonthe.net//index.html, which is in practice the same as http://your.spotonthe.net/index.html.
Some extras
Although you only need the Individual Entry Archive template for managing your website, you might want to use some of the other functions Movable Type 2.6x/3 offers. I am talking about an RSS or Atom template for generating a webfeed that would enable regular visitors to keep track of the changes on your website, or else, about a Search template for making the information on your site easier to find.
Another enhancement worth noticing: hiding unneccesary fields in the Field Configuration screen (accessible through the Customize the display of this page link on the Create New Entry and Edit Entry pages). That is, you could choose to only show the Category, Keywords, Text Formatting and Editable Authored on Date options in addition to the default fields, so as to make the interface not too cluttered (and thus not too scary) for novice content producers.
Special thanks to Hans Coppens for all the mind-boggling thinking and tinkering work when creating the new K.U.Leuven Japanese Studies website, which served first as a test case and now as a real world example of the technique described above.
Comments
1. June 18, 2004 03:45 PM
2. June 18, 2004 04:32 PM
Bruce Boughton Posted…
I had wondered how to do this effectively. In fact, it seems fairly intuitive but the article is appreciated nonetheless.
3. June 18, 2004 06:50 PM
Mike Posted…
I built the Erlanger Health System website and used Movable Type as the CMS for everything from the event calendar, to managing the text and banner ads around the site. It's a great little tool and I really think it's more useful than people believe
I'm glad you put this online, showing people it's use outside of a weblog.
4. June 19, 2004 03:53 AM
Anthony Baker Posted…
This is wonderful. I've been using MT for broader content management applications (much tweaking and customization) and haven't seen too many articles on the subject. Would be great to pull together what there is or create some sub-site that covers this topic with tips and whatnot from folks on the subject.
5. June 19, 2004 11:31 AM
Christine Posted…
Thank you for going ahead and posting this article/tutorial. It is wonderful and the test /real world site that you did is a great example of what can be done.
6. June 20, 2004 01:45 AM
Nick Posted…
I'm curious because I'm about to take over the website of my campus newspaper. They don't really like who they're with now (College Publisher) and are looking for an alternative even if it is still liscensed. There are an absolute ton of university papers who use College Publisher and Digital Partners which is about the only other one.
Here are some reasons right now I am suggesting we keep with the College Publisher CMS software.
- Ease of use
- Transfer of use (when I'm gone, who takes over)
- Current Registration intact
- Current familiarity amongst submitting memebrs
- Lack of alternatives such as Digital partners who don't have anything new to offer
I'd be really appreciative if someone knows an alternative that would work for this application. I haven't used MT before but I'm fairly savvy in the web design and could figure it out quickly
7. June 20, 2004 10:18 PM
John Zeratsky Posted…
We're using MT to power our redesign of The Badger Herald at the University of Wisconsin (coming Sept 04). We were with Digital Partners, but found that for basic management and publishing of editorial content, MT does a better job and isn't made by a bunch of baffoons (which DP is).
8. June 24, 2004 04:22 AM
Peter Marquis-Kyle Posted…
For another example of a non-blog use for Movable Type, see my little museum of carte-de-visite photographs (and other bits of my site too).
9. June 24, 2004 11:45 AM
Kevin Posted…
Is MT 2.66 available somewhere nowadays? 3.0 does not cut it for me atm.
10. June 24, 2004 01:14 PM
Andreas Posted…
Thanks for all the comments and examples!
Some more linkage to similar resources (via dezwozhere):
- Doing your whole site with MT (Brad Choate)
- Beyond the blog (Matt Haughey)
- Rebuilding a portfolio (Doug Bowman)
11. June 24, 2004 01:47 PM
Andreas Posted…
Hum, Kevin. Apparently, downloading MT 2.66 is more complicated than I thought. According to a comment under this blog entry, "there isn’t a direct link to 2.6 on the “download” page(secure.sixapart.com). You’ll have to login/sign up for TypeKey, which is an issue on its own, but you’d have to do it for 3.0 anyway. You can get there by using the “Download Movable Type Free” link in the sidebar. Once in, you can download the older version. Another unfortunate bit of obfuscation on their part."
Hope that helps.
12. June 26, 2004 04:37 PM
Kevin Posted…
Thanks, I found it already. What's bad about TypeKey? Do you have some URL's to share?
13. July 1, 2004 08:49 AM
Phil Yusenda Posted…
Looks like many people doing it eh? I've also built a non-profit website also based on MT 2.661 . It work really well especially for us on the field who don't have time to hand-code HTML Your article will not become obsolete as long as there is non-profits who need easy-to-use solution.
14. July 10, 2004 09:36 PM
Seth Posted…
Just so that everyone know. MT 3.0 works just as 2.6x is talked about above.
SS Posted…
I wrote a similar article about non-traditional uses of MT here: http://liverevolt.com/seldomsober/archive/000487.html Like yours, mine is now probably (largely) obsolete.