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MovableTypeUtilitiesAndExtensions
Movable Type: Movable Type User Manual
Movable Type Utilities and Extensions
Maintaining your Movable Type Installation over time will require the use of a variety of tools and features already discussed earlier in this manual, as well as those discussed in this chapter. The functions and procedures covered in this chapter are:
Monitoring Your Activity Log and Activity Feeds
Using Search and Replace
Finding and Installing Plugins
Importing and Exporting Blog Content
1.1 Monitoring your Activity log and Activity feeds
The Movable Type system activity log captures all important system events, such as creation of new users, resetting of passwords, creation of new entries, posting of a new comment or TrackBack, etc. It is also possible to subscribe to an Atom feed for the activity log, which lets you monitor critical events through a feedreader.
For more on feeds, please see http://www.sixapart.com/about/feeds
To view the activity log for a particular blog
1. Click on the Activity Log link in the System Toolbar. This will take you to the activity log listing for that particular blog.
2. The blog-level activity log is a filtered view of the system activity log containing only items pertaining to the blog in context.
To view the system activity log
1. Click on the Activity Log link in the System Toolbar.
2. The next screen you see will be the activity log of notable actions in the system.
To subscribe to an activity feed
1. Navigate to the System Activity Log by clicking on the Activity Log link in the System menu.
2. Click on the Activity Feed link. If you have a feed reader application installed, this will load the subscription link into your reader.
More information about feeds and feedreader software can be found at http://www.sixapart.com/about/feeds.
Use the Search & Replace tool to find and optionally replace text found in the content. This functionality is available from both the System Overview and each individual blog and the content returned by the search will be limited to the scope you choose.
The types of searchable content include:
Entries
Comments
Commenters
TrackBack Pings
Activity Log
Templates
Authors (Movable Type Enterprise only)
The quick search box found on nearly every screen of the Movable Type interface is great for quickly looking up information. The shortcut key for the Quicksearch box is Alt-q (windows) or Control-q (Mac).
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Quicksearch is contextual to the page you are viewing. On the entries listing or editing screen it searches entries while on the template listing screen it will search templates. A hint of the content type for the quicksearch is provided in the search box itself.
1. Click the Search link on the Weblogs Toolbar. The functionality is also available as a system level resource by clicking the Search button on the System Toolbar.
2. You are now on the advanced search screen. Select the tab above the search form corresponding to the type of content you wish to search.
3. Configure any search modifiers using the controls underneath the search field. Which options are available will vary slightly based on what items are searched. These options are:
Case Sensitive
By default, searches are case insensitive. Checking this option the case of the search term will be considered.
Regular Expression (RegEx) Match
With this option enabled, the term will treated as a regular expression pattern. A regular expression is a string that describes or matches a set of strings according to certain syntax rules. For more on regular expressions see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions.
Limited Fields
Selecting this option will open a dynamic control to define which fields to perform the search on.
Date Range
This option limits the search to a specific date range. Selecting it will open a dynamic control where you can enter a start and end date.
The date controls are rather vague. What format are dates to be entered?
Is Junk
Available only on Comments and TrackBack ping searches, this option limits the search to items marked as junk.
Once you have entered a query and selected the applicable search options, click the Search button to run it. The results will be returned in the same listings interface found throughout the application, including all of the controls for managing and acting on the found items.
Having performed an initial search, you can search again, or perform a search and replace on all or some of the results.
To replace found content from search
1. With the results of a previous search displayed, Movable Type gives you the option of finding the term within selected search result items and replacing it with another string. You can choose to replace matches in just a few selected search results or constrain the operation to specific fields of those items. For instance, you could search templates for a specific file path and replace a portion with a new path in only four of them.
To perform a replace, select the "Search & Replace" option and enter the replacement text. Set your search options, such as specific fields or case sensitive search, and select one or more of the results to target. Once you are ready click the Replace Checked button.
Be extremely careful when doing a replace, because there is no undo.
1.3 Finding and Installing Plugins
One of Movable Type's strengths is its extensibility through the plugin architecture it provides.
To view a list of available third party plugins
Six Apart maintains a plugin directory of third party plugins that are compatible with Movable Type. The directory is available here: http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/plugins/
The process to install a plugin may vary from one plugin to another; most provide installation instructions. Plugin configuration policies vary depending on the plugins functionality. Some provide for both system- and blog-level settings while some provide only one of the two. If both are provided, system-level settings may have precedence or may be used as defaults that can be overridden for each blog. If you have any questions about a particular plugins settings, please see your System Administrator.
To view a list of all installed plugins for your installation
Click on the Plugins link from the System Toolbar.
Movable Type's "System Overview" offers a plugin management interface. It lists all installed plugins and provides the ability to selectively disable and enable individual plugins as well as the option to turn all plugin functionality off and on.
This page in the application lists all plugins which specify provide settings which can be configured on a per-weblog basis. It can be viewed or modified by the Weblog administrator, the System Administrator and any user who has permissions to configure the weblog.
In addition to the settings link found on the right, each listed plugin includes optional information about itself such as name and version, author name/link, documentation link and resources it provides to the system. The type of resources a plugin provide include template tags, filter attributes and text formatting options.
To enable or disable installed plugins
1. Click on the Plugins link from the System Toolbar.
2. Look for the Plugin you wish to enable or disable.
3. Click on either Disable or Enable in the area to the far right of the screen to disable or enable the plugin.
NOTE: Once you have enabled a plugin, you may have to configure the plugins settings.
1.4 Importing and Exporting Blog Content
MTs import and export functions allow a weblog or system administrator to download a backup of their weblog data for storage and reuse later if necessary. For more information on the format of this file, please consult the Movable Type User manual.
Note: Movable Type's export function should not be used for doing backups. The export format does not cover all the data in the weblog (such as configuration settings and other vital information). You should have a backup plan for the database used by Movable Type to insure for proper disaster recovery.
To import a collection of entries from another system
1. Click on the Import / Export link from the System Toolbar.
2. Click on the Importing from another system? link.
3. Enter the optional Start title and End title HTML, and select a post status for the entries you are about to import.
4. Click the Import Entries button.
To export blog entries, comments and TrackBacks
1. Click on the Import / Export link from the System Toolbar.
2. Click the Export Entries tab.
3. Click the Export Entries From Weblog Name button.
4. Click the Save button, and specify where you want to save the file to on your computer
5. You now have a backup of your blogs basic entry data, comment and TrackBack data.
Note: As stated above, Movable Type's export function should not be used for doing backups. The export format does not cover all the data in the weblog (such as configuration settings and other vital information). You should have a backup plan for the database used by Movable Type to insure for proper disaster recovery.
