Archive for the 'movabletype' Category

Goodbye Movabletype… Hello Wordpress

30Nov05 | geek, movabletype, wordpress | No Comments »

brettdriscoll.com is now powered by Wordpress. I decided to change blogging platforms after being with Movabletype for almost a year. Reasons for switching are :

  • Wordpress is totally Open source (meaning its totally free for one, and its built and modded by everyday web geeks like myself)
  • You don’t have to rebuild the website everytime you make a change like you do in movabletype
  • Wordpress allows you to switch themes on the fly in a matter of seconds
  • There are more themes for Wordpress

Those are just some of the reasons for my sudden switch to Wordpress. I still run a few sites that are powered by Movabletype, and still feel Movabletype is a great blogging tool, but for my personal blog I feel Wordpress suits me better. All of my old posts from brettdriscoll.com movabletype version have been imported into Wordpress (which was actually quite painless). I have been going through the categories and trying to layout a better category system to make it easier for you the user to find old posts. Over the next week or so, the site will be changing or evolving rapidly into what I hope to be a better brettdriscoll.com. For now though you will have to look at a tweaked version of the default Wordpress theme, until I can find or create one that I like.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. My old site is still 100% viewable by clicking here

Picasa Export Template For Movabletype

09Nov05 | geek, movabletype | 3 Comments »

Update!
I have switched from Movabletype to Wordpress, and no longer use these galleries. They were initially set up to be used with Douglas Bowman’s Photo Gallery Templates. I thought maybe someone still might need this so I left it on the site. Feel free to drop me a line, I am not promising I will remember everything though.

Installation Steps:

  • download picasa templates
  • Next unzip the downloaded zip file into your picasa web template directory C:\Program Files\Picasa2\web\templates
  • Next we have to modify the loop.htm file to match your photo blog setup.
  • You need to modify this line of code for both the body and extended body tags :



    You want to modify the body and extended body tags so that the path names match that of your photoblog’s. I have left in an example of how mine was setup for your convenience.
    icasa does not use a date tag like MT does, so I have yet to come up with a reasonable way of changing the date. I find it easier to do a batch change right in MT for this
    There is no need to change the author to your MT name, because when we import we will just import as ourselves anyways, but if you want to change the author tag to your MT author name go ahead.

  • Now when you open picasa and “make a webpage” either by staring certain photos or going to folder>make a webpage, you will see a pop up screen asking your to select a certain photo size. Select “Original Size” and enter the title of the gallery. The title should be your MT category, although I have yet to have this work when imported into MT. Hit Next
  • You will now be able to select the various export templates picasa offers, and should also see your new template called brdriscoll. Select the template brdriscoll and hit finish.
  • Next we need to upload the images to the correct paths you specified in the loop.htm file. Copy the images and thumbnail directories to this path because picasa adds “images” and “thumbnail” to the item name. When you add more galleries just upload the images to their corresponding directories
  • Next we will upload the import.txt file into the import directory in your MT root folder. You Must Upload in ASCII Mode!. If you do not then MT will not import this file.
  • Now log into your MT installation and go to the import/export section of your photo blog. Select import entries as me, and select your category. I usually find I need to create the categories before I import, but it may work for you.
  • Now you should be all set! If you have any problems, make sure you check all your paths, and check your permissions on the import file and import directory.

Movabletype 3.2 beta

26Jul05 | geek, movabletype | No Comments »

You are looking at it! Its now installed, and am starting to mess with it. I have to upgrade my theme! Which kind of sucks becaues it took me so long to get it right in the first place but oh well its not that big of deal and 3.2 has a bunch more features so I guess its worth it.
Download MT 3.2 beta

Movabletype Tutorial Site

20Jul05 | geek, movabletype | No Comments »

Here is a good site for all you guys looking to start a weblog powered by Movabletype

Learning Movable Type