Movable Type 5 Beta

By Beau Smith
Posted September 2, 2009, in MT5.

Are you ready for this? We’re really stoked.

Today begins a 2-month period of beta releases and official quality assurance testing.

Though we still have loose ends to tie up, we wanted to get the code so that people could begin to use it and provide feedback. We plan to release a new beta version every two weeks until the app is stable. Once stable, we’ll be creating release candidates. And we’re hoping to offer a stable build in mid November.

For those who are dying to download it now…

Download

Warning! - This is beta software and is not recommended in any production environment.

Movable Type 5.0 Pro Betas (available in English and Japanese)

We also have a Pre-Release Software License Agreement if you’re interested.

About Movable Type 5.0

For those who aren’t distracted with downloading and installing… here’s a little history:

Development of MT4.3 and 4.31 were led by the Services team in the US and was primarily focused on app performance, resolving pain points common on large installations, making some of their most popular plugins part of the core product, and a major documentation update. (MT 4.31 is the current stable build supported by Six Apart.)

About the same time that 4.3 development started in the US, our Japanese team began a 6-month major undertaking to overhaul the app interface and add many other features that have been requested worldwide. The result is such a dramatic progression which will be released as Movable Type 5.

Movable Type 5 focused on three major feature areas:

Websites
CMS
Themes
other significant features

Below is a summary of each. More detailed documentation will be created as we near official release.

Websites

With MT3 and MT4 it was possible to hack a blog to act as a “Page Blog” but this relationship is not built into the UI.

Using blogs to create a website in MT4 requird that one blog be dedicated to being the “page blog” and used for aggregation of content from the other blogs. It looked something like this:

A website in MT5 contains the blogs:

Here’s a diagram of how the Professional Template MT5 looks when mapped to website and blogs in MT5:

So in summary, website features:

new “website” object
blogs are associated to websites
pages can be added to websites
rebuild website separately from the contained blogs.
app UI has the ability to move blogs between websites

Just for a little more clarity, here’s a diagram of the main object relationships in MT5:

CMS

User Dashboard

A starting place for users to quickly jump to any blogs and websites they have the ability to manage.

Revision History

Revision history for entries, pages, and templates. Revisions contain all data related to the entry/page/template including custom fields values.

Custom Fields Update

Custom Fields extended to five more object types in addition to Entry, Page, Category, Folder, and User:
- Website
- Blog
- Comment
- Template
- Asset
Custom Fields by Category/Folder allows custom fields to be mapped to a category/folder such that they are only displayed on the Edit Entry/Page screen when the entry/page is placed in the respective category/folder. For example, if a text-area custom field for “Ingredients” is associated to the category “Recipes”, the “Ingredients” field will only display when the entry is placed in the “Recipes” folder.
Export/Import Custom Field Data - when exporting entries, all custom fields data will also be exported. When importing, custom field data will be imported if the importing blog has the same custom fields as the exported blog. (The Themes feature can help to export/import these custom fields between blogs or websites)

Themes

Apply a theme with a single click and then rebuild the blog/website to apply changes to published website.
Themes contain: templates, style-sheets, static files (images), widgets, categories, folders, and custom fields
Themes for websites and blogs.
Install themes just like plugins
Export theme from current blog and optionally include all or a subset of the custom fields, static files, categories, and templates currently associated with the website or blog.

Other Significant Features

Deprecation of the custom JS libraries and adoption of jQuery for the MT app user interface.
Extend-able administration screens with jQuery and structured HTML
New permissions and default roles
all strings are now UTF-8 encoded
create and distribute your own design themes

There are probably a few I’ve missed in this summary, but I’ll update this entry with any I’ve missed as I become aware of them.

Found a Bug?

To avoid duplication of efforts, search existing bugs (from the feedback page) before submitting a new bug.
Submit a bug in the Greyhound (MT5) Beta

Want a feature?

See the process on the Feedback & Support page.

Beta Forums

We have created a MT5 Beta Forum for topics related to the beta.

Source Code

If you want to check out the source code for the MTOS portion of MT5—code-named Greyhound—use the following Subversion command:

svn checkout http://code.sixapart.com/svn/movabletype/branches/greyhound

The changes for 4.3 (slapshot) and 4.31 (hanson) have been merged into the greyhound branch.

Release Notes

Big thanks to all the awesome work done by Six Apart developers in Japan and the US working on this release.

Well that’s all for now.

Looking forward to knowing what you think about MT5.

Enjoy.

Back

34 Comments

kimonostereo on September 2, 2009, 11:12 p.m. Reply

Thanks for the helpful diagrams, Beau! When I first got into the dashboard I was wondering what was going on since the website only had Page as an archive type. Soon it made sense what MT5 is trying to accomplish. I will have to think hard on how this will change the way I do my websites as I’ve done so many different things to under a single blog to make certain features work.

Looks like exciting times with MT5!

Beau Smith on September 4, 2009, 11:03 a.m. Reply

Thanks for your helpful feedback. Hoping you’ll provide similar feedback for the MT Pro beta. =)

I’ve fixed the “Known Issues” typo. I’m gonna leave the spelling underlines in the graphic… and focus more time on the MT Beta.

The “Pro” part of “Movable Type Pro” differentiates this version from the MTOS and Enterprise versions of the product. Pro and Enterprise bundle additional addons/plugins with MTOS and are officially tested by Six Apart.

https://me.yahoo.com/rapilidez#d8775 on September 22, 2009, 4:16 p.m. Reply

Great news Beau, congrats. Couple of questions:

if all pages are encoded in UTF-8, is there a way of changing the encoding of pages created trhough MT to Shift-JIS? Shift-JIS is the most common encoding used in Japan…
in terms of CMS, can we expect it to cover all major features that a complete CMS offers?. Examples:
CMS needs to use a single directory (with different branches for the different teams/contents), so all teams can benefit from checking their contents against it.
Support versioning (not only for source -English- but also for localized versions of source).
Keep multiple language versions of content linked, so that all language versions are synchronized.
Allow for easier reuse. Support XML-DITA: Structured content databases managed by CMS keep content at a highly abstract state, thus allowing it to be reused in multiple contexts.
Workflow automation.
Version and revision control.
Ability to check out/check in or lock/unlock files.
Indexing, search, and retrieval.
Single-source publishing, to allow any update/change to be automatically published to all required output formats (PDF, HTML, etc).
Provide a team the ability to mark their new editions to their content as “minor” or “major”. “Minor” editions should not trigger a translation task/project. For example, if the technical writers change the English (source) text from “Edit this ” to “Modify this”, it might be because it makes sense from a stylistic perspective —if the first version of the text (“Edit this”) has already been translated, then there is no need to translate it again.
Provide a global/centralized repository for images. Each image would be an individual “translation” item, which would also provide information about how to recreate it. Translated images should be uploaded into this repository, their own language directory of images, but linked to the original one — this way, if the original is modified (new upload), a “new translation” alert would be sent out automatically. Also, the name of the translated/localized image should follow the source one, in order to be able to replicate automatically any reference to the image inserted in the code.
Allow use of metadata (tags) for different components.
DITA tool integration or plug-in:
- Ensure standardization of xml documents.
- Ability to modify files in sentence-level segments
Template support for file directory structure
Ability to make a Delta analysis between source and version files (.doc and .ppt files).
Advanced Search and Replace capabilities:
- support for regular expressions and Unicode normalization
- search support for metadata as well as for text
- search for fuzzy as well as exact text matches
- search for content with date range
- directory- and file- level search and replace
- Ability to create “Saved” (i.e. repeatable) searches based on specific criteria
Project management support (workflow, etc) (See section 2.2.4 â€œProject Managementâ€)
Easily extendable with JavaScript? etc to allow customization (of workflow, searches, etc)
Storage/retrieval of the following file formats:
- XLIFF (.xlf)
- Microsoft Word (.doc)
- Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt)
- TMX and TBX
- WordFast TM (.txt)
- FrameMaker (.fm, .book)
- XML (.xml)
- Microsoft Resource Files
- image files (.tif, .gif, .png, .jpg, etc)

thanks in advance for your comments.

Beau Smith on September 22, 2009, 8:05 p.m. Reply

Hello rapilidez.

While MT is a CMS, it has its roots in publishing date-based entries. It’s been adapted and modified to manage many types of content. Plugins can extend MT’s functionality significantly in many ways.

Looks like you pasted some requirements into the comment ;) You might want to contact a sales engineer for a more detailed discussion of your needs.

I’ve answered your questions to be best of my knowledge…

if all pages are encoded in UTF-8, is there a way of changing the encoding of pages created trhough MT to Shift-JIS? Shift-JIS is the most common encoding used in Japan…

Shift-JIS encoding is supported.

CMS needs to use a single directory (with different branches for the different teams/contents), so all teams can benefit from checking their contents against it.

If you’re looking for a version controls system, MT5 will have version control on entries, pages, and templates. If you need to separate content between different group, you can give users various permissions/roles on specific blog/website to limit what they can and can’t do.

Support versioning (not only for source -English- but also for localized versions of source).

Versioning only supported for the language which the blog/website is published in.

Keep multiple language versions of content linked, so that all language versions are synchronized.

MT doesn’t handle this. In my experience, markets for different languages differ so much that the content is often not merely translated, but written for a specific audience.

Allow for easier reuse. Support XML-DITA: Structured content databases managed by CMS keep content at a highly abstract state, thus allowing it to be reused in multiple contexts.

Not supported.

Workflow automation.

Can be handled via plugins.

Version and revision control.

MT5 will have version control on entries, pages, and templates.

Ability to check out/check in or lock/unlock files.

There are plugins which allow locking.

Indexing, search, and retrieval.

Searching is supported natively and there are other plugins which offer this.

Single-source publishing, to allow any update/change to be automatically published to all required output formats (PDF, HTML, etc).

Yup, this is native.

Provide a team the ability to mark their new editions to their content as “minor” or “major”.

Each revision is allowed a comment which could be used to communicate this. A plugin could also be built to handle this.

Provide a global/centralized repository for images. Each image would be an individual “translation” item, which would also provide information about how to recreate it. Translated images should be uploaded into this repository, their own language directory of images, but linked to the original one — this way, if the original is modified (new upload), a “new translation” alert would be sent out automatically. Also, the name of the translated/localized image should follow the source one, in order to be able to replicate automatically any reference to the image inserted in the code.

Basic asset management is available per blog/website and aggregated at a system level. There are many plugins to extend asset handling.

Allow use of metadata (tags) for different components.

Native support.

DITA tool integration or plug-in:

Ensure standardization of xml documents.

Ability to modify files in sentence-level segments

Not native, may be plugin available.

Template support for file directory structure

Templates can list assets associated with the blog or entries.

Ability to make a Delta analysis between source and version files (.doc and .ppt files).

Movable Type doesn’t have this level of version control features.

Advanced Search and Replace capabilities:

support for regular expressions and Unicode normalization

search support for metadata as well as for text

search for fuzzy as well as exact text matches

search for content with date range

directory- and file- level search and replace

Ability to create “Saved” (i.e. repeatable) searches based on specific criteria

Search does support: regex, search can be limited to specific fields, date range, and case sensitivity.

Project management support

Plugins exist to define and enforce workflow processes.

Easily extendable with JavaScript? etc to allow customization (of workflow, searches, etc)

jQuery is native in MT5

Storage/retrieval of the following file formats:

XLIFF (.xlf)

Microsoft Word (.doc)

Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt)

TMX and TBX

WordFast TM (.txt)

FrameMaker (.fm, .book)

XML (.xml)

Microsoft Resource Files

image files (.tif, .gif, .png, .jpg, etc)

Pretty sure that any file format can be uploaded, but only images are processed by the app.

If you have any further questions, please contact a sales engineer for a more detailed discussion of your needs.

Cheers.

Beau Smith on September 23, 2009, 1:27 p.m. Reply

@Rick - In the current MT5 beta, upon upgrade from MT4 to MT5, all blogs will be placed into a single website, currently called “Generic Website”. This website doesn’t have any publishing paths and allows all blogs within it to have absolute urls. So republishing these blogs in MT5 will publish them to the same places they have always been published.

I’ve detailed and requested that there be a feature to convert a “blog” to a “website” but I am not sure if this will be a core feature or if it the functionality will be offered in a plugin.

Andre on September 23, 2009, 8:35 p.m. Reply

There is something that both myself and a friend of mine who is delving deeper into MT 5 and I know this has been an issue with others and relates to theme development. We would like to know if MT 5, when officially released will eliminate the century old group of bad themes and styles for something new? Also, we feel that the whole theme,style,style catcher, and templates concept with MT needs to be completely overhauled and made simple.

The advantage here is that it will allow for more theme designers to easily create themes that are standalone and not mixed and spread over different directories in MT. It’ll also allow individual users to understand their themes better and makes it easy to quickly upload one and it’s done!

The commercial pack is something that should be scrapped too in addition to the style catcher. Overall, it really needs to be simple to implement themes where each one has it’s own directory for the images, css, and it’s own template set.

Just out of curiosity, if I wanted to design a theme as a default theme to be part of the MT 5 download, how is this done?

Dennis M Dewey on October 14, 2009, 2:31 p.m. Reply

I’m interested in learning more about the “Custom Fields by Category/Folder” feature that was mentioned above. Is this feature actually working in the latest beta or is it something on the backburner? My eyes lit up when I saw it, but I’m lost after downloading and trying it on BETA 3.

I started from scratch with a new mysql table and created a website. I then created a blog under that site with the category “Recipes”. I created a folder named “Recipes”. After that a custom field for the category object called “Ingredients”. The custom field only shows up on the category page. There’s no way to assign any of this to a specific category/folder like it was mentioned above or else I missed something.

I’m not sure if I should file this in the bugs because it is a new feature and I don’t know how I should behave to begin with.

Eric on November 22, 2009, 6:53 p.m. Reply

Beau,

Congraduations — MT 5 is looking great!

I’m having an issue I hope you or othes can shed some light on.

I run a web site for a non-profit and we’re using a universal template for MT4 - our site consists on some static “pages” plus “blog” content for our main page. The blog is, in fact, our primary content.

I’ve created a test site using the MT 5 beta and found that I could only import content as a blog. But when I apply the professional template, it insists on showing our main content as a “blog”.

Is there an easy way to obtain the previous behaviour with the blog as our home page and suppress the > at the top of the page without going in and hacking all the tempaltes?

Cheers, Eric

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