http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html

http://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/ds2/workshops.html

In May, MakingSpace will deliver three days of activity in Aberystwyth Art Centre designed to spark conversations around personal pictures and shared spaces.

For more information please get in touch. We're perfectly nice:

www.makingspace.org.uk // making_space@yahoo.co.uk // 07966900423

DROP IN OPEN DAY - Sat 10 May

  All welcome!

FESTIVAL 2008

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Center for Digital Storytelling
http://www.storycenter.org/
Based in Berkeley, California. Pioneers of digital storytelling.

Cipolwg ar Gymru
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/cipolwgargymru/
Welsh-language digital stories - sister site to Capture Wales.

Creative Narrations
http://www.creativenarrations.net/site/storybook/
A large selection of digital stories. This American website is pioneering and the stories are in QuickTime format. Personal and emotional, covering a range of topics, from motherhood through softball to church.

CSV's Volunteer Britain
http://www.csv.or.uk/volunteerbritain/
A project that's looking for digital story submissions from people in Britain who've volunteered. Selected entries will be shown on TV and at cinemas. Deadline for entry 16 September 2005.

digitalbridge
http://www.digitalbridge.nu
Nordic digital storytelling project. Pages and stories in the Swedish language.

Digital Storytelling Association
http://www.dsaweb.org/
This new organisation aims to encourage dialogue and collaboration between digital storytellers around the world.

The Fray
http://www.fray.com/
Criminal, Hope, Work, Drugs - those are the categories. The stories are very powerful and range from personal, emotional to humorous.

Digital Griot
http://www.digiclub.org/dg/stories.html
African-American stories.

Digital Storytelling Tutorial
www.photobus.co.uk/dstory_01.html
From start to finish, Daniel Meadows guides you through the process of making your own digital story with this new on-line tutorial. Click on 'Digital Storytelling Tutorial'. There are guides to scripting, working in the video timeline and playing your project out to master tape. You can also watch some of Daniel Meadows' digital stories here.

Dreamtime
http://www.dreamtime.net.au/dreaming/storylist.htm
Old stories from Australia, mainly narrated straight to camera.

Journale
http://www.journale.com/
Firsthand accounts of American stories in Flash, QuickTime, Shockwave and other formats. Click on the Video and Media Lab links for movies. Interesting range of stories: from one by a collector of postcards depicting lynchings and several by those who escaped from the Twin Towers on September 11.

Next Exit
http://www.nextexit.com/drivein/driveinframeset.html
The late Dana Atchley was one of the pioneers of digital storytelling. You can watch his movies here in the digital drive-in.

Second Story
http://www.secondstory.com/
A commercial web design company that has designed interactive narratives for clients like museums, TV companies and organisations.

Schooltv
http://www.schooltv.nl/vertellen/
The Schooltv zone of Dutch network Teleac/NOT has a digital storytelling project.

Silence Speaks
http://www.silencespeaks.org/stories.html
Survivors of violence and abuse at home tell their own stories on this very moving site.

The Play Ethic Blog 

http://theplayethic.typepad.com/

http://www.theplayethic.com/

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Play Ethic and the Toy Industry

A fascinating morning recently, delivering a keynote speech to the Toy Industries of Europe 'Toy Safety' conference in Brussels. The toy industry has had its troubles to bear in 2007 - many safety recalls of toys from major manufacturers, largely located in their Chinese factories (80% of all toys in Europe are made in China, 95% in the US). As I said to the audience at the conference, with books like Eric Clark's The Real Toy Story being published (which tries to do for the toy industry what Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation does for convienience food), they are an industry which risks a lot by not lining up their ethical business practice, with the trust that parents put in them to provide safe, ethically and sustainably created products. But if they extend 'play ethics' throughout their business - from labour conditions in China to the nature of the toys they produce - the opportunities for their business (exemplified by the turnaround in Lego, whose CEO Jorgen Knudstorp delivered the other keynote) are major, given the general shift of social values in a 'play-friendly' direction.

NOTE: I'm using the embedding function of Slideshare for the first time here - if you go through to the actual link, you can download the PPT of the presentation with extra notes.

| View | Upload your own

Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 02:09 PM in PlayArts/Media (Ch 7)), PlayBusiness (Ch 8), PlayEducation (Ch 6), PlayLifestyle (Ch 5) | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Drupal at Fosdem 2008 - videos

Here are my videos of 8 Drupal-related presentations from yesterday's Fosdem devroom sessions in Brussels.

published on Monday 25 February 2008 @ 16:12 CET

Climate relativism: adapt, don't mitigate

link to watch video

Johan Albrecht

On 11 December I attended a presentation by professor Johan Albrecht of Itinera Institute. He talked about "Climate relativism" which is also the title of the book (at this moment only available in Dutch) he wrote on climate change and its effects on the economy. His ideas on this matter can be summarized as follows:

• Scarcity of fossil fuel can create new opportunities for innovation.
• Radical innovations are coming in which CO2 is used as a resource (e.g. to promote algae growth).
• Adaptation to climate change is better than mitigation of our economic growth.
• The IPCC scenarios do not take into account the effects of this market-driven adaptation.
• Only entrepreneurship can provide us with the innovations which will be necessary to adapt to climate change.

Here are the last 15 minutes of his talk, in which he focuses on mitigation versus adaptation and how transitions in energy production can create new wealth. Press the green "play" button to hear the talk while watching the slides.

published on Saturday 29 December 2007 @ 23:04 CET

Creating Themes for Movable Type

Link here to site

Movable Type is an extremely flexible content management tool. MT can publish content in many different formats, using any kind of text- based markup. Creating themes for Movable Type can be accomplished in a variety of methods based upon the markup of the templates. In this article we'll focus on html markup with css formatting.

The methods in this article assume that you are using one of the Default Template Sets from MT4, but these methods work equally well for other template sets.

Here's a glossary of terms that I'll use in this article:

• Template - A text file typically containing MTML (Movable Type Markup Language) which outputs content from MT that is marked up with HTML, XML, JavaScript, or other languages. These templates may have PHP, ASP, or languages which will be interpreted by the server when requested by a browser.
• Template Set - A group of templates that when used together can create a blog, a website, or any combination there of. Because templates are simply text-based, a template set may contain a Style (a CSS file) rather than linking to a style.
• Style - This term is used to refer to a CSS file and the images referred to in the CSS code.
• Theme - A theme is a the combination of a Template Set and a Style.
• StyleCatcher - the plugin bundled with Movable Type that provides an interface for browsing installed styles, remote style libraries, installing styles, and selecting styles. Can be found in MT4 navigation Design > Styles. (Hopefully to be updated in the near future to allow the selecting and installing of Themes; however at present installing Template Sets is not handled by StyleCatcher.)

Methods of Creating a Theme

Now that we have some common vocabulary, there are five methods of creating a theme in Movable Type. Here they are, in order of increasing complexity and power:

1. Point & Click
2. Extend a Style Catcher Style (let Design Assistant help!)
3. Roll Your Own Style
4. Roll Your Own Theme
5. Create Style Catcher Theme

NOTE: As you read through the following methods, keep in mind that you do not need to manage your Stylesheet within Movable Type.

The stylesheet can be maintained and modified on the server as a text file. Using MT to manage the file simply gives you the ability to edit the Stylesheet via MT.

These examples assume that you have Movable Type installed and a blog configured and publishing. Learn more about Installing Movable Type.

1. Point & Click

Using this method the blog theme will be composed of:

• a Default Template Set
• a theme from among the default themes or a style library

This is the simplest of all methods.

1. Navigate to StyleCatcher in the blog you'd like to update: Design > Styles 2. Select a category.
2. Click a theme thumbnail to preview the theme.
3. Optionally, choose a Layout in the preview panel.
4. Click "Apply Design" in the preview panel, and StyleCatcher will update and republish your Stylesheet index template.
5. View your blog and you'll see your new theme.

2. Extend a Style Catcher Theme (let Design Assistant help!)

This method allows the customization of a theme selected by Style Catcher using Point & Click method above.

When complete the blog theme will be composed of:

• a Default Template Set (possibly modified)
• a theme from among the default themes or a style library
• and either an inline CSS or by linking to CSS in a new index template

How to...

1. Use the "Point & Click" method above to select a theme that you'd like to modify.
2. Navigate to Design > Templates

3. Open the Stylesheet index template. You'll see something like the following:

   @import url(<$mt:StaticWebPath$>themes-base/blog.css);
   @import url(<$mt:StaticWebPath$>themes/minimalist-red/screen.css);`
   

4. Add any styles that you want to after the base Blog styles and the Theme you just selected.

   For example you could make all the links blue and the page titles italic, you'd just add the styles after the @imports:

   @import url(<$mt:StaticWebPath$>themes-base/blog.css);
   @import url(<$mt:StaticWebPath$>themes/minimalist-red/screen.css);
   a { color: blue; }
   #page-title { font-style: italic; }
   

Design Assistant "Movable Type Design Assistant") can assist with this process by guiding you through the process of selecting a Style, selecting a layout, and creating the custom CSS you want. Copy and paste the css code under the imported CSS files in the Stylesheet index template as described in step 4 above.

Note: Because the Stylesheet template will be overwritten if another style is selected in Style Catcher, it is suggested that a new index template is created for your styles. Name this new index template something like like "My Styles" and set the output to something like "my-styles.css". Then instead of including the css styles directly into the Stylesheet index template as in step 4 above, include a link to your "My Styles" template like this:

    @import url(<$mt:StaticWebPath$>themes-base/blog.css);
    @import url(<$mt:StaticWebPath$>themes/minimalist-red/screen.css);
    @import url(<$mt:Link template="My Styles"$>);

Note: If Style Catcher is used to change themes after making modifications to the Stylesheet index template as described above, the Stylesheet index template containing the modifications will be overwritten and a backup of the template will be saved in the Backup Templates. To find it, navigate to Design > Templates, then choose the Quickfilter: Backup Templates.

3. Roll Your Own Style

Rolling your own style is just like extending a Style Catcher Style as described above in method 2, however instead of relying upon the existing theme base CSS (for layout and other basic CSS) and a specific Style Catcher Style style's CSS and images (for the look and feel), just use your own styles.

In the Stylesheet indext template, remove the @imports for blog.css and the $theme/screen.css files so that template simply imports the "My Styles" index template like this:

@import url(<$mt:Link template="My Styles"$>);

Alternately, you may simply place your CSS directly in the Stylesheet index template.

When complete, your theme will be composed of:

• a Default Template Set (possibly modified)
• a new Stylesheet and/or a modified Stylesheet index template

4. Roll Your Own Theme

Perhaps you're a savvy developer or designer, and you know exactly what you want. You've already created static mock-ups of your site in HTML (which includes a listing of entries) and you have a stylesheet that makes the content look pretty. Now you're want to integrate with Movable Type.

Because Movable Type is so flexible, there are many ways to do this.
In fact your stylesheet does not even need to be managed by Movable Type... however doing so will allow you to edit your CSS via web browser.

PRO TIP: Wanna be able to edit your Styles directly and also have the benefit of being able to edit via MT? If you do not have any MT tags in your stylesheet, set the Output File and Link to File fields to the same location. Then you can edit the template via MT or directly on the file system and they will both stay in sync. Just be careful not to edit both simultaneously or you may lose some changes.

When complete, this theme will simply be composed of:

• a template set modified from the default template set, of which one template is the stylesheet.

For simplicity I will cover the publishing the an index (homepage) and a CSS document referencing some images into the web_root. (If you want to publish the blog to another directory, update the paths in the examples below.)

web_root/    <--- or blog directory
    images/
        header.jpg
        body.jpg
    index.html
    styles.css

1. Since we're rolling our own, it'll be easiest to start with a new Movable Type blog. Once you've got the blog configured to the location you want to publish the blog, populate it with some content.

   Add a few entries and add a few comments on those entries. If you are going to have monthly archives, update the dates of some of entries to be in previous months. If you are going to have categories, create a few categories and add the entries to the categories.

2. In the directory where you'll be publishing your blog, create a directory called "images" and upload all images referenced in the stylesheet. For this example I'll assume that you have two images:
   body.jpg and header.jpg that are referenced in the stylesheet with absolute image paths:

   body { background-image: url(/images/body.jpg); }
   #header { background-image: url(/images/header.jpg); }
   

3. Next let's add your stylesheet to Movable Type. Go to Design > Templates and then open the default Stylesheet index template. (You don't need to use this template, you can create a new index template if you like, but that's beyond the scope of this simple tutorial).

4. Delete the exisitng code in the default Stylesheet index template template and paste your CSS in it's place. Ensure that the output file is "styles.css", that the template type is "styles" and then click "Save & Publish".

5. Now that the blog has content and the stylesheet (and it's images) are setup, let's build a homepage. Go to Design > Templates and then open the Main Index template.

6. Copy all the code starting with the Entries container tag <mt:Entries> and ending with the Entries container tag </ mt:Entries>. Depending upon which template set you are using the content will be slightly different. Here's a simplified version:

   <MTEntries>
       <h2><a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a></h2>
       <div><$MTEntryAuthorLink$> on <$MTEntryDate format="%x % X"$></div>
       <MTIf tag="EntryBody">
           <$MTEntryBody$>
       </MTIf>
   </MTEntries>
   

7. Integrate this code with your HTML comp, replacing the title of a entry with <$MTEntryTitle$>, the body of the entry with < $MTEntryBody$>, the link to the full post with <$MTEntryPermalink $>, etc.

8. Once all the variable content is replaced, paste the code over the code in the Main Index template. (Note: You may want to back up the code from the Main Index template for reference, but note that you can also just create a new blog to refer to the default template code as well.)

9. Make sure that the path to the stylesheet is correct. It should be:

   <link rel="stylesheet" href="/styles.css" type="text/css" />
   

   or if you want to have mt manage the location of the Stylesheet, use the <$mt:Link$> tag with "styles" as the value of the template:

   <link rel="stylesheet" href="<$MTLink template="styles"$>" type="text/css" />
   

10. Once the Main Index template has been updated, click "Save & Publish".

11. To view the fruits of your labor, click the "View Published Template" link in the right sidebar on the Edit Template screen, or click the "View Site" icon in the navigation.

Now that your homepage is published, you can now update the HTML in other templates using steps 5 thru 9 as a guide. To make the addition of new templates even simpler, place code that is common among templates into modules; using header and footer modules will save you a lot of time when creating new templates.

5. Create StyleCatcher Theme

So there is a template set with an HTML structure that you are fond of and now you just want to create multiple Styles which can be applied to the template set.

StyleCatcher was built for MT3 and upgraded for MT4, but there are still some limits in what it can do. At present, StyleCatcher does the following things:

• selection of a Style from among the Default Styles available in $MT_DIR/mt-static/themes/
• viewing of Styles from a remote Style Library (or repository)
• import of a Style from a remote Style Library
• setting the default layout for a theme (from among the layouts the theme supports)

StyleCatcher does not yet do these things:

• allow selection of a Theme (package of Template Set and Style)
• filter available Styles based upon installed Template Sets, only let certain styles be applied when a certain template set is installed
• install a template set as part of choosing a theme
• allow a Style to require to default stylesheets such as base.css and layout.css
• allow a Style to define the code that should be included in the Stylesheet index template (base theme css, layout css, print styles, mobile styles, etc.)

Thus, if you'd like to create a few themes that can be selected and applied to a blog via StyleCatcher you have a few options:

1. Add new Styles to $MT_DIR/mt-static/themes/
2. Create an external theme library. More info on Registering Style Catcher Repositories

Since the second option above builds upon the first and is described in more detail on the Registering Style Catcher Repositories page, I'll simply describe the first option.

A StyleCatcher Style is composed of a CSS document and images inside a folder. Here's what makes up the Minimalist Red style:

minimalist-red/           <-- folder
    header.gif            <-- header background image
    screen.css            <-- css document
    thumbnail-large.gif   <-- large thumbnail for StyleCatcher  (278px x 209px)
    thumbnail.gif         <-- small thumbnail for StyleCatcher  (120px x 90px)

Once you have Rolled Your Own Style (as in option 3 above) you can convert it to a Style which can be selected via StyleCatcher.

1. Create a directory in $MT_DIR/mt-static/themes/ called "my- awesome-style".
2. Create a CSS document called "screen.css" ("screen" because the CSS will most-likely be for presentation on a screen, as opposed to print or mobile) and place it in the "my-awesome-style" directory.

3. Edit the top of the CSS document to include the following code:

   /*
   name: 
   designer: 
   designer_url: 
   layouts: 
   */
   

   Enter values for name, designer, and designer_url as appropriate for your theme's name, your name, and your site. These values are simple strings.

   The value of layout is special. This line lists the layout options supported by the stylesheet, separated by commas. When a user selects a style in StyleCatcher, they are presented with the list of layout options that the style supports. When a layout is picked, MT will set the value of a special template variable called page_layout with the name of the operative layout option. This variable can then be referenced in your templates to set the class of the body element of your pages, as in <body class="<$mt:var name="page_layout"$>">.

   Any values can be used for naming layout options, but the following values have localized phrases associated with them in MT:

   layout-wtt  <-- Wide, Thin, Thin
   layout-twt  <-- Thin, Wide, Thin
   layout-wt   <-- Wide, Thin
   layout-tw   <-- Thin, Wide
   layout-wm   <-- Wide, Medium
   layout-mw   <-- Medium, Wide
   

   So, when finished with this section of your CSS, you might have values like the following if the stylesheet supports all of the layout options defined in MT_HOME/mt-static/themes-base/blog.css CSS document. ()

   /*
   name: My Awesome Style
   designer: Awesome Designer
   designer_url: http://awesome-designer.com
   layouts: layout-wtt, layout-twt, layout-wt, layout-tw, layout-wm, layout-mw
   */
   

4. Place any images used by the Style in the "my-awesome-style" directory and make sure that the images are reference relative to the css document "screen.css". If you were referring to an image called header.gif which is in the same directory as the CSS document, the CSS code for referring to this images would be similar to this:

   #header { background-image: url(header.gif); }
   

5. Go the home page of the blog to which you want to apply this styles and then navigate to Design > Style and then scroll through the Default Styles until you see "My Awesome Style". Select layout.

6. Select "My Awesome Style", choose a layout, click the "Apply Design" button.

7. View your blog to see the new theme applied or got to Design > Templates and view the Stylesheet index template to ensure that the content looks something like this:

   @import url(<$MTStaticWebPath$>themes-base/blog.css);
   @import url(<$MTStaticWebPath$>themes/my-awesome-style/screen.css);
   

   Note: If you are not using blog.css, you may need to delete it. Hoping to fix this for a future release of StyleCatcher.

8. Once you can view your site, take a screen shot to create the thumbnails. Scale the screen shot to 278px x 209px for thumbnail- large.gif, and scale to 120px x 90px for thumbnail.gif.

9. Save the thumbnail images in the Style folder and your StyleCatcher Style is complete.

10. (Optional) Create variations on your theme using different colors.

    Duplicate the my-awesome-style folder and for your winter variation name it "my-awesome-style-winter". Open the screen.css file and, instead of updating the colors in the CSS, append additional CSS that will override the original colors. This way, you can later make modifications across all your variations more easily via search-and- replace.

testlink

About Patient Voices

The idea for Patient Voices (captured in Patient Voices: the rationale) arose from the desire to harness the power of patients' stories to bring to life the 20-credit e-learning courses Clinical Governance Matters and Clinical Governance Works that the Royal College of Nursing had commissioned Pip Hardy to write for the UKHEP BSc (Hons) in Health Sciences.

Digital stories created by Brendan Routledge in his education work with children, appropriately referred to as 'Powerpoint for the soul', provided the perfect format to put patients firmly at the heart of healthcare.

The first digital patient stories were developed for use in PowerPoint presentations, and were enthusiastically supported by Paul Stanton and funded by the NHS Clinical Governance Support Team.

Interest in the use of digital stories in healthcare education has not been restricted to the NCGST and, in 2004, Pilgrim Projects were asked to enter the stories in the Dartmouth Clinical Microsystems Film Festival, at the 2004 Fall Invitational in Vermont. We were delighted to win two awards, including the Paul Batalden People's Choice Award. More recently we were delighted to be runners-up for the John Horder Award for Innovation in Interprofessional Learning, presented at the Higher Education Academy’s 2007 Festival of Learning.

We at Pilgrim Projects believe that the benefits to all those involved in healthcare (staff, carers and patients) from the use of digital storytelling as an educational methodology and developmental tool warrant wider use of the stories. It seems that we are not alone: the original 23 stories have now grown to over 100, and we have developed this website to accommodate them. Patient Voices: a valediction, written three years after Patient Voices: the Rationale, attempts to convey something of the flavour of the programme as it has developed.

The collection continues to expand, and we have had the pleasure of working with many wonderful people from a wide range of NHS organisations and educational institutions. We have carried out research into the impact of the stories and are regularly invited to give presentations about their creation and use. Our working relationship with the Center for Digital Storytelling is stronger than ever and we are currently collaborating to develop digital story facilitation training specifically for the healthcare sector.

We hope the stories you see here touch your hearts as they have ours.

To find out more

The presentation Voices from the heart of healthcare, which you can access from the links at left, tells more about the programme, but please be patient as this is a 17 minute movie, which may take some time to download.

The paper Patient Voices: an investigation into improving the quality of healthcare using digital patient stories was prepared as part of Pip Hardy's MSc in Lifelong Learning.

A summary of what's happening in the programme is available in the Patient Voices newletter.

LINKS:

http://www.digitalstorylibrary.scot.nhs.uk/

http://www.institute.nhs.uk/

http://google-sina.com/2008/04/01/help-improve-inpatient-care-diabetes-uk/

http://www.institute.nhs.uk/quality_and_value/high_volume_care/focus_on%3a_diabetes.html

 http://www.jitscotland.org.uk/action-areas/themes/involvement/digital-stories.html

Help with Podcasting

How to prodiuce a podcast

Most computers this day and age come equipped with everything you need to create a podcast. All you need is a microphone and of course Feed Manager and you can create a podcast.

To get started it is recommended you download or purchase sound recording and editing software. Feed Manager recommends one of three products:

• Audacity
• Adobe Audition
• Adobe Soundbooth

All of these products provide the tools and functionality necessary to produce and fine tune a recording you make. Each of them provides a relatively similar interface: simply click the “record” button and then the “stop” button when you are finished and presto, you have yourself a podcast. And once you have an MP3 all that you need to do is upload the podcast to Movable Type and Feed Manager will do the rest.

Resources

• Podcasting editing and quality tips

Podcast Feed Template for Movable Type 4.0

Byrne Reese - 3 August 2007 - 3 Comments

importing function

The best way I found, in the Wordpress Admin, click on 'Manage' and then 'Export'. Leave the drop down on all and click on 'Download Export File'. Then, within Movable Type admin, create your new blog, then click on 'System Overview' -> 'Tools', then 'Import'. Now select the blog you want to import to (the one you just created), from the drop down choose 'Wordpress eXtended RSS (WXR), choose the ownership of the posts you want, click 'Browse' and choose your exported file from Worpdress, and click 'Import Entries'. This worked for me on a few blogs already, one with 300+ posts - so I do think it's working fine. Give it a go and let me know if you have any questions (I've been importing a few blogs, many times, to learn how it works). So far I'm very impressed with MT, and am looking forward to gathering all 6-7 blogs under one install (finally!) unlike the multiple WP installs I needed before.

Movable Type Template Map (.PDF)

25 Feb 2008 ~ Link ~ Category: Templates ~ Comments: 2

For those of you just upgrading to Movable Type 4, I’m sure you’re experiencing a considerable amount of confusion regarding the new modular template approach. If you’ve just gotten on board, it probably makes even less sense.

I won’t go into too much detail on this modular approach, because I’ve already dealt with it previously on this site. The gist of it is this: instead of having dozens of copies of the same code strewn across all your templates, the new approach is having all the code snippets you’re likely to use more than once—headers, sidebars, entry lists—stored in template modules and called to from each individual template. So instead of changing your sidebar in seven different templates, you only have to change it once.

A great big thanks to Mark Norwood for putting this together. There are a few changes I’d like to make as well as a giant “cheat sheet” that might prove handy. But I figure I’d get it out there now for anyone struggling with the new template structure.

Download Movable Type 4 Template Map (.pdf/80k)

Image CustomFields in Movable Type 4.1

5 Mar 2008 ~ Link ~ Category: Templates ~ Comments: 1

Dilemma: Image Link Instead of Image

Many of the sites I build use CustomFields to place a masthead image at the top of an entry. This takes the hassle out of uploading and really just makes it easier for customers to have a consistent look and feel for their posts. Trouble is, when I upgraded to Movable Type 4.1 (see this post for details about how to upgrade from Arvind’s CustomFields plugin to the one that’s built in to MT Professional Pack), the image asset links were only showing up as text links. For example, using the code they suggested on the CustomFields screen:

 <mt:IfNonEmpty tag="EntryDataMastheadImage">
      <mt:EntryDataMastheadImage />
 </mt:IfNonEmpty>

Resulted not in a placement of the image, but rather the words “View Image” with a link to the photo. Not exactly what I had in mind. I want the actual photo itself.

Now, there are all sorts of cool new tags (like <mt:AssetLabel /> and <mt:AssetUrl />) that let you get at any part of your uploaded asset. The only trouble is, there’s no documented way to put the asset you want (in our case <mt:EntryDataMastheadImage />) in context. Sure, you can do an mt:Assets loop that lets you list the last however many assets; but we’re trying to get at mt:EntryDataMastheadImage, nothing else.

Solution: Create CustomField Container With -Asset Suffix

When you create a custom field in Movable Type, it creates two tags for you. The first is the one I listed before: <mt:EntryDataMastheadImage /> and it’s a single tag that’s used to call to the asset in question. There’s another, undocumented tag that’s created: <mt:EntryDataMastheadImageAsset />. This tag is a container tag that does exactly what we need: puts that particular CustomField data in context. Once it’s in context, we can use all of those nifty tags to get at whatever specific asset information we want. Here’s how I solved my particular problem:

 <mt:IfNonEmpty tag="EntryDataMastheadImage">
      <mt:EntryDataMastheadImageAsset>
           <img src="<mt:AssetURL />" />
      </mt:EntryDataMastheadImageAsset>
 </mt:IfNonEmpty>

A great big round of applause to Mark Carey for helping me discover this little undocumented nugget. Update: Arvind pointed out that it’s documented on his forums.

The Movable Type and Professional Network Wiki has been moved to wiki.movabletype.org.

Recent Changes

MovableTypeGettingStarted

[Login] Change #17 by Anil Dash at 2006-08-22 23:34:39.

The following content has unclosed HTML tags: P (1 open), A (-1 open)

Movable Type: Movable Type User Manual

Getting Started

This introductory chapter covers the following topics:

• Blogging basics and the Movable Type Platform
• Logging into the system
• Managing your Author Profile
• Managing user permissions and profiles
• Creating, deleting and editing Users
• Creating and deleting weblogs
• Manipulating detailed weblog settings
• Navigating the Movable Type user interface

1.1 Blogging and The Movable Type Platform

The Movable Type platform makes it easy for you to both author content and interact with your community of readers. If youre new to blogging, read on to understand what it is and how Movable Type facilitates the process.

Blogging Defined

In the most basic and traditional sense, a blog is a collection of individual web posts displayed in reverse-chronological order that are often related to a common topic.

Over the years, this definition has expanded dramatically to include other features like:

• Date- and category-based archiving of older entries
• The presence of community feedback features such as comments and TrackBacks
• RSS and Atom syndication feeds of recent entries or even feedback submitted to the blog
• Update notifications via email subscription

In fact, given the popularity of publishing entire websites with Movable Type (as we do at Six Apart), the definition of a blog becomes even broader. We'll go over all of the above concepts and terms and much more later in this manual.

Movable Type Design Principles

As a blogging platform, Movable Type makes publishing easy focusing on five key principles:

• Integration: Movable Type is designed to easily integrate with an existing website or all of the common infrasturcture you currently use. It also supports all of the open, industry-standard APIs allowing for full integration with external systems.

• Manageability: Movable Types powerful administrative features make management of users, blogs, content and published output simple and we work hard to make sure that that simplicity scales with the number of users on your system.

• Reliability: Each version of Movable Type undergoes rigorous professional quality assurance testing which, combined with structured public beta tests, ensures continuation of applications proven track record of rock-solid stability.

• Scalability: The Movable Type platform is built on proven, industry-standard technologies that enable the system to scale effortlessly with the success of your blogs.

• Design: Movable Type was designed from the ground up with a focus on professional design, usability and information architecture. In addition, the interface can be fully customized to your own liking allowing for seamless visual integration with your other applications.

1.2 Logging into the system

To begin using Movable Type, you need to log in so the system knows who you are. Your system administrator should have provided you with an address (URL) for your Movable Type homepage, a username and a password to log in.

To log into Movable Type

1. Enter your username and password in the appropriate boxes on the front page of the Movable Type welcome screen
2. Click the "Log In" button

1. If your password was accepted, you should see a welcome screen with a list of your Weblogs. Your username should be in the upper right hand corner.

1. If your password was not accepted, you'll receive an error message and you will be prompted to try again. If your password is rejected multiple times, make sure that your password is correct and your caps lock key is off.

To retrieve a forgotten password

1. Click the link labeled "Forgot your Password?" The Password Recovery dialogue box appears.

1. Type your Movable Type username in the first box.
2. Type your password recovery phrase in the next box. If you can't remember your password or your password hint, contact your system administrator.

1. Click Recover. The Password Recovery dialogue box will close and your new password will be sent to the email address that corresponds with your Movable Type account.
2. Retrieve your new password from your email and login as described above.

1.3 Navigating Movable Type

This section serves as an introduction to the Movable Type user interface, as well as the common design elements present throughout the system. The specifics of each feature are covered in detail throughout this manual when task appropriate. To familiarize you with the user interface, we'll introduce some common design elements and then focus on four primary landing pages: the Main Menu, the System Overview, the blog-level Main Menu, and the main index of a published blog.

Common Design Elements and Functionality

Color Scheme

The Movable Type user interface facilitates access to and control over individual blog as well as system-wide settings and information. To help you differentiate between blog-specific and system-wide settings and functionality, Movable Type applies differing colors to corresponding navigation bars. Navigation pertaining to individual blogs are always headed by blue bars, as shown here.

Navigation related to system-wide settings and functionality are always headed by green bars, as shown here.

Navigation related to Movable Type in general and public resources related to the application are headed by a grey bar, as shown here.

The Top Navigation Bar

Regardless of the administrative page you are viewing, you will always see a navigation bar across the top of your screen containing the same elements, although it will be blue or green depending on the context above. Following is a description of the links accessible from this navigation bar.

Product Logo: The logo in the upper left corner corresponds to the product you are using Movable Type Publishing Platform or Movable Type Enterprise. It is linked to the main menu where youll see a list of your weblogs and links to common sections of each. Main Menu: This link also returns you to the Movable Type main menu. System Overview: This link leads to the System Overview section of the application containing cross-blog listings of entries, comments, TrackBacks, etc. In addition, System Administrators are provided system level settings for the application and plugins. Help: Links to the online documentation for your product located on the Six Apart website. Username (in the above case* sysadmin): This link takes you to your user profile. *Logout: Logs you out of the Movable Type application. Weblogs dropdown: Allows you to jump to the main menu (administrative interface) of any weblogs you have permissions to access.

The Navigation Breadcrumb

The breadcrumb, located just below the top navigation bar, describes the location of the page you are currently viewing as well as the hierarchy of the parent application pages. Each of the elements except for the last (i.e. the current page) is linked to the page it describes which allows you to easily jump to those pages, all the way back up to the Main Menu.

In the breadcrumb above, the screen currently being viewed is the General Settings page of the Company Events weblog. Clicking Company Events would take you directly to that weblogs main menu. Clicking Main Menu would take you two steps up to the applications main menu.

Quick Search bar and View Site link

The quick search bar can be found on every page near the top right corner, below the top navigation bar. It allows you to quickly execute a search for a string without having to go to the Search page. The content searched by this field is contextual to your current view and a hint is provided in the field itself. Clicking View Site will take you to the published blog currently in context.

Section Tabs

Some pages, like the blogs settings page and the template listing, contain other sections of content. These sections are accessed via the section tabs at the top of the page.

Plugin action links

Depending on which you have installed, plugins can also add links to bottom of the page to provide you with functionality that is contextual to the page youre on. These are called plugin action links.

Item Listing Tables

Throughout the application you will interact with item listing tables. These tables list all of the objects (entries, authors, comments, tags, etc.) related to the particular administrative screen you are viewing. The row contents and column headers are unique to the type of object displayed in each table, however, the basic functionality of these tables is standardized.

The following example shows the weblog listing table.

Item listing tables are comprised of the following features:

Auxiliary links: Located above and to the right of the item listing table and filter bar, these links provide additional options related to the items in the table list. In this screenshot above, Create new entry and Activity Feed are the auxiliary links. Filter bar: Located at the top of the item listing table, and below the any auxiliary links, this link leads to functionality which allows you to temporarily filter view the item listing table below it to allow you to find content matching certain attributes. Quickfilter: A link located on the right side of the filter bar, the quickfilter is the most commonly used filter for that particular item listing table. Clicking it automatically applies the filter. Action Bar and itemset actions: With items in your table list selected, clicking any button in the action bar will perform the corresponding action on the selected items. In addition, a dropdown menu on the right may contain more actions you can perform on the item set. Item listing table: The item listing table is made up of rows representing unique items. Each is typically preceded by a checkbox, a status icon, and followed by columns unique to the item type in question. The data in these rows gives you an overview of the items as well as links to related items/information and to the items individual editing page. Display Options: Located at the bottom left of the listing table, this link opens up a section which contains controls for modifying your view of the listing.
Listing page navigation: These links, found on the bottom right of the table allow you to navigate to the first, previous, next and last pages of a paginated listing.

To access or edit a single item in a listing table

Click on the item text contained in the first column after the checkbox (and possibly a status icon). This nearly always links to an individual items editing page.

To select or deselect an item in a listing table

Select or deselect an item in a listing table by clicking the corresponding checkbox or by clicking anywhere in the row itself. When an item is selected, the color of the row is inverted to make it easy to see which items are selected.

To quickly select/deselect contiguous items in a listing table

Select or deselect contiguous items in a listing table by first clicking one item and then holding down the Shift key while selecting the last item. This will select/deselect not only the two checked rows but all rows in between them.

To select/deselect all items in a listing table

Select or deselect all items in that list by clicking the checkbox located in the header row, or by clicking anywhere in the header row itself.

To invert the current selection of items in a listing table

You can invert the current selections in a listing table by holding down the Shift key and clicking on the header row checkbox or the header row itself.

To perform a batch action on a selected item set

With your item set selected as described in the previous procedures, click the desired button located in the action bar or select another action from the itsemset actions dropdown and click Go.

To apply a custom view filter to your item listing table

1. Locate and click the None link in the filter bar. This will reveal your filter options.

1. Click the dropdown menu labeled Show to select your desired filtering constraint: either all or only.

1. Next, click the series of dropdown menus corresponding to the filter you wish to apply.

1. After you are finished defining the filter, click the button labeled Filter to apply it to your view. Your filter will be converted into a link in the filter bar which you can click to modify your filter definition.

1. To revert back to an unfiltered view, simply click on the Reset link on the right side of the filter bar.

To change the default display for an item listing table

1. Locate and click the Show Display Options link found at the bottom of the listing table. This will open the Display Options dialogue box.

1. Using the buttons and menu options provided, you can modify the view of the listing table. Common options include the number of items displayed, the location of your action bar as well as the date display. Different options will appear for listing tables of different types.
2. Click Save to apply the modifications you have chosen to apply to the item listing table in question. These settings are persistent on a per-user, per-type basis (e.g. all comment listing tables for a user, or all entry listing tables for a user).

Main Menu

When you log into Movable Type the first page you will see is the Main Menu. This page is an overview of all blogs associated with your user name, action links corresponding to those blogs, as well as shortcuts to any system-wide privileges you have been granted.

Like all administrative pages throughout Movable Type, the Main Menu is headed by the Top Navigation Bar. Below the navigation bar, the screen is divided into four sections as follows:

My Weblogs: This section lists all weblogs associated with your user name and provides links for performing certain actions on those blogs depending on your privileges. The URL of the public facing blog site is displayed here as well. Movable Type News: This section lists recent news about Movable Type posted on the Six Apart website, listed in reverse chronological order. System Shortcuts: This section includes shortcuts to any sections of the System Overview for which you have privileges. QuickPost: This link takes you to a screen from which you can set up a bookmarklet designed to provide you with a custom, abbreviated entry creation screen so that you can quickly compose and post an entry in just a few clicks.

System Overview

The System Overview page is accessible by clicking the link in the center of the top navigation bar. The System Overview is essentially a system-wide control panel where you can view and given the appropriate permissions manage items across multiple blogs and system settings.

Like all administrative pages throughout Movable Type, the System Overview is headed by the Top Navigation Bar. Below the navigation bar, the screen is divided into three columns as follows:

Sidebar Navigation Menu: This navigation bar mirrors the System Shortcuts displayed on the Main Menu. The links in this navigation bar take you to their corresponding system-wide administrative pages. System Overview and Movable Type News: Using custom templates, this section of the screen can be fully customized to display any information you like. By default, Movable Type News is displayed for your reference. System Stats and Essential Links: This column displays system-wide statistics related to the blogs and authors present in your installation. The section labeled Essential Links contains links to public Movable Type resources.

Main Menu, Weblog Level

The main menu of an individual blog is the primary administrative interface for that single blog. There are some common design elements that remain throughout an individual blogs administrative pages: the left and top navigation bars, the navigation breadcrumb as well as the Fast Search box and View Site link.

Below the Top Navigation Bar, the main administrative page for an individual blog is divided up into 3 columns as follows:

Sidebar navigation menu: Provides you with access to item listing pages and features pertaining to the blog you are viewing. This navigation bar appears on every page in blog-context. The links that appear in this navigation bar are dependent on the privileges assigned to your user name. Recent Activity: This sections contains a listing of recent entries, comments and TrackBacks on the blog. They are listed in reverse chronological order. Blog Overview: The contents of this section can be customized to display relevant information of your choice. By default, it contains links to public Movable Type resources.

Individual Published Weblog

The published weblog looks quite different than the administrative interface. Nearly every aspect of the blog can be customized by editing and manipulating the appropriate templates. However, when you initially create your blog it will take on a default look and feel described here.

Your published blog contains a header that includes the name of your blog. Below that is a bar that contains your blogs description. Below this header, your blog is divided into two default columns as described below.

Entries: This section takes up the bulk of the screen and displays a specified quantity of entries based on your blogs settings. By default, the entries are headed by their Authored On date as well as title, and are displayed in reverse chronological order. Depending on the length of the entry, only an excerpt may appear, followed immediately by a link to read more, as well as links to grab a permalink, submit a comment, or create a trackback. Search, Category, Archives, & Recent Posts: The right hand column is divided into the four sections just mentioned. Each section may contain links the corresponding content. Additionally, there is usually a link at the bottom of the column through which readers can subscribe to a feed of your blog.

1.4 The User Profile

Once you have logged in for the first time, its a good idea to edit your profile. Your user profile is comprised of your username, email and web address (URL), your full name, and other preferences including your password. Required fields are denoted by an asterisk (*) within the interface.

Below is a brief description of each of those fields:

Profile Settings

Username: The username is your Movable Type login name. It, together with your password, makes up your credentials for accessing the administrative interface. Your username can be changed at any time and changes take effect immediately. Display Name: This is your identifying name that will appear on the published blog in the byline of any entries you create. This field is optional so if you do not want to display your name on your blog, you can leave it blank. Email Address: Your email address is required by Movable Type for, among other things, the password recovery feature and any email-based notifications you enable throughout the system. Website URL: This is your canonical web address, if you have one. If the URL and Display Name fields are populated, your name in the entry byline will be linked to your URL. Language: This field allows you to choose display language for the Movable Type administrative interface. Movable Type ships with six official language packs: Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Spanish and English. Many more can be obtained from third-parties or created quite simply. Tag Delimiter: This setting dictates your preference for a delimiter when entering tags (covered in Chatper Two) on an entry. Comma is the default and recommended setting.

Password Settings

Current Password: This field is only used when you are changing your password. New Password & Password Confirm: These fields are used to specify a new password if you desire to change it. The password must be typed identically in order to be accepted. Password Recovery phrase: If you forget your password and attempt to recover it using the Forgot password link on the main login page, you will be asked for your username the contents of this field. Your password recovery phrase should be something that you will remember, but doesnt need to be as difficult as your password since this doesnt allow access. Web Services Password: Your webservices password is a secondary password that allows limited access through the APIs for use in external posting clients (e.g. MarsEdit, Ecto and Lifeblog) or by an external service/tool (e.g. Flickr, del.icio.us). It also is required to use Activity feeds. It should be different from your Movable Type password since you may be sharing it with a third party.

To access and edit your author profile

1. Click on your username in the upper right hand corner of your screen. Your username is preceded by the word Welcome.

1. Click any field to edit it (Username, Email address, etc.)

1. Click the Save Change