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The Ultimate Guide to Installing Movable Type Plugins

Introductory Note to Readers

This article was originally written by Byrne Reese in December 2008, and published on his old website Majordojo.com. On January 14, 2020, this website is no longer accessible.

I found the page archived by the Internet Archive1 and am republishing it here with minimal edits, to preserve as much English-language knowledge about the Movable Type web publishing platform as possible. –Dave Aiello, January 14, 2020.

 

Without a doubt the most common support request I receive from users of my many Movable Type plugins is around installation. If you are having difficulty or getting frustrated the first and most important thing to realize is that it is not your fault. Not in the slightest. The problem lies in having poor documentation which exists because plugin authors, like me, take plugin installation for granted. As a result our instructions, while well intentioned, are sometimes not sufficient for all users.

So permit me to try to explain how to install a Movable Type plugin once and for all and in a way that I hope will be useful and understandable by the largest possible number of people.

Before You Begin

First off, these instructions assume that you are installing a plugin that adheres to the documented best practices for plugin packaging. To determine if the plugin you are installing adheres to this standard you will need to unzip the plugin on your local computer, which should create a new folder containing all of the files needed to run the plugin. Look inside this folder, if it contains another folder called plugins then you are in luck. If not, then this guide will be of little use to you. I would encourage you to contact the plugin author and ask them to please repackage their plugin according to the documented standard, or point them to me so I can help them.

Your $MT_HOME and $MT_STATIC Directories

You are clearly on the right track. Now, another thing you need to know is that these instructions make frequent reference to your “$MT_HOME” and “$MT_STATIC” directories. The location of these directories will be different for virtually everyone; what is important is knowing where these directories are for you.

The $MT_HOME directory is a cgi-bin directory where you have the Movable Type application installed. Let’s look at this common example: suppose you have installed Movable Type into the following directory:

/var/www/cgi-bin/mt

We know that this is the right directory because if you view its contents you will find within it a file called mt.cgi like so:

/var/www/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi

This is your $MT_HOME directory.

Now, your $MT_STATIC directory is where you will find Movable Type’s static files. Like with Movable Type itself, you may2 need to place the plugin’s static files outside of your $MT_HOME directory into a “web accessible” directory. You will know this is the case for you if you access Movable Type from a URL like:

http://foo.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi

And your images are served from a URL like:

http://foo.com/mt-static/images/movable-type-logo.gif

Alternatively, your system may be configured such that static files can be served directly from your cgi-bin directory like so:

http://foo.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-static/images/movable-type-logo.gif

Knowing how your system is configured to serve static files is essential to a successful plugin installation. To find your $MT_STATIC directory, find on your system a file called mt.js. Let’s suppose that your system tells you that mt.js can be found in:

/var/www/htdocs/mt-static/mt.js

Then your $MT_STATIC directory is:

/var/www/htdocs/mt-static/

If your system finds more than one copy of mt.js you will need to do some sleuthing to figure out which one of these directories is in use by Movable Type. Hint: consult your mt-config.cgi file; in it might be a configuration parameter that will indicate the proper path to the directory in question.

Now, let’s proceed with your installation.

Installing via the Command Line (Unix)

If you are at all familiar with using the command line, then this is without a doubt, the quickest and most straightforward solution to plugin installation:

prompt> unzip SomePlugin-1.3.zip
prompt> cp -a SomePlugin-1.3/* $MT_HOME/

This will copy all of your files into the appropriate directories, including the plugin’s cgi scripts, and Perl library files and sometimes even its PHP files needed to support dynamic publishing3.

And optionally, if the plugin has an mt-static folder and your system requires you to install static files into a different directory than your $MT_HOME:

prompt> cp -a SomePlugin-1.3/mt-static/* $MT_STATIC/

Installing via the Command Line (Mac OS X)

Installing a plugin on a Mac is almost identical to installing on in Unix. The only difference really is the cp command used since cp -a is not supported. So the command sequence becomes:

prompt> unzip SomePlugin-1.3.zip
prompt> cp -pR SomePlugin-1.3/* $MT_HOME/

This will copy all of your files into the appropriate directories, including the plugin’s cgi scripts, and Perl library files and sometimes even its PHP files needed to support dynamic publishing2.

And optionally, if the plugin has an mt-static folder and your system requires you to install static files into a different directory than your $MT_HOME:

prompt> cp -pR SomePlugin-1.3/mt-static/* $MT_STATIC/

Installing via FTP

If you are installing the plugin via FTP, then the instructions are similar as to the above, but you will be installing the plugin by dragging and dropping files around. Whee! Of course, your exact instructions may vary depending upon the FTP software you use, but the general gist is the same no matter what. Let’s take a look:

  1. Unzip the plugin’s zip file to your desktop.
  2. Start your FTP client and connect to your web server.
  3. In your FTP client navigate to your $MT_HOME directory.
  4. Select all of the files found in the folder created when you unzipped the plugin’s archive and drag and drop them directly into your $MT_HOME directory in your FTP client. Wait for all of the files to be copies.
  5. In your FTP client navigate to your $MT_STATIC directory.
  6. Select all of the files found in the mt-static folder found in the folder created when you unzipped the plugin’s archive and drag and drop them directly into your $MT_STATIC directory in your FTP client. Wait for all of the files to be copies.

And you are finished. Granted, textual instructions like that can sometimes not be very intuitive, so check out the screencast below which demonstrates the instructions above more precisely:

Movable Type Plugin Installation Demo from Byrne Reese on Vimeo.

And that’s it. Hopefully this will answer the questions most people have about installing Movable Type plugins. If you have trouble installing one, drop me a note and I will try to help.

1- https://web.archive.org/web/20170422210656/www.majordojo.com/2008/12/the-ultimate-guide-to-installing-movable-type-plugins.php
2- You may or may not need to perform this extra step, which depends exclusively upon how your web server has been setup. As for me, I prefer to configure my web server such that I can serve images and javascript file (static files) from my cgi-bin directory.
3- Some plugins come with a set of PHP files that are used by Movable Type’s dynamic publishing system. These files should get installed into your `MT_HOME/php` directory, and *not* into your mt-static directory. But if you follow the instructions in this document, you shouldn’t have to worry about this.

SuperAssets for Flickr: Upgrade Required to Continue Successful Use

Attention SuperAssets for Flickr users. Flickr is deprecating the non-SSL endpoints of the Flickr API on June 27. We created a new version of SuperAssets for Flickr that makes all Flickr API calls via SSL.

SuperAssets for Flickr Version 1.02 is now available and is required for all users to continue successfully using the plugin. In addition, it’s the Flickr::API2 Perl module must be updated to version 2.08 or later. This update to Flickr::API2 is what enables SSL connections to be established.

Update to SuperAssets for Flickr Coming to Address Flickr API Protocol Change

Attention SuperAssets for Flickr users. Flickr is deprecating the non-SSL endpoints of the Flickr API on June 27. We are working on a SuperAssets for Flickr update that will make all API calls via SSL, and expect to release it in time to make the transition.

An issue has been created in our Github repository that will be updated as we continue to work on the update, Update SuperAssets for Flickr to Access Flickr API over SSL.

If you have questions or concerns, please engage us on TwitterFacebook, or via the After6 Services Help Desk.

SuperAssets for SoundCloud Updated to Version 1.0

We’re pleased to announce that SuperAssets for SoundCloud, our Movable Type Asset Manager extension plugin that interfaces with SoundCloud.com, has now reached Version 1.0.

This version makes the name of the plugin consistent throughout the code and the documentation, and fixes a minor user interface problem in the Add SoundCloud Track dialog.  It also changes the license underwhich the plugin is released from the BSD Two-Clause License to the MIT License.

Announcing Promote This! 1.2

Promote This! is a Movable Type plugin that Byrne Reese created in 2006 or earlier.  It was one of the first plugins to provide tags to support a wide range of social bookmarking and promotional services.

Because Promote This! has been around for 7+ years, it’s present in a lot of older Movable Type 4 installations.  After6 decided to update it because helped facilitate upgrades of customers’ older Movable Type-based sites, and made it easier for these customers to stop Movable Type 4.

There are many alternatives to using Promote This! in new Movable Type projects.  However, updating this plugin decreased the cost and increased the likelihood of completion of quite a few MT 4 to MT 5 upgrades.

SuperAssets for Flickr Screencast

Here is a screencast which demonstrates the key features of SuperAssets for Flickr.

SuperAssets for Flickr allows you to easily select Flickr photos to include in entries and pages that you publish with Movable Type.  SuperAssets for Flickr automatically stores links to the Flickr photos you select so that they are available in the Movable Type Asset Manager and accessible by standard Movable Type Asset Manager tags.

For more information about the SuperAssets series of plugins, visit the Plugins section of After6Services.com.

Announcing UnrecognizedTags 0.7

Maybe you do a lot of Movable Type 3 and 4 migrations to Movable Type 5.2, like I do?  If so, you need the UnrecognizedTags plugin.

UnrecognizedTags identifies all Movable Type Markup Language tags that Movable Type currently doesn’t recognize.

With it, you can identify unrecognized tags throughout an entire Movable Type instance. In other words, it will identify unrecognized tags in all websites and blogs published by Movable Type, and also any unrecognized tags found in Global Templates.

So, if you need to know where all occurences are of tags produced that plugin you are removing because it’s not MT 5-compatible, UnrecognizedTags is for you.

UnrecognizedTags 0.7 was pushed on to Github on Thursday.  This version:

  • Includes a lot more documentation in the README file.
  • Adds a lot of supplemental information in config.yaml that flows through to the Movable Type Plugin page at the System Overview level pointing to things like, Six Apart’s home page, and the documentation on Github.

We’re still testing on different versions of MT, and if there are any fixes that need to go in, we’ll publish them as soon as possible.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them here or send us an email at support [at] after6services.com.

Introducing Reblog 2.4

Reblog 2.4 was just pushed on Github. This version:

  • solves an entry duplication issue in Movable Type 5.
  • eliminates a dependency on the Perl module called Switch.

I’d like to thank Shmuel Fomberg for his patches that solved these important reported issues.

I maintain the Reblog plugin on behalf of the Movable Type Community.  For more information, visit the Reblog repository at https://github.com/movabletype/mt-plugin-reblog.