Introducing Media Manager 2.0 Beta 1

Hi Byrne. I want to say that I loved your previous work with this plugin, especially MTAmazon and MTAmazon32. I have been looking forward to the updated version since I heard you mention it during the community conference call on movabletype.org. After trying to implement this plugin I want to get some feedback about the capabilities of this new version. I want to create a blog which is built from the ground up that is dedicated to amazon content (I had done so with MT 3.x). In this blog each amazon item would be a category, each of which would have subcategories like Preview, Review, Thoughts, Quotes, ect. I don't see how it is possible to associate an amazon item with a category in this new version of the plugin. I was able to do it with MTAmazon32 by placing the item's asin in the category description field. Then the amazon item would be found by and all relevant information would be produced. Does this version support a tag system that allows this type of item look up? If not I think my blog dream is dead before it even began...

Byrne,

So does MM 2.0 not upgrade from the prior version? I installed MM 2.0...but don't see that it upgraded the previous db anywhere that was still hidden away in my db (even though the plugin wasn't being used...since i've upgraded to mt4.01)

Thanks, ryan

Try this:

<mt:SetVarBlock name="tag"><mt:CategoryDataAmazonBookDB /></mt:SetVarBlock>
<MTEntryCategories>
<MTCategoryCustomFields>
    <MTIfNonEmpty tag="$tag">
        <MTAssets asset_id="<MTCategoryCustomFieldValue>"><a class="asset-image" href="<$MTAssetURL$>"><div style="height: 100px; width: 100px; padding: 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: center center; background-image: url(<$MTAssetThumbnailURL width="100"$>)"></div></a>
        </MTAssets>
    </MTIfNonEmpty>
</MTCategoryCustomFields>
</MTEntryCategories>

I see the error. The tag="AmazonBook" needs to be a variable - not plain text. Variables are identified using the "$" dollar sign. So your code should look like this: tag="$AmazonBook".

Also - you should note that comments on this blog can formatted in Markdown. So if you indent your HTML code with a minimum of 4 spaces, then MT will automatically convert that text into HTML escaped code block.

Maybe I'm just missing where the media list is now? I see you can add things as an Amazon Asset, I just don't see all my old stuff there already.

When I add an asset, the list of assets no longer works and I get this error:

fileparse(): need a valid pathname at lib/MT/App/CMS.pm line 2131

I have to go into the database to fix it up, which is somewhat annoying. Is there something I'm missing?

Byrne, thanks again. For some reason your suggestion did not resolve the issue, the above (corrected) code will not show any amazon content when placed in the MTEntries tag block on my main index. Any other suggestions. Thanks so much for your help thus far!! After a little testing, it seems that the MTIfNonEmpty tag is failing to pass the conditional test because no simple text will be shown after this tag, while the same text is shown when placed immediately before the text. I hope that can help in figuring this out.

Getting the following error when rebuilding:

Undefined subroutine &MediaManager::Util::debug called at /mt/plugins/MediaManager/lib/MediaManager/Template/ContextHandlers.pm line 107.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the hard work, really liking the integration to MT4.

Cheers.

Hi Byrne,

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I actually do use Media Manager solely for books. I found the item statues in 1.x very useful. I could add books as I bought them, leaving them in the "unread"' status. Once I actually start reading a book, I'd flip the status to "reading," and it would automatically show up in the "Now Reading" section of my blog's sidebar. When I finished a book, I'd mark it "read" and write my review.

In the documentation for Media Manager 2.x, you say that users are encouraged to use MT's built-in tagging system to manage item statuses, and to see the documentation for assets for more information. Unfortunately, there is still no documentation for assets on movabletype.org, and I'm having a little trouble figuring out how to devise a system similar to what I had. Inserting the assets into review posts is no biggie, it's the "Now Reading" widget that I'm stuck on.

Thanks for all your great work!

Dave

Byrne,

Pardon me for taking this back to 40,000 feet, but I have to ask a very basic question. I've never successfully used Media Manager (or MTAmazon) before in previous MT versions, though I've wanted to. (I installed all of them and never got them to work.)

So what I'm wondering is: What exactly does Media Manager 2.0 Beta 1 DO? What do you use it for? If you're not using it for Amazon links to products and you're not using it for reviews of products, what is left?

@fanzinger - I am really sorry to hear that you have never used Media Manager successfully. I am hoping that with MM 2.0 you will have a different experience. As for what Media Manager does, you should checkout the screencast I made that demonstrates its functionality. That will at least show how it works. As for what I use it for... I use Media Manager to make it easier to blog about books I am reading and DVDs I am watching. My wife uses it to maintain a queue of things she has read/watched/listened to recently. I have heard of others using it to maintain a virtual store front. Bottom line, what you do with it is not constrained by the software, only your imagination.

Byrne - thanks for all you do for MT. I'm having problems adding Amazon assets after what appears to be a successful install of Media Manager. I am able to successfully search for items on Amazon and get a list of items returned from which I can choose in the "Insert Asset" dialog. But when I select an asset and click "Continue" I get back the following error:

Statement has no result columns to bind (perhaps you need to successfully call execute first) at /home2/xanthan/hammerland-www/mt/extlib/Data/ObjectDriver/Driver/DBI.pm line 120.

I believe I've meticulously gone through the install process and checked (and rechecked) that each file was successfully uploaded... but apparently something is missing. The DBI.pm file appears in tact, in its place, with the same number of bytes as the original. Line 120 is:

$sth->bind_columns(undef, @bind);

Any clues as to what is going wrong for me?

Thanks,

Tom

Byrne, my service provider has v1.21 of DBI installed. I don't know if it matters, but it's also running MySQL v2.1011.

I'm actually getting the same error, but with mysql v 3.23.58. If that is an issue (i'm used to 5-oh myself) I can see about upgrading, but its a corporate server, so I'm not sure what the chances of that happening are.

I'd hate to go through all the hassle of upgrading only to find out that that isn't the issue.

What would be great - and this may be a comment more for the MTAmazon community - would be the ability to either select or edit the source of / link to the content. I very much would like to add books to my blog, but I don't want to link to Amazon.com, for a variety of reasons. I would prefer to link to Goodreads.com, but that's neither here nor there. From a top-level perspective, something like a link constructor component would be awesome (i.e. replacing "amazon.com" with "goodreads.com", replacing, say, "?id=$name" with "book/show/$name"), without needing to go in and hack the Media Manager / MTAmazon files themselves.

I think this tool is fantastic, however - I can't wait to see further permutations.

I've got MM2.0 beta on an install of 4.1. I imported my data from an export.html file, so I'm starting with totally empty tables. When I try to add something to MM, I can search, and I get results, but I can't tell it which item I want to add as an asset. If I click on the "Continue" button, I get a blank entry and an invalid asset added to my database.

Any suggestions?

Hi there,

How long have I been looking for this MT4 version of this plugin?!?!

It's installed, and working a treat, but I can't find a way to disply my list in the blog's sidebar.

I tried the code you used in an earlier comment, but is apparently not a valid tag, and I don't know what I'm doing! Can you help, or point me in the right direction please?

Thanks.

I'm also experiencing the same problem using MT4.1. I get a text list of titles that I cannot select. This is a fresh install of MT4.1 and MM2.0b1.