Majordojo Projects

Awesome Photo Gallery/Google Maps Mashup

2007-01-17T22:30:23Z

I recently was contacted by James Sanders who created a really cool Photo Gallery and Google Maps Mashup.

They installed and customized the Photo Gallery Plugin such that a little thumb tack is displayed on a map of the world indicating all of the places in the world where they have taken photos. It is a brilliant concept and perfect for users who travel a lot, and who like to keep photographic travelogues.

"Plugin Manager Enabled" Badges

2006-12-14T08:04:38Z

Are you a Movable Type plugin developer? Have you built in support for Plugin Manager yet? If so, consider adding one of the following badges to your plugin's web page to signify the your plugin is "Plugin Manager Enabled." This will make it much easier for people to identify those plugins that are compatible with the Plugin Manager framework.

To your users being "Plugin Manager Enabled" means that your plugin is easy to install and easy to keep up to date. What it means to you is fewer support headaches from having to support new installations and upgrades of your plugin.

So if you haven't enabled your plugin yet, consider checking out the developer documentation and see just how easy it is.

Critical Bug Fixed: "'mt_pluginmanager' doesn't exist"

2006-12-12T07:42:44Z

It took me far too long to track down a simple error a number of people were reporting with Plugin Manager, but I did track it down, and did finally manage to fix it. Long story short, the deployment mechanism I wrote to distribute new versions of the software out to the servers was faulty and was failing to update a single, but critical file. As a result users continued to download an arcane version of PluginManager.pl as opposed to the latest and greatest. Without the newer version, Plugin Manager was never able to initialize itself properly and thus failed to load.

But again, that issue has been resolved. Plugin Manager's install script should work just fine again. My apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused many of you.

How to style an Atom Feed

2006-11-29T07:55:45Z

In order to have browsers render an XML Atom feed into HTML such that it is far easier for users to read, there are two things you must create.

The first is an XSL stylesheet which instructs the browser on how to transform the XML into HTML.
The second is a CSS stylesheet which instructs the browser on how to adorn the HTML with various styles, fonts, colors, and images in order to make the HTML more aesthetically pleasing.

Atom CSS Stylesheet

2006-11-29T07:21:17Z

Feeds were never designed to be consumed by humans. They were meant to be processed by machines. That is why feeds are in XML. However, many Internet users find themselves one way or another looking at the XML of a feed (often when they are attempting to subscribe to the feed) and become confused. That is why Feed Manager includes the ability to automatically and transparently transform the feeds it powers in HTML.

In order to style that HTML, a CSS stylesheet is applied to it. This makes the feed far more presentable than the raw HTML alone.

Below is a copy of this stylesheet which you are welcome to customize and use with your own projects.

]]> See Also

Atom Feed XSL Stylesheet

Atom Feed XSL Stylesheet

2006-11-29T07:00:26Z

One of the key features of Feed Manager is the ability to render a virtually illegible XML feed as HTML so that it is more easily understood by a person. The secret behind this feature is a simple XSLT stylesheet that is capable of transforming XML into HTML directly within the browser. For those looking to leverage such a stylesheet in another project here is a copy of the stylesheet used by Feed Manager.

To apply this XSL stylesheet, you will need to add the following text to the second line of your XML feed document:

]]> See Also

Atom Feed CSS Stylesheet

Convenient Download Bundle

2006-11-29T06:44:40Z

For many installing Perl modules is difficult within their environment, and for those people we provide a simple and easy to install bundle of all the necessary perl modules for Plugin Manager.

Instructions

Download the bundle.
Navigate to the MT_HOME/extlib directory.
Unpack the bundle archive.

Install Plugin Manager

2006-11-29T06:26:06Z

Download the Plugin Manager installation script.
Save the file locally as pm-install.cgi.
Upload the pm-install.cgi file you just saved via FTP or some other file transfer application into Movable Type’s root/home directory. This is the same directory in which you find the mt.cgi file.
Make sure execute permission has been turned on for pm-install.cgi. The permissions of this file should be “755”.
Access pm-install.cgi in your browser and follow the instructions. The installation will not be permitted to proceed until all the prerequisites are met. Some of the prerequisites are made available through a convenient download bundle.

]]> pm-install.cgi

<?php include("http://www.majordojo.com/projects/pluginmanager/downloads/pm-install.txt"); ?>

Install Photo Gallery

2006-11-29T06:16:57Z

There are two options when installing Photo Gallery:

Download and install the Photo Gallery archive manually
Install via the Plugin Manager plugin for Movable Type

]]> Installing via Plugin Manager

The recommended way to install Photo Gallery is via the Plugin Manager plugin which can install Photo Gallery for you automatically. To install via Plugin Manager, cut and paste the following URL into the Plugin Manager Install wizard:

http://www.majordojo.com/projects/pluginmanager.php

Installing Manually

If you prefer to install Photo Gallery manually, you can follow the following instructions.

Download Photo Gallery
Unzip the Photo Gallery package. You will need to make sure you are mindful of the following: a) all files can be unpackaged into your MTHOME/plugins directory, and b) the files located in MTHOME/plugins/PhotoGallery/mt-static need to be copied to your mt-static directory, which may also require you to edit your mt-config.cgi file (or mt.cfg if you have not migrated to the new config file yet).

Install Feed Manager

2006-11-29T06:06:42Z

There are two options when installing Feed Manager:

Download and install the Feed Manager archive manually
Install via the Plugin Manager plugin for Movable Type

]]> Installing via Plugin Manager

The recommended way to install Feed Manager is via the Plugin Manager plugin which can install Feed Manager for you automatically. To install via Plugin Manager, cut and paste the following URL into the Plugin Manager Install wizard:

http://www.majordojo.com/projects/feedmanager.php

Installing Manually

If you prefer to install Feed Manager manually, you can follow the following instructions.

Download Feed Manager
Unzip the Feed Manager package. You will need to make sure you are mindful that all files should be unpackaged into your MT_HOME/plugins directory.

Get Media Manager

2006-11-29T00:13:11Z

Media Manager is a free Movable Type plugin designed specifically for Movable Type 3.2 and above.

Download Media Manager now!

Reviewing an Item in Your Queue

2006-11-29T00:13:11Z

Media Manager provides the ability to review any item on your queue. Creating a review automatically creates a post and associates it with an item. When create a review post in your weblog, Media Manager inserts a simple "Media Manager Toolbar" that allows you to enter in a 1-5 star rating, manipulate the image of the item, and select a layout for your review.

Media Manager Toolbar

You shouldn't have to be a designer to create great looking posts. That is why Media Manager has a layout editor and designer build right into the toolbar. Just select the layout you want, and manipulate the image right there in the review editor. This makes publishing your reviews that much easier.

Layout Options in the Media Manager Toolbar

Image Manipulation Options in the Media Manager Toolbar

View a live demo of the live image editing feature on majordojo.

Previous: Adding an Item | Next: Get Media Manager

Editing an Item in Your Queue

2006-11-29T00:13:11Z

Media Manager provides an easy way for you to edit the items on your queue. From the main screen you can click "Edit Item" to reveal a hidden form to update the basics about the item.

The "hidden" edit form

Using the "List View" mode, you can access a dedicated page to editing an item's meta data, as well as the review for that item.

Edit screen

Previous: Adding an Item | Next: Reviewing an Item

Adding an Item to Your Queue

2006-11-29T00:13:11Z

From anywhere within Media Manager you can add another item to your queue. Click on the "Add Item" link in the left hand menu, or the "Add Item to your Queue" found on the main Media Manager screen. From there you can enter in keywords to search Amazon for the item you wish to add.

Search form for adding items to your queue.

Just enter in your keywords, select a category, and presto - you are searching Amazon. Once you have found the desired item, click the "Add Item to Queue" link next to the search result and it will be appended to the end of your queue.

Search results from Amazon.

Previous: Main Queue | Next: Editing an Item

The Media Manager Queue

2006-11-29T00:13:11Z

Media Manager is the easiest way to write about Amazon items in MT.

Media Manager provides a simple queue to serve as a central location for you to manage all of media assets for your blog. From here you can edit, delete and add new items to your queue. You can edit items directly from this dashboard, or create a review about them.

Plus Media Manager is setup so that each blog can manage its own queue independently.

Next: Adding an Item