Header: StructuredBlogging.org

MT Plugin Instructions

The Structured Blogging plugin for Movable Type is currently an alpha release, made available under the MIT license.

Prerequisites

  • Movable Type 3.2 (it may work with 3.12, but hasn't been tested)
  • MySQL database (won't work with a BSD database)
  • The XML::Parser Perl module (note: we think this is nearly universal, so you probably don't need to install this separately. However if MT-StructuredBlogging doesn't work for you, check to see if you are missing XML::Parser.)
  • The LWP::UserAgent Perl module (you need this if you want the "lookup" links to work – to look up books and other media on Amazon and elsewhere).

structured blogging movable type
Writing a Structured Blogging post in Movable Type

Installation

1) FTP access:

  1. Unpack structuredblogging-mt-1.0pre13.tar.gz onto your local hard drive.
  2. Copy all files from the "plugins" directory into the "plugins" directory on your web server.
  3. Make sure that all files are accessible by your web server.
  4. Now create an image upload directory, making sure to give the web server access. If you are on a typical hosting account, you will have to make your image directory world writable.

2) If you have shell access to your web server:

  1. Change to the directory containing mt.cgi.
  2. Unpack structuredblogging-mt-1.0pre13.tar.gz
  3. Change to the structuredblogging-mt-1.0pre13 directory.
  4. Type: for f in `find . -type f`; do install -D $f ../$f; done
  5. Now create an image upload directory, making sure to give the web server access. If you are on a typical hosting account, you will have to make your image directory world writable. For example: mkdir -m 777 ../sbimages

Template setup

In order to use the plugin, you will need to edit your templates.

First edit the individual entry archive template (under "archives") and add the following after <$MTEntryMore$>:

<MTStructuredBloggingHTML>

<MTStructuredBloggingXML>

If you want to see the Structured Blogging posts on the main index, edit your main index template and add the following after </MTEntryIfExtended>:

<MTStructuredBloggingHTML>

<MTStructuredBloggingXML>

You will also want to edit your RSS 2.0 Index and change the <description><$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$></description> part to say:

<description><$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1"$>

<MTStructuredBloggingHTML encode_xml="1">

<MTStructuredBloggingXML encode_xml="1"></description>

Then (if applicable) edit your Atom Index template and put this after <$MTEntryMore encode_xml="1"$>:

<MTStructuredBloggingHTML encode_xml="1">

<MTStructuredBloggingXML encode_xml="1">

Configuration

Once you have unpacked the files, go to the system-wide "plugins" page (at the top level of your Movable Type site, under “System Shortcuts”) and make sure that BigPAPI and MT-StructuredBlogging are functioning properly. If they have a green tick on the right, then they are OK.

mt plugins

If either shows errors, check that all the files under plugins/StructuredBlogging are accessible to the web server.

Now visit the Structured Blogging config page by clicking on your weblog in MT, then "settings", then "plugins". Then scroll down to MT-StructuredBlogging and click on "Show Settings".

mt plugins settingsYou will need to tell it the path to the File upload directory, and the URL of upload directory.

For example, if your blog is at http://www.myblog.com/, and the path to the blog is /home/me/public_html/, and the path to the upload directory is /home/me/public_html/sbimages/, then the URL to the upload directory will be:

http://www.myblog.com/sbimages/

If you have an Amazon ID or an outputthis.org account, enter the details on the config page.
For Developers
- Resources
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Supporters:

For information about joining the initiative contact: info@structuredblogging.org