I’ve been using Dreamweaver when I’m working on the templates and site design stuff.. and then I saw this over at SixApart. I’ll quote the exciting part:
You can make use of the support for Movable Type template tags in Adobe GoLive CS2,
So, I have a new best friend now.. everyone, please meet Adobe GoLive CS2, GoLive, this is everyone..
I have a feeling, GoLive and I will be spending lots of hours together in the future..
I think I love Adobe….
Looks like I could have taken a little bit longer with finishing up my MT 3.2 templates, according to this post, Six apart has decided to release a 4th beta, instead of going final candidate. The list of remaining bugs is much smaller.. and I think it will be a very stable release… also of note, Jay Allen revealed why the new default templates have so much HTML/CSS code in them, even though the actual MT tags have been simplified.:
But now, we’d like to let you in on the “secret”: We’ve unified the HTML structure used across all Six Apart products (Movable Type, TypePad and LiveJournal) to allow styles and designs to flow back and forth between our millions of customers.
This should make it easier for people to design new “themes” for MT, since so much information is now standard across the services. I’ll probably switch Janice’s Blog over to the new default template “Vicksburg” when I upgrade the site.. she’ll probably want the color scheme changed..but that’s easy..
I love these guys… seriously!
I do tech support for a living, so I know how big of a pain in the ass it can be to have to answer stupid questions…(especially ones where the answer is obvious.. at least..in hindsight)
Since I’d read the part in Hacking Movable Type about using the mysqldump command, and scheduling it through your server’s Cron command… I’d been trying (in between playing with MT 3.2 beta, and redoing all the templates – See the new title picture up top? That’s what happens when you delete the wrong files, and have no backup of some stuff!—anyway..back to the real story) to get it to work. I’d gotten the command to work, if I just entered it from my shell account on the server.. worked like a charm (after a few tries to get formatting correct).
The problem? everytime I added it to Cron.. it failed.. badly.. like a 2 year old taking a driving test kinda bad..
So, Like any good geek.. I do some Googling, and some flipping through of Dreamhost’s online support section… not finding anything that looks like it would help, I throw in the towel, and send them an email.
Response was quick.. 24 hours or less.. and then the work began, we spent several days emailing back and forth, and trying different things. Finally, today they fix my problem and email me to let me know about it. The solution that was obvious in hindsight? Turn the stupid command into a script, set the script executable, and have Cron run the script!
Works flawlessly… now.. if I can just remember to backup the rest of the site information….
According to this post, Six Apart will be releasing the last beta build Thursday, followed by the release of the ‘final’ version next week.
Really, all I have to say about this, is crap… I was hoping for a longer beta period.. not because the 3.2 Beta versions are buggy and unstable and in need of many fixes (After all, we’re not talking about a Microsoft product here, and they fixed the one bug I reported)….but because I’m nowhere near done with customizing the 3.2 templates to look like I want them to, and this means, that I have to hurry up and get them done.
You think if I asked nicely, they’d hold off on releasing 3.2 so I could procrastinate further?
As you can see by looking at the left hand column (unless you’ve got adblocking software running) I’m giving Google’s Adsense program a try. I’m not expecting to make a fortune, and if the ads begin to get in the way of page layout (I’m starting to work on new templates, that’ll probably go in when MT 3.2 comes out of beta), I’ll get rid of them. I figure if I earn enough in a year to help pay my hosting costs, I’m ahead of the game (hell..if I earn enough in a year to buy an album off the iTunes music store, I’m still ahead of the game)
So my copy finally arrived today.. and I’ve only had a chance to read the forward, the table of contents, and part of chapter 1 (that darn job thing…keeps getting in the way)
So far, I think it’ll be a good resource, I’ve already learned somethings I didn’t know about configuring a MT install.. The important thing, is that with the exception of some files changing names, it looks like most of the information in the book will continue to apply even under MT 3.2… I’ll post a ‘real’ review when I finish reading the book.
Over on her Beta Blog, Judi has brought up something I’ve always wondered about…. How come you can’t get a version of the MT Templates, that are just the required MT Tags (in the appropriate position), instead of the one formatted with all the HTML and stuff?
On the plus side, according to the comments, Jay is going to be providing the requested HTML free templates…but, he also says that Sixapart has something up their sleeve regarding the HTML stuff included in the templates… it’ll be interesting to see what they’ve got planned
Move is finally done (mostly).
I just got done downloading and doing the initial setup of the MT 3.2 Beta.. so far, it looks good. Still using the default templates… and I only have one entry, with like 4 words in it.. so I need to play with it more…maybe tomorrow.
Oh Yeah.. Amazon has finally shipped out my copy of Jay Allen’s book! So.. hopefully, the changes SixApart made in MT 3.2 won’t completely go against what’s in the book….
I’m also thinking of trying out Google’s adsense… my iTunes Music Store referrals aren’t making any money…and while money isn’t the primary reason for this site (obviously) it wouldn’t hurt to have a few $$ coming in to help pay for hosting costs… Anyone have any experience with AdSense? Is it worth it?
There may not be any updates for about the next week. The cable TV and internet are getting turned on at the new house tomorrow… which is fine.. except there won’t be any furniture, TVs, or computers there to use those services….and of course, its getting turned off at the old place either tomorrow or friday…
Just a bit of forewarning…
So, I’m at little bored right now..but still to awake from getting off work to go to sleep.. so I thought, instead of actually doing something productive like packing so we could move…that I’d take a peak and see what kind of search queries were leading people to my Blog.