MT4: not yet
The observant will have noticed that I've still not migrated my blogs over to MT4. I did have an abortive attempt at it last week, but it didn't work out so I had to revert to a backup of my database and MT 3.35 installation.
I'm not exactly sure what the problem was, other than a problem with my individual archive template that caused Smarty to have issues (it seemed to think there was a problem with the MTInclude function). After removing references to the Simply Threaded plug-in, the template worked fine, even though Simply Threaded appears to be compatible enough to work with MT4 on its home page - maybe it's only on dynamically published pages that there's an issue. However, TypeKey authentication seemed to have a problem with the 3.35 JavaScript, so before I embark on a wholesale upgrade of the templates and JavaScript I want to run a few more tests, since TypeKey authentication issues appears to be a common problem with MT4.
Besides, there's no rush. According to the Movable Type developer email list, MT4-compatible versions of Media Manager and Simply Threaded are due out soon - this week in Simply Threaded's case - and since there should finally be instructions on how to do properly hierarchical commenting using MT4's new threaded commenting features released at the same time, which will require more template changes, I might as well wait until everything's ready before I make the plunge. Besides, I'm still waiting for MT Blogroll to get upgraded as well.
Also, the case for an MT4 upgrade isn't quite so compelling. By creating a separate blog that publishes to the same path as another blog, you can create Pages; I've no idea why Folders would be useful; MT4 seems a lot slower than MT3; Google authentication doesn't work yet; I don't podcast or vodcast; I use Ecto for publishing so don't need an asset manager plus the asset manager doesn't catalogue files I've already uploaded to my blogs. The only thing that I'm really compelled by are the new themes in StyleCatcher.
Still, once everything's ready, I'll no doubt make the plunge. I just wish there were more documentation so I could find out how to use MT4's latest features!
Updates and related entries
September 16, 2007: Tried again with my bi-weekly MT4 upgrade attempt. We're nearly there now, I reckon. Simply Threaded was giving me some problems and not showing up in Smarty, but it turned out there had been a stealthy upgrade to the...
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About me
I'm Rob Buckley, a freelance IT journalist. I've edited infoconomy.com; the XML & Web Services newsletter; and Mapping Awareness, for which I won an award.
I'm also a regular contributor to MacFormat, Computer Arts, Computer Arts Projects, LinuxUser & Developer, SC Magazine and enterprise IT magazine Information Age.
I've hands-on IT experience, having been IT manager for two companies, looking after everything from Solaris, Linux and Netware down to Windows 3.1 and Mac OS 6.
September 4, 2007 | Reply
Just a quick FYI - Arvind has released Simply Threaded for Movable Type 4.0 and I just released Media Manager for 4.0 as well. Take a look also at Clean Sweep for MT4 and many more amazing plugins in the plugin directory!
September 4, 2007 | Reply
Thanks. I had seen that Simply Threaded had been released and I almost upgraded my blogs on the strength of that.
But your own Media Manager's still at beta stage (it was only at alpha when I last had the time to contemplate the upgrade), the version of MT it needs to work (MT 4.01) is only in beta as well and has performance issues according to the known issues and various ProNet mutterings, MT-Blogroll's still not there yet, and MT-Notifier will be coming at some point just not yet.
So I'm still not quite ready - and neither's MT! – for me to make the jump! But I'm hoping we both will be at some point - I rather liked the look of Mintifier.