New on the list this week is a little project I’ve been thinking about for a while, but never started work on (until this weekend).
When I first discovered MovableType, I marveled at its abilities, at the freedom it gave to its users. I was then perplexed at its lack of any kind of automated setup script to assist folks who might not be too comfortable with editing even a few lines of a configuration file. The thought crossed my mind to create on myself, if only to help speed the process of setting up multiple MT installations, but since that wasn’t a process I was actively engaged in at the time, the idea was shelved.
Fast-forward to the present: Webgraph is using MT for quite a few personal and commercial projects (paying the licenses of course), and we’re doing more installations than before — enough to make me revisit my idea.
This weekend, I set about creating a basic script that would take input from an HTML form, and write out a basic mt.cfg file. It is in very early alpha stage, but I believe it is ready for some brave alpha testers, since my input alone will result in a project which serves only our specific needs, and I believe this sort of utility is best made in the public interests.
Thus, I present to you MTSETUP 0.1a — the initial version has been built in PHP (since we use it on all our servers), though I intend to port it to Perl and ASP once the features and functionality have been decided upon.
If you would like to add your name to the list of alpha and (future) beta testers, please send me an email and I’ll get you started.
I’ll set up a separate page for MTSETUP soon, but in the meantime, a quick description of its current behavior:
MTSETUP 0.1a / PHP Edition
MTSETUP uses a stripped-down version of the standard mt.cfg file distributed with MovableType, eliminating all the comments, and leaving only the configuration lines. All comments/instructions are moved to the HTML form. The form initially hides most of the settings (via the DOM) and every setting that is disabled (commented out) by default in the stock mt.cfg file has its input field disabled by default in the HTML form (this is intended to prevent new users from enabling a feature by mistake). After submitting the form, the script writes the config file to a new subdirectory, ready to place in the default MT directory.
A few notes of interest: I am not a master PHP developer, so there are many items at this stage which can (and will) be optimized (for one thing, I’m sure there are quite a few opportunities for using arrays). Also, currently the script only writes a new file, it does not read in existing CFG files (this is planned for a future release). Finally, the script does require that it’s containing directory is set to world-writable (chmod 0777) so it can create the subfolder and CFG file.
I’m completely open to comments and suggestions, and even PHP tips for those of you who may be so inclined.
“To Infinity, and Beyond!”