BG Views Developer Blog

BG Views Developer Blog tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2008-08-26:/dev/41 2010-02-19T06:21:51Z "Insert witty tagline here" http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-static/themes/bgviews/images/rss_logo.gif BG News Archives Update Feb. 19 tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2010:/dev//41.12312 2010-02-19T05:59:27Z 2010-02-19T06:21:51Z

One of the biggest challenges in moving away from College Publisher has been the 10 years of archives we have had online. As I am sure you are aware, those were abruptly taken down in January.Simply put, there was no...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1
Simply put, there was no other way to switch from their servers to ours.

We are working tirelessly to get the archive back online, and today I would like to share (a new) update on that. I sent out an update on our Facebook Fan Page on Feb. 8, and I wish I could say we have made progress since then.

Hit the jump to hear the (somewhat condensed) updated info.
]]>
Luckily I still had the CP4 export I had gotten in January 2009 from College Publisher, which does have authors and categories. So the import process had to be started again, from scratch.

Then when the CP5 era posts (January through December 2009) were imported, they lacked categories, a small problem with the import script. There was another problem with the media field, thanks to inconsistencies with the CP5 data structure. These issues have been resolved.

So the CP5 era posts have to be deleted and re-imported, again. This has been a very long process and I figured it would be a bear - and I was right! :/

Hopefully by Sunday I will have the CP5 era entries to work with, with categories. My job then requires me to combine categories and authors (some instances occur that we have 5 or 6 of the same author). Once that is done, I can load the articles into the live site on bgnews.com.

That is the best I can do for an update. I apologize to those who are seeking clips for resumes and job applications, or just searching for a past article. The best I can do is point you to our Issuu account.

As always, I will post here once there is a significant update.
]]> BG News YouTube Now in Google News tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2010:/dev//41.11850 2010-01-30T04:07:43Z 2010-01-30T04:11:34Z

I was just trying to find an example of our YouTube videos showing up in Google News. It did not take long, searching for "Obama Ohio" and look what came up. "Sweet!"...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1

"Sweet!"
]]> Project Update: Jan. 13 to 19, 2010 tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2010:/dev//41.11801 2010-01-28T02:53:02Z 2010-01-28T03:43:50Z

I should have thought of this a year ago. What is the best way to keep updates on anything? Twitter of course. And what is the best To-Do list out there? 37 Signals Ta-Da List. So thanks to Twitterfeed and...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1 Ta-Da List. So thanks to Twitterfeed and Action Streams, I now have a daily log of what I have done, and what needs to be done. Also handy as a running tally to show the boss.

Since Twitter is not an archive, it is not a Wayback Machine, so I will be posting week-by-week accounts here to this blog. Highlights here and all the super-dry stuff after the jump.

We re-launched bgnews.com on January 12, this is what got done in the first week publishing our own daily newspaper after the long nights of getting everything done for a smooth launch. Here are the highlights.

Setup RSS 2.0 feed for MyBGSU (BlackBoard doesn't like Atom I guess)
Started talks with Andrew Spittle at CoPress about our CP5 archives
Added ability to embed photo galleries in articles
bgviews.com domain finally under our control
Categorized the issue indexes
Got my carousel picker plugin working thanks to Byrne
Met with MediaMate talking about national ads and online ads

]]>

19 Jan 2010

@ 14:55 Earlier today I submitted The BG News to become an official Google News source, and replied to their automated email as requested.
@ 14:54 Met with MediaMate and Bob, Cindy, Tonya to talk about advertising.
@ 11:12 To-Do: Added: archive lists are messed up in Safari AND IE7. Fun.
@ 05:00 To-Do: Added: update Blog Search widget to hide if on an ErrorDocument
@ 03:42 Worked on getting more Issuu shelves in our PDF Archive by Month page. But it is too late to do any more.
@ 03:08 Basically the widgets now work 100% on every site in the network except for bgnews.com because of that Monster inline code. Still looking...
@ 02:38 Too bad falconscreech.com is taken, I looked months ago when we started running them in the paper.
@ 02:37 Add the most recent Falcon Screech to the home page. This is automated, and will always show the most recent entry.
@ 02:35 Now the accordion loads on document.ready so it works right away. Oddly enough when page finish loading accordion collapses.

18 Jan 2010

@ 21:54 Accordion now works in IE7. Found an issue where it will not fully load if there is an external script like Monster, which we make money.
@ 04:23 Working on an accordion script for the right sidebar for most popular/most comments, etc. Close to complete, still having IE7 issue.

17 Jan 2010

@ 19:44 updated the letters to the editor form.
@ 18:30 To-Do: Added: add UTM tracking to Tweet This bit.ly script.
@ 18:30 To-Do: Added: add UTM tracking to all RSS feeds, starting with BG News
@ 18:30 To-Do: Added: update network search results template
@ 17:22 The monthly archives are now broken out by category, with the date listed next to them, too. http://bit.ly/7zAdJg
@ 15:31 Issue index is done and looks awesome. has headings per category and hides categories with zero count for that day http://bit.ly/4qpFI4
@ 10:41 blah wrong account.

16 Jan 2010

@ 23:06 Was able to break out the Issue index by category. Hope I can figure out how to hide categories that have zero posts in them.
@ 15:30 To-Do: Completed: re-configure google apps for domains once bgviews.com is transfered.
@ 14:24 since we now control bgviews.com, deleted the add-on domains and created the real subdomains for m.bgviews.com and others.
@ 13:52 Google Apps MX and CNAME records have been entered for bgviews.com, hopefully that will propagate soon, though their TTL sucks.
@ 11:11 bgviews.com is still resolving to CP servers on campus, it has not propagated yet. works at home (TWC).
@ 08:30 To-Do: Completed: get bgviews.com transfered from college publisher.
@ 08:14 bgviews.com now redirects to bgnews.com with a 301 redirect. it will do that until I get the apache aliases setup.
@ 01:38 setup bgviews.com on our dedicated box. will be caching with CP for a while now, they have a large CDN. need to setup CNAME and MX records.
@ 01:36 bgviews.com finally transfered into our godaddy account. they could have quickly accepted it; but waited the five days. lame.

15 Jan 2010

@ 11:50 fixed one of the CSS issues in IE7, the one where the asset-meta was getting squashed in the carousel. displays correctly now.
@ 04:47 opened a ticket with 6A support about importing/exporting custom field data. going to need to import cp5_image not sure how yet.

14 Jan 2010

@ 18:55 got the photo gallery setup for article pages. now just need to write the documentation on how to do it. http://bit.ly/7p2c5h
@ 15:08 making headway on getting the photo gallery widget added to the Entry screen in MT.
@ 15:03 spoke with Andrew Spittle for about an hour about moving our CP5 data into WP XML or even MT compatible format. I need to provide samples.
@ 14:48 changed the photo gallery on the bgnews.com home page to load most recent not feature photos
@ 00:15 To-Do: Added: add custom field and code to add a gallery to an entry.

13 Jan 2010

@ 21:41 added code to my plugin to show/hide the breaking and updates spotlight boxes. need to add it to the template now.
@ 19:15 To-Do: Added: move all inline css to external files
@ 15:24 The @bgviews feed is back in MyBGSU now, thanks to Dong Chen for his help.
@ 08:45 To-Do: Added: restruct use of byline name in MT code for profile view
@ 08:45 To-Do: Added: configure bgviews.com for apache aliases /mt and /errors once transfered
@ 08:45 To-Do: Added: once we get the database from college publisher, provide it to wordpress developer
@ 08:45 To-Do: Added: re-configure blogs.bgviews.com when bgviews.com is transfered
@ 08:45 To-Do: Added: re-configure m.bgviews.com when bgviews.com is transfered
@ 07:22 updated comment policy to reflect zero tolerance for spam posts and comments. added direct link in comments block in MT templates.
@ 06:24 after many attempts, cannot get mt:entryid to output correctly as a variable in my carousel plugin. emailed byrne.
@ 05:15 Added: fix broken carousel plugin i wrote.
@ 05:14 added documentation to internal site for creating entries in MT
@ 05:13 added falcon screech to profile view template. posts/comments/favorites now show up.
@ 04:57 added easy way for bob, others to keep updated on project development history with twitter and to-da list accounts. setup public web page.
@ 04:15 updated carousel plugin is now live. need to modify code in MT template to work with variables.
@ 04:14 forgot to mention, bgsu summer session ad is now live on the site.
@ 03:55 working on fixing the carousel picker plugin for the home page.
@ 03:45 created rss 2.0 feed for dong chen
@ 03:43 bgnews site went live in movable type tuesday jan 12 at about 4 am.

]]> BG News in Google News tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2010:/dev//41.11764 2010-01-26T06:49:49Z 2010-01-30T04:15:21Z

I must say I am impressed as to how fast Google added us to Google News. I am less impressed that despite the fact that I submitted our site name as The BG News (just so happens to be our...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1

This means my news sitemap XML file will not validate, because of the site name mismatch. So until Google gets around to answering my question, we will be known as Bowling Green News in Google News, and then when it is set to our proper name, I will have to change our news sitemap XML file again.

Nice of them to be quick about including us, kind of a pain in the ass they screwed up our name.

UPDATE: Good news! They got back to me today saying our name has changed. So we will see tomorrow once they pull our articles if the news sitemap throws an error.
]]> Update on BG News Archive tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2010:/dev//41.11757 2010-01-26T05:48:43Z 2010-01-26T06:12:40Z

I have an update about our little problem of missing about 10 years of archives from our site. Since leaving College Publisher in December, we have been patiently, eagerly, relentlessly waiting for our archives and users databases. This past Saturday...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1 leaving College Publisher in December, we have been patiently, eagerly, relentlessly waiting for our archives and users databases. This past Saturday College Publisher provided the archive database to us. Yea... don't get excited yet.

]]> CoPress to convert our CP5 data to something we can use, namely WordPress WXR format. CoPress seems to be the go-to place for refugees of College Publisher. I looked into them but have a fond liking for Movable Type, if you have not noticed.

Once I get our data in WordPress WXR and have it running in a WP site, I have a lot of manual data manipulation ahead of me. While CP4 had Sections, CP5 did not. While CP4 had both Author Names and Author Positions, CP5 did not. Not to mention there is over 4 years of data in there from before we partnered with College Publisher!

Once I can combine Authors and Categories in WordPress, I can export another WXR and then do the final import of my sanitized archive - from mid-2000 - into Movable Type. Then it will be time to have a geek dance.
]]> Wibiya Toolbar starts open beta, rocks tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2010:/dev//41.11484 2010-01-17T11:31:33Z 2010-01-17T11:52:36Z

We have been testing the Wibiya Toolbar since June, and are happy with the results. The developers have been very open to our feedback and have even modified our toolbar to work directly with our Google Custom Search Engine. It...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1 since June, and are happy with the results. The developers have been very open to our feedback and have even modified our toolbar to work directly with our Google Custom Search Engine. It has been great working with Dror and his crew, and are glad they have incorporated our feedback.

Although the closed beta was not exclusive (most beta requests were filled quickly) it is now open for anyone to setup a toolbar, so check it out.

A lot is new under the hood. First off they have a new CDN for the script, and new code to add to your web page. I can immediately see the difference in speed when loading the toolbar from the CDN script. The next big change is the default search widget is now fully extensible, and easy to work with. The RSS feed widget is extensible in this same way, too.

Lastly they have added a whole slew of new items you can put on the toolbar, and best of all, in my opinion, you can finally take off the "random" button - I always felt that was an eye soar.

Lastly, it looks like they finally fixed a bug they were having with Google Translate, where you would get a Google API error when you used the Translate widget. Nice update guys!
]]> The BG News is powered by Movable Type tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2010:/dev//41.11481 2010-01-16T19:53:53Z 2010-01-16T21:41:04Z

The launching of a web site is a stressful one, but the re-launching of one can be enough to kill you. Lucky for me things went smoothly in the wee hours of January 12 (and I am not typing this...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1
I would like to say the transition away from College Publisher has been a smooth one, but it in fact has not. Just today the domain name was finally transferred into our account, and it is still not resolving all over the Internets yet. And we do not have our database of past archives, last I talked to CP it looked like I would have them by Friday.

So if you are just tuning in, the entire BG Views Network of sites is running under Movable Type, including The BG News, which was previously partnered with College Publisher. We are by far not the first school to leave College Publisher in recent months, and no doubt won't be the last.

But this post is not about College Publisher, it is about Movable Type, and how we are using it to produce a daily newspaper online.
]]> The remainder of this post is going to seem a bit technical for some. Sorry, but you get no refund.

BG Views Network uses Movable Type Pro running under FastCGI, the actual BG News web site is made up of a number of "blogs." Movable Type Pro was required more for the Custom Fields than the community features, but those are a nice bonus. Here is the short list of MT plugins we use and rely on a daily basis. Some we could do without, some we could have gotten by with the "Lite" version, but in the end my goal in this re-launch was to not just match the feature set of our previous site, but exceed it - and we did that.

The Photo Galleries is built using Byrne Reese's Photo Gallery plugin, in a separate MT install that is not running under FastCGI. His template set switches menus and admin pages and because of how FastCGI caches the application, it just doesn't play nice. I hated to split Photo Galleries out like that, but it had to be done.

As with working with the Motion template set, it was much easier to port my existing BG Views design to Mid-Century (than incorporate it into my design), the theme the Photo Gallery plugin is built using. Using a secondary category archive and a Custom Field in the main BG News blog, I am easily able to embed a gallery within an Entry, such as here.

MT4 Custom Fields offer a lot, but I needed more, and as luck would have it, More Custom Fields by Dan Wolfgang offers just that. MCF is used a lot more in the Housing Guide, but the "Related Articles" you see here are one type of field the plugin provides. We actually use a lot of Dan's plugins; Better File Uploader is essential to sizing, thumbnailing, and lightboxing (in one fell swoop) photos for our Entry pages; Share is used for the "email to a friend" feature; and Poll Position is used for running polls in our blogs and in Entries.

The last "essential" plugin we use, and likely most important, is Byrne's Config Assistant plugin. Without it, updating things like the home page carousel, section pages, or breaking stories would take much more work for our news staff, and if I have one goal, it is to automate as much stuff as humanly possible. Config Assistant lets me do that, in spades. I need to do more with it, I just have not had the time.

There are plugins out there that will embed a Share This toolbar, but I felt it was much better to write my own, including using the bit.ly API for URL shortening.

The other plugin we rely on daily is Visitor Stats Pro, it provides our "Most Read" lists, and stats, referers, and search strings for our articles.

We use many more utility plugins from developers like Byrne and Mark Carey, too, they just makes my life so much easier.

The BG News has been online since 1998 and we have come a long way from hosting it ourselves in West Hall and doing the majority of the work in BBEdit. It is great to be publishing our site again, and Movable Type makes that a breeze.
]]> Movable Type 5 Impressions tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2010:/dev//41.11184 2010-01-09T07:09:59Z 2010-01-10T00:18:10Z

It seemed like forever between the time MT5 was released in Japan at the end of November until it was just released in the U.S. We found out the day after, because of a security update to both MT 4.33...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1
Telling us it was due to "wanting more time for coordination of the release and associated documentation" was frankly bull shit. Sorry guys. There still is hardly any documentation, scouring FogBugz seems to have offered the best loot so far. MT5 was released 4 days ago, and I still cannot lookup information on mt:Websites tag or the parent/child/sibling modifiers, for example. The mt:BlogParentWebsite is another tag I would like to know more about, too.

Come on guys, I thought you were putting a big effort into developing better documentation.
]]>
Below is a list of what I like and don't like about what I have experienced with the final build. Now I am fully aware that some nut job is going to take my words and twist them around for personal gains, it happened before after all. Little piece of advice - don't be that nut job. I use the tool that is the best for the job at hand, that happens to be Movable Type.

Liked

New Website object is long overdue. It is a game changer for organization and coding alike.
Custom Fields for every object in the system, including Website, Blog, and Template. Blog level custom fields should have been there from the get-go in MT4. Setting custom fields on templates is also a time saver.
Revision history on everything. This is most welcome for template changes.
Batch Edit Entries, which was missing from the betas, is now back, thankfully!
They have made it very clear how entries/categories and pages/folders work together. Nothing has changed, it is just a much nicer way of displaying them.
Themes are an enormous update from template sets in MT4. I just wish there was better documentation on them so I did not have to reverse engineer the built in themes to develop an MT5 BG Views theme.
Assigning a sub-domain to a blog publish and document root is now easier than ever. It is a small tweak, but it is nice.
New Tool: Export Theme, which currently seems like the best option for designing your own theme. So there is no need for another TemplateExporter version.
While the Community template set still doesn't use the Facebook namespace by default, they have done a good job at restructuring some of the template modules, making them global instead of local.

Didn't Like

Would it have been that difficult to add Heading tags to the default Rich Text Editor? I know I can install others, but would it really have been too much to ask for a drop down menu of H tags?
Along the same lines, how about being able to toggle the window full screen for template editing? Yes, it is a bigger window, but the toggle would have been nice.
MT5 desperately needs a "Blog Mover" Tool at the System Overview level, especially because of the way MT4 is imported into MT5. This should not be that difficult to create, all the tool needs to do is offer a UI to manipulate the publishing and document root path of the blog.
We need a "Works with MT5" tag, or wiki page, or something started, that indicates what plugins work and do not work in MT5. This was done with MT4 and was very helpful.
Websites can only have pages, not entries. This is nice. But it is overly complicated when you just want a simple blog. Every Blog must be under a Website, and importing MT4 will produce just that, every blog inside its own Website.
I figured that MT5 would see the inclusion of native search support for Custom Fields. Currently the 3rd party CustomFieldSearch is the only solution for this.

I can't wait until I can upgrade BG Views Network to MT5, just for the new Website object alone. Being able to use the parent/child/sibling modifiers is going to be a boon for displaying data around the network.

I will keep this updated as I spend more and more time with the final version. Last updated 1/9/2010.
]]> The Changing Face of Comment Spam tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2009:/dev//41.11136 2009-12-27T07:49:38Z 2009-12-27T08:57:22Z

It is hard to imagine, but I have been blogging for close to seven years now, and I have seen comment spam of varying degrees. It used to be pretty easy to spot. Services like Akismet and now TypePad AntiSpam...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1 Akismet and now TypePad AntiSpam are there to help - and they do - but even trained computers fail at finding spam. Both Akismet and TPAS have been failing me lately, let me show you why:

Picture 113.png

If you read that, it is actually mostly literate English. This is one of dozens of spam comments we have been getting. They usually do not put links in the body of the comment, that is so yesterday's tactic, but do use the Author URL to link to their spam site. And some of the spam sites don't even look like spam site - they actually take a careful eye.

Spam is getting smarter. This is scary.

One solution is to use a CAPTCHA source, such as ReCAPTCHA, but these can be defeated, I have seen it happen. The drastic answer to this problem is to just turn off anonymous comments altogether, but for us, that is not an option. We want people to comment, and registration drives some people away.

The only good answer is that it takes a lot of hard work to combat comment spam, and having good policies in place help, too. See our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Comments Policy. You may think that is a lot of mumbo jumbo - and it is - but it is very important for our users to know where they stand.

Such policies are required to provide a safe, engaging place for the community to not only consume, but create and share content.

]]> An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook Networks tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2009:/dev//41.11010 2009-12-05T05:25:36Z 2009-12-05T07:13:41Z

Forgive me for not reading this open letter from Mark Zuckerberg until late Friday. I don't login to Facebook as often as I used to, but more on that later. His letter on the further changes to Networks was written...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1 open letter from Mark Zuckerberg until late Friday. I don't login to Facebook as often as I used to, but more on that later. His letter on the further changes to Networks was written Tuesday, so I am sure this is old news to some. I assume Mashable has covered this by now (they have, but they glossed over the negative by-product of the long-overdue privacy changes Zuck announced).]]> my Facebook, you see I am part of the BG News Network, among others.

Setting the Network up was done quite quickly, I was pleasantly surprised. About 10 days and everything was set. I just needed more than seven people in the Network for Facebook to generate a proper Network page. Once that happened, having a dozen or so Newsers join the network, Facebook announced drastic changes to Networks.

After all the work I had done to get a Network setup for BG News, Facebook decided to take "Networks" out of the top navigation. And they would soon close down all the Network pages. I got to check it out once or twice before they switched the Network page to a custom search page for people in that network.

This was done because as Facebook put it, "Networks" were not seeing as much traffic as the other top navigation links, such as Home, Profile, and Friends. Really? I can't imagine why.

Beyond my own bias about the issue and our new BG News Network, I think the elimination of Networks for the top navigation was a big mistake. I visited the Network pages, such as the Toledo, OH one, and especially the Bowling Green State University one. But as of mid-2008, those were gone from Facebook.

One less reason for me to visit Facebook.

Fast forward to this week's news about Networks. Now, 350 million is a nice headline grabber, and it is wonderful to watch Facebook grow from the exclusive educational-only network into what it is today (yes, I was in fact going to college before Facebook was born. I am that old), but having more than 350 million users means they all use Facebook in many different ways.

The 2008 changes to Networks paved the way to these next changes, regional networks are going away. Since they already killed the very useful Toledo OH Network page over a year ago, I guess this news alone is not such a big deal to me. However this brings up two points - in bullet form:

People relate (on a social-economic level) to other people in similar groups, creating relationships, forging bonds, all that crap. Let's just call "groups" in this case "Networks" for Facebook's sake. It is basically the same thing, at least for this argument. Facebook is now taking that away.
Telling me that regional networks are going away in able to provide a "simpler model for privacy control" is just outright horse shit. Especially when you outline plans to allow granular privacy control of each individual piece of content. The problem I have is the Open Letter makes it look like the only way Facebook can add advanced privacy is to remove networks; these things are unrelated.

I am glad that Facebook will be rolling out major changes to privacy control. Granted, I am a cynical SOB that thinks online privacy is an oxymoron, but that is besides the point. The outlined privacy changes sound good, so bravo to Zuckerberg and his team. Just don't feed me a line of garbage about the casualties of Facebook growing pains.

People use Facebook to identify with others (see Bullet Point 1 above) and taking some of that away is one more way of making Facebook more like LinkedIn or MySpace or ABC Widgets Social Network. I thought the idea was to build Facebook to be a social media tool used to share with people, and something that is not a retread of another site was probably at the top of the list, too.

There are many things that are hinged on the regional networks - automatically filtering news items, for example - and deleting them does not simplify privacy controls, it makes less work for Facebook to do. Getting rid of regional networks is the Easy Button for corralling privacy controls. It does not make it easier for the end user, it gives them less options. It does make it easier for the web monkey behind the curtain.

I miss the Network pages, both regional, educational, and business, and I am going to miss the regional network and the grouping structure it held. These were qualities I liked and used on Facebook, but these types of changes directly effect my time on Facebook these days.

Let's face it, any part of 350 million is a lot, and deleting Network pages and regional networks doesn't make sense when they (used to) offer unique value. Simplification requires more than a hatchet, it requires better organization.
]]> Database Move a Success, the Second Time tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2009:/dev//41.10675 2009-10-04T00:54:25Z 2009-10-17T05:51:56Z

On October 1st, can't remember now, I tried moving all databases including the one used for Movable Type from /var to /home, as it is a much bigger volume. Movable Type kept sending me to an infinite loop to the...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1
So I had to move everything back to /var and wait until the weekend. I moved it the second time, and everything is working again. I am glad I did not have to restore from a backup, I thought I had hosed the MT database. For what its worth, the Six Apart support could not give me any advice or answers to why I was getting the "Time to Upgrade" and then immediately "Your Movable Type installation is already up to date." endless loop.
]]> BG New Photo Gallery tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2009:/dev//41.10566 2009-09-03T21:44:06Z 2009-09-03T21:53:55Z

This past Monday I finished up the Photo Gallery for The BG News. The above film strip is on both the Network Home Page and the BG Views Home page. Be sure and check it out!...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1 Photo Gallery for The BG News.

The above film strip is on both the Network Home Page and the BG Views Home page. Be sure and check it out!]]> Misc. Site Changes tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2009:/dev//41.10469 2009-08-28T10:50:00Z 2009-08-28T04:49:15Z

I have been getting a lot of things out the way lately, lots of little stuff that will make my life so much easier down the road.Setup Error Documents in MT, aliased across all domainsSetup .htaccess files in MT for...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1

Setup Error Documents in MT, aliased across all domains
Setup .htaccess files in MT for all domains, subdomains
Setup robots.txt files in MT for all domains

Like I said, little stuff, but very helpful to have them inside MT.
]]> YUI Editor 1.3 and Auto-tagging tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2009:/dev//41.10550 2009-08-28T04:52:48Z 2009-08-28T05:08:56Z

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1

Richard Benson has updated his YUI Editor plugin (one of my favorite Movable Type plugins), and it has two great changes/additions. First, and not so exciting for most people, is the configurable options, normally handled in a configure.js file, has been moved into Plugin Preferences. But hey, that does make it easier to change things.

The thing that people will notice most of all is the new Tag button which will analyze the current text and suggest tags for the article. This is great for people who don't know what they should use as tags. It does a really good job, and works on the text in the Body and Extended field without having to save the document first.
]]> Final 'Tweet This' Bit.ly Script tag:bgviewsnetwork.com,2009:/dev//41.10468 2009-08-13T07:12:32Z 2009-08-13T07:13:40Z

Thanks to the WebmasterWorld forums, my Tweet This script opens in a new window now. I am pretty happy with it. I am not very happy with Safari though. Firefox warns you when an onClick action tries to run window.open,...

Ken Edwards http://bgviewsnetwork.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=41&id=1 WebmasterWorld forums, my Tweet This script opens in a new window now. I am pretty happy with it. I am not very happy with Safari though. Firefox warns you when an onClick action tries to run window.open, Safari just plays dumb and does nothing.

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