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Joomsayer and Hyphenation for Movable Type are now both released in version 1.0. Sociotags and Curvaceous are both released in version 1.01.

The previous version of Joomsayer contained a bug that appears to break functionality of either Joomsayer or (worse) other plug-ins in MT 4.2 RC2. There is no formal bug fix; however, the bug is believed to be caused by a dependency that has been completely removed in version 1.0, and the defect is currently not reproducible.

Perhaps the most important new feature in Joomsayer is that you no longer need to rely on a hardcoded HTML block; it is now completely configurable in your plug-in preferences.

Also, the screendump showing the customized Joomsayer quotation box with white background, dropshadow, rounded corners, and blue quotation characters is available as a download.

To upgrade Joomsayer from version 0.2, unfortunately you may have to revisit the plug-in preferences for each of your blogs and set the quote box alignment and the quote source positions anew. The reason for this inconvenience is that the automatic upgrader is not able to migrate your settings due to an obscure bug in Movable Type that has survived for quite some time.

The release 1.0 version of Hyphenation adds the option to explicitly remove all hyphenation tags from output regardless of whether the Hyphenation plug-in is enabled or not; this is useful for your blog feeds.

Two other Movable Type plug-ins have received minor updates: Sociotags and Curvaceous are both available in version 1.01. Both of the releases include a minor bug fix that could potentially cause problems in future upgrades. Neither of the updates are critical, but they could save you some trouble in the future. In addition, Sociotags includes the Danish service Anyhed.dk.

The Sociotags plug-in for Movable Type has been updated with some new social networks, some of them more significant than others. The plug-in is now considered mature enough to warrant a version bump to version 1.0. Get Sociotags for Movable Type here.

Hyphenation for Movable Type was barely released before all but one of the planned features had been added to the alpha code.

The new beta, which is out today, now features a dictionary installer that enables you to simply upload your OpenOffice dictonaries without doing anything to them, and you have the option to specify different dictionaries throughout your entries.

Hyphenation for Movable Type is a plug-in for Movable Type 4 that provides automatic hyphenation of your text based on OpenOffice hyphenation dictionaries.

Automatic hyphenation is very useful if you often use left-aligned or right-aligned images with text flowing along the side of the image in a narrow column. With Firefox 3, hyphenation is now displayed on all major browsers.

The screenshot below is an actual example of Hyphenation for Movable Type in action:


Once installed and properly configured, the plug-in provides automatic hyphenation of your entry text.

Requirements

• Movable Type 4
• Downloaded OpenOffice hyphenation dictionary files.
  

Installation

1. Download Hyphenation for Movable Type, and extract the archive file.
   
2. Upload the contents of the archive to the "plugins" folder in your Movable Type installation. (There should now be a directory called "Hyphenation" in the plugins directory.)
3. Download your preferred OpenOffice hyphenation dictionary from the OpenOffice localization web site.
4. Go to the system administration and select the plug-ins settings. Use the Hyphenation's "Install New Dictionary" button to install the downloaded hyphenation dictionaries (you don't need to unzip them).
5. Go to Preferences -> Plugins for each of the blogs where you want to enable Hyphenation for Movable Type.
6. Check the "Enable" box.
7. Select your preferred default hyphenation dictionary from the drop-down box. The list should contain the dictionaries that you installed earlier.
8. Save your changes.
   
9. Edit the templates that display entries (in the MT4 default templates, these would be the "Entry Detail" and the "Entry Summary" template modules), adding the tag modifier (i.e., global filter) hyphenate="1" to the <$MTEntryBody$>, <$MTEntryMore$>, and <$MTEntryExcerpt$> tags; for example:

<$MTEntryBody hyphenate="1"$>

As of version 1.0 (out soon!) you should also add the tag modifier hyphenate="0" in your feed templates (the RSS and the Atom feeds) to explicitly disable hyphenation in your feeds.

Usage

Hyphenation for Movable Type has two modes of operation: it either hyphenates all text in your entries, or only the text you've marked for hyphenation. Since automatic hyphenation of all text will significantly increase the size of your HTML pages, you should consider manual selection of the text that should be automatically hyphenated.

To indicate that a text section should be automatically hyphenated, enclose the text between the tags [hyphenate] and [/hyphenate] in your entry.

You may specify an alternative dictionary for a particular text section by adding the attribute dict="xx_YY" in the [hyphenate] tag, where xx_YY is the name of the alternative directory. For example, if your default hyphenation dictionary is en_US, you might specify a German dictonary by enclosing the German text within the tags [hyphenate dict="de_DE"] and [/hyphenate].

The tags will be stripped from your entries if Hyphenation for Movable Type is disabled, or if hyphenation for your template has been explicitly turned off with the tag modifier hyphenate="0".

(Please note that if you installed version 0.1 of Hyphenation for Movable Type, you'll have to install your dictionaries and select your default dictionary.)

To report bugs or request features, please use the comments.

The Movable Type 4 plug-in, Curvaceous, is now released in version 1.0. Have fun!

The Sociotags plug-in for Movable Type has been updated to remove old social networks and update the links to the current social networks. Get it here.

Curvaceous is a plug-in for Movable Type 4 that causes text to flow smoothly around the edges of irregularly shaped images, as shown in the actual screenshot below:


Once installed, the plug-in works in the background, converting any images that are either left-aligned or right-aligned.

Requirements

• Movable Type 4
• Image::Magick (you probably have it, but please consult your web hosting service)
  

Installation

1. Download Curvaceous for Movable Type, and extract the archive file.
   
2. Upload the contents of the archive to the "plugins" folder in your Movable Type installation. (There should now be a directory called "Curvaceous" in the plugins directory.)
3. Go to Preferences -> Plugins for each of the blogs where you want to enable Curvaceous.
4. Check the "Enable" box, and click "Save Changes." (You should seriously consider not selecting "all" as the build method.)
   
5. For each template for which you plan to use Curvaceous, add the following line between the <head> and </head> tags (if you are using the MT4 default templates, go to the Template Modules and edit the "Header" template):

<$MTCurvaceous$>

8. Edit the templates that display entries (in the MT4 default templates, those would be the "Entry Detail" and the "Entry Summary" template modules), adding the tag modifier curvaceous="1" to the <$MTEntryBody$> and <$MTEntryMore$> tags; for example:

<$MTEntryBody curvaceous="1"$>

9. Add a link to the Curvaceous for Movable Type page on your own blog on all pages where Curvaceous converts your images. The software is free of charge, but you must add a link.

Usage

Enable Curvaceous in the plug-in settings, and then simply insert the images using the "insert image" button in your entry editor the way you're used to.

If you prefer to code in raw HTML, insert the images manually using the <img> tag and specify whether it should be left-aligned or right-aligned by entering "float: left;" or "float: right;" in the style attribute.

Please note that this plug-in may significantly increase build time for your blog. To minimize your build time, there are three options available for the build method: firstly, you may choose to convert all images via the Curvaceous plug-in. This will be the most time-consuming method. Secondly, you may choose to convert either just the images you specify, or all images but the ones you specify.

To specify an image for inclusion or exclusion (depending on your choice of build method), simply include the class type, "curvaceous" in the image's "class" attribute in the raw HTML. For example, if you insert an image and click the <A> button, add the word "curvaceous" as follows:

Known Issues

1. PNG images must be in RGB mode; Image::Magick does not seem to recognize the transparency information in grayscale images.
   
2. Animated images are not supported.

Note: to use Curvaceous for Movable Type, you must place a link to the Curvaceous for Movable Type page on your own blog on all pages where Curvaceous is used to modify the images. (For commercial use: you can avoid linking to the Curvaceous page by paying a registration fee--please contact me at wolf@blazingangles.com.)

To report bugs or request features, please use the comments.

The Joomsayer Movable Type plug-in has (finally!) been updated to version 0.2, which should work with Movable Type v. 4.1. The new version no longer relies on modifying the entry while editing, and instead makes the necessary modifications at the time the entries are published.

The style sheets and Javascript are unchanged, but you'll need to add a tag modifier. Please refer to the installation and upgrade instructions.

I'll confess that I haven't found much use for an OPML feed yet for a blog, but some geeks might insist that if it can be done, then it should be done.

The following template is an example of how to create an OPML feed for your Movable Type 4.1 blog that traverses through the categories and subcategories, listing the entries within each:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="<$MTPublishCharset$>"?>
<opml version="1.1">
<head>
  <title><$MTBlogName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
<MTEntries lastn="1">
  <ownerName><$MTEntryAuthorDisplayName encode_xml="1"$></ownerName>
  <MTIfNonEmpty tag="MTEntryAuthorEmail">
    <ownerEmail><$MTEntryAuthorEmail encode_xml="1"$></ownerEmail>
  </MTIfNonEmpty>
  <dateModified><$MTEntryModifiedDate format_name="rfc822"$></dateModified>
</MTEntries></head>
<body>
<MTTopLevelCategories>
<MTIfNonZero tag="MTCategoryCount">
  <outline text="<$MTCategoryLabel remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$>"
    type="link" url="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink encode_xml="1"$>"
    created="<$MTDate format_name="rfc822"$>">
    <MTEntries>
      <outline text="<$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$>"
        type="link" url="<$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>"
        created="<$MTEntryDate format_name="rfc822"$>" />
    </MTEntries></MTIfNonZero><MTSubcatsRecurse></outline>
</MTTopLevelCategories></body>
</opml>

Name the feed file something sensible, say, "index.opml" and select to have it published automatically.

To also enable autodiscovery of the feed, add the following line to the Header template, between the <head> and </head> tags:

<link rel="subscriptions" type="text/x-opml" title="<$MTBlogName encode_html="1"$>"
 ref="<$MTBlogURL$>index.opml" />

I have no idea how it will render in any OPML reader, because I haven't been able to locate one. However, the feed appears to validate correctly.

The Sociotags plugin for Movable Type has been updated to version 0.2. The update includes three new sociotags: BUMPzip, Sphere, and Thoof.

Download the new version here.

Sociotags is a plug-in for Movable Type 4 that adds a list of "sociotags" to your entries. Sociotags are the little images you may have seen on various pages that let you add the page to Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Slashdot, etc.

The Sociotags plugin includes a huge array of references to page sharing sites, and each of them can be enabled or disabled. With sociotags enabled, you'll get a box that looks like this (not an exhaustive list):

Requirements

• Movable Type 4
• Template Installer

Installation

1. Download Sociotags for Movable Type, and extract the archive file.
   
2. Upload the contents of the "mt-static" folder to the "mt-static" folder in your Movable Type installation.
3. Upload the contents of the "plugins" folder to the "plugins" folder in your Movable Type installation.
4. Go to Preferences -> Plugins for each of the blogs where you want to enable Sociotags.
5. Go to the Sociotags plug-in, press "Settings," and click on the "Install Templates" button. This will install the necessary stylesheet template.
   
6. Go to the templates list, and rebuild the Sociotags stylesheet templates.
7. Go back to the Sociotags settings, check the "Enable" box, and click "Save Changes."
8. For each template for which you plan to use Sociotags, add the following line between the <head> and </head> tags (if you are using the MT4 default templates, go to Template Modules and edit the "Header" template):

<$MTSociotagStyles$>

9. Add the following tag to the templates that generate your entries (if you are using the MT4 default templates, your best best is probably to edit the "Entry Metadata" template):

<$MTSociotags$>

10. Add a link to the Sociotags for Movable Type page on your own blog on all pages where the Sociotags are shown (you'll probably want to do this in the "Footer" template). The software is free of charge, but you must add a link.

Note: to use Sociotags for Movable Type, you must place a link to the Sociotags for Movable Type page on your own blog on all pages where Sociotags is used to display quotation boxes.

Please use the comments for bug reports and feature requests.

Mark Carey of MT-Hacks has written a beautiful Visitor Stats plug-in for Movable Type 4, which shows the visitor statistics on the dashboard when you login.

The free version doesn't include detailed views, such as the statistics for each entry, or which search terms led to your blog. These features are reserved for a "Pro" version, which can be expected to be rather expensive for individual blogs or blogs with low traffic.

But, you can get around that with a little hack that I wrote. It queries the Visitor Stats database and compiles the visitor statistics, letting you see the top list of visited pages, the top list of referrers, and the top list of search terms and search words.

I don't want to ruin Mark Carey's business, however, so I have deliberately made no efforts trying to integrate this hack with Movable Type. Instead, the hack is a stand-alone web page that connects to your Movable Type database and extracts and displays the statistics.

Requirements

• Movable Type 4.
• Visitor Stats from MT-Hacks.

Limitations

• This code is deliberately made as a hack. The code is not prepared for users that want a nice interface. You should probably have some experience setting up an application on a web server to use this code.
• The search term extraction relies on an array of regular expressions. It does not detect all of the search engines around the world, and it may not extract the search terms correctly. You may want to experiment a bit with the code.

Installation

1. Download viewstats.zip for Movable Type.
2. Extract the contents of viewstats.zip in a directory on your web server that you've password-protected with , e.g., .htaccess.
   
3. Edit the file config.php so that the database connection is configured for your Movable Type database, and so that the blog ID corresponds to your blog ID. You may also want to edit the "ignore words" list, which contains those words that are ignored in the top list of search words.
   

Usage

1. View your statistics by visiting the directory you created on your web server, and visiting view.php.

Please use the comments for support or questions.

Imagine that you've provided some content for download that you'll provide for free, but you want to know where it's going and who is downloading it. Or, you may want to draw traffic to your web site by preventing others from hosting the content and thus gain the attention. You can find out who might have downloaded the content by requiring user registration, which will also indicate to other would-be hosts that they shouldn't host the files.

Arvin Satyanarayan provides a privacy plug-in, but unfortunately it seems to work only with dynamically published pages.

It doesn't have to be difficult, though. In fact, it took me just about an hour to write a simple "hack" consisting of a file that you upload to your published blog. The "register to download" hack verifies that the user is logged in before providing access to a specified file.

Requirements: Movable Type 4.

Installation

1. Download download.php for Movable Type.
2. Edit the file so that $blogId is set to the value of your blog ID.
3. Create a directory in the root directory of your published blog named "registered".
4. Create a .htaccess file in the newly created directory that prevents users from accessing the directory. For example, the .htaccess file may look like this:
   

<Files .htaccess>
  order allow,deny
  deny from all
</Files>

order allow,deny
deny from all

IndexIgnore */*

5. Upload download.php to the root directory of your published blog. (Actually, any web accessible place on your server that hosts the files for download will do, but probably somewhere in your published blog is easiest.)
6. Optional: you can edit download.php to refer to a directory that is not web-accessible and thus avoid the use of a .htaccess file to prevent access to the directory, or to refer to a directory that isn't placed in the root folder of your published blog. Have a look at the comments in download.php which explain what must be changed.
   

Usage

1. Upload your file to the registered directory using Movable Type 4 asset manager.
2. Insert the file into your entry using the "Insert File" button.
3. Change to a HTML view of your entry, and modify the <a href="..."> reference to the file so that instead of referring to ".../registered/filename", it refers to ".../download.php?f=filename".
   

Known Issues: download.php is developed for a Unix system. I've no idea how it will work on a Windows server.

Note: to use this hack for Movable Type, you must place a link to this blog page on your own blog on all pages where download.php is used to require user registration for download.

Please use the comments for support or questions.

Joomsayer is a plug-in for Movable Type 4 that enables you to display quotations in a very catchy quote box. Joomsayer has two special features:

Firstly, it displays two quote marks; one in the upper left corner, and one in the lower right corner. This may not sound special, but since neither HTML nor stylesheets allow images to be aligned to the bottom right corner, it is a very challenging task for webmasters to achieve this alignment.

Secondly, it relies almost excusively on stylesheets for display. The default stylesheet leads to a quotation box such as the one shown below:
The default stylesheet allows you to position the quotation box centered as above, or floating to the left or to the right in your entry, letting your text flow down on the other side of the box.

The stylesheets allow you to customize the output with a high degree of freedom. For example, you can get an output such as shown in the following screen-shot merely by changing the style sheet:

Requirements

• Movable Type 4
• Template Installer

Installation (for upgrading, see below)

1. Download Joomsayer for Movable Type, and extract the archive file.
   
2. Upload the contents of the archive to the "plugins" folder in your Movable Type installation. (There should now be a directory called "Joomsayer" in the plugins directory.)
3. Go to Preferences -> Plugins for each of the blogs where you want to enable Joomsayer.
4. Go to the Joomsayer plug-in, press "Settings," and click on the "Install Templates" button. This will install the necessary Javascript and stylesheet templates. Please note that you must have the Template Installer installed.
   
5. Go to the templates list, and rebuild the "Joomsayer stylesheet" and "Joomsayer JavaScript" templates.
6. Go back to the Joomsayer settings, check the "Enable" box, and click "Save Changes."
7. For each template for which you plan to use Joomsayer, add the following line between the <head> and </head> tags (if you are using the MT4 default templates, go to the Template Modules and edit the "Header" template):

<$MTJoomsayer$>

8. Edit the templates that display entries (in the MT4 default templates, those would be the "Entry Detail" and the "Entry Summary" template modules), adding the tag modifier show_joomsayer="1" to the <$MTEntryBody$> and <$MTEntryMore$> tags; for example:

<$MTEntryBody show_joomsayer="1"$>

9. Add a link to the Joomsayer for Movable Type page on your own blog on all pages where Joomsayer displays quotation boxes. The software is free of charge, but you must add a link.

Usage

To have something quoted as a Joomsayer, simply press the indentation button once over the paragraph to quote. (Hovering the mouse over the button should display the help text: "Begin Blockquote.") This will cause the text to be encoded as a "blockquote" in HTML terms. On publishing, the Joomsayer plug-in scans all top-level blockquotes and automatically converts them to Joomsayer quotes without changing your original entry.

To add a source for your quote, make sure that the last text in the quoted section is written between '[' and ']', for example:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. [Lipsum Generator]

To convert the source into a URL link, mark it as a link the way you're used to.

Upgrading

Remove the Joomsayer from the plug-ins installation before installing.

No templates have changed, so if you've already inserted the <$MTJoomsayer$> in the heading and installed the template, you may skip these parts of the installation.

You'll note that the Joomsayer button has disappeared from the editor. Instead, you'll just mark the section to quote by indenting it using the "Begin Blockquote" button.

Old Joomsayer from version 0.1 were "hardcoded" into the entries when you inserted them, so they will stay in place.

Known Issues

1. As the Joomsayer converts all top-level "blockquote" sections to Joomsayer quotes, this means that anywhere in your entries where you've used the "blockquote" for simple indentation formattion, you'll have a nice quote instead. You may want to revisit these entries.
2. I'm not a style sheet wizard, so the quotation boxes will display slightly differently in different browsers and desktop environments.

Note: to use Joomsayer for Movable Type, you must place a link to the Joomsayer for Movable Type page on your own blog on all pages where Joomsayer is used to display quotation boxes.

Please use the comment for bug reports and feature requests.

Joomsayer for Joomla is also available as a Joomla plug-in; hence the name.