Movable Type has an strange learning curve; the installation and upgrade procedures, which will be detailed below, are intensely difficult in comparison to regular usage of the software. In fact, because Movable Type is so easy to use once you get it installed, I have a problem understanding why what I believe to be an awesome program makes some people run into walls when they try to install it — myself included. It is this inattentiveness to simplicity that causes Movable Type to lose some of its target audience to WordPress and similarly popular programs that broadcast their ease of use almost as a direct result of Movable Type’s complications.
I wanted to upgrade because the newest version of Movable Type — version 3.3 (or, more correctly, 3.34 which has a few bug fixes to version 3.3) — has tags. Although I’ve created taglines for every article and altered the names of my categories, I feel that tag taxonomies provide a higher level of organization than my efforts could ever provide. In addition to tags, Movable Type 3.3 has things called activity feeds which essentially detail a blog’s activities, including comments and trackbacks, in convenient RSS feeds. I was also hoping that the new version would refresh the tired — but simple — administration panel.
I approached the upgrade with extreme caution. First, I saved a backup of my database tables; second, I opened up several guides on upgrading. Of all of them, only Elise’s “A Safe Way to Upgrade to MT 3.3” came close to making sense. The real problem I had with the upgrade was with the location of the files. I started with two directories — MT 3.34 and my regular Movable Type folder. In the former, I extracted all of the files I would eventually have to use to upgrade versions. From here, I lost track with common sense. Movable Type, like most blogging platforms, has a crazy amount of files. Although the guide says to move old files to the new directory — the only option that made sense — I was more than a little hesitant to move the perfectly working version of Movable Type I was using into another directory. Paranoia, and several failed attempts to reference other sites (including Six Apart’s inept upgrade guide), eventually forced me to abandon my upgrade until a later date.
I think most of the problem stemmed from my inability to find the information I needed from Six Apart itself. By having to seek help from other software users — incredible though they may be — my resolve was weakened and I couldn’t go through with the update; however, as a result, aborting the update leaves me a little empty. Had I sloughed my way through the procedure and succeeded, I would still likely be writing this article, and designing a way to feature tags on the side.
It’s not a question of Movable Type vs. WordPress. Both platforms have their merits; those of you who tried to convince me to switch must understand that after all the trouble I’ve taken to get Movable Type working as it is on my system, I’m not likely to switch to another bit of software, and most especially not one whose templating system I hate. The nifty thing about Movable Type is that you have absolute free reign over everything in one file. You can split design elements into template modules, but nothing is automatically separated. It’s all at your volition, and that freedom — and I don’t give a damn about WordPress being open source — makes Movable Type extremely worthwhile. Other than that, the two systems are relatively similar. My upgrade would have made my installation even more worthwhile, which I realize now too late. Elise offers wise advice of this nature to the avid installer:
Do not attempt to do an upgrade late at night when you are about to go to sleep and no one on earth is awake who can help you if you screw up.
—Learning Movable Type: “A Safe Way to Upgrade to MT 3.3”
But, instead, I went on a walk and my brain did cartwheels for me by allowing me to make significant progress in Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. Now, if only you would give me the gift of foresight, oh blessed thought organ!
Read 9 comments (Leave a comment?)
Joey Brooks said:
Nothing is automatically separated in WordPress. If I follow what you’re saying, you don’t have to split everything up, everything can stay in a simple index.php if you so wish it to, and not a header.php, footer.php, index.php, sidebar.php, etc.
Posted on March 20, 2007 2:39 AM; Permalink
Jim Whimpey said:
I once attempted to install Movable Type not because I was unsatisfied with WordPress, I like WordPress a lot but just because I like to try new software. I couldn’t install it. As it wasn’t crucial, I didn’t spend too long trying to persevere with it but still, I couldn’t do it.
The activity feed sounds like a great feature though and I hope WP has taken notice. What I’d really like is an activity feed for multiple blogs mashed into one. The day that is available to me is the day I will be in blogging heaven.
Posted on March 20, 2007 2:48 AM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
Joey: But default themes are split up that way; I just remember being extremely frustrated with the templating system — in hindsight, I realize that I might have been able to combine all the files into one, but that might not have been the problem either :/
Jim: The installation, at least when I was trying version 3.0 or whatever, was terrible. The installation to 3.2 was, by those standards, extremely easy. Like I said — once I got TO the program, everything was working perfectly. It’s just getting there that’s ridiculous sometimes :P
Posted on March 20, 2007 5:44 PM; Permalink
stabani said:
I like Movable Type, it installed quite easily (perhaps my luck, who knows?). I enjoy Wordpress and MT, but really, stuck with Wordpress because it was so easy to modify (and the support community was simply amazing)
Posted on March 22, 2007 4:47 AM; Permalink
Mithraugion said:
Well, I installed Wordpress upon your suggestion that it was “easier to install.” The first time around got me to about 15 mins to install because I was still unfamiliar with my webhost, but after those test runs, it was extremely easy for me to install.
Although the templating doesn’t leave TOO many options compared to Moveable Type, it is still passable in my opinion for functionality, which usually tops my list compared to “lookers.” Personally, I was disappointed it didn’t conform to the non-moveable type site I had before, but afterwards, I was quite pleased with the functionality of the site, making it easy for me to manage.
I guess the real kicker is the plugins option. Love em.
Perhaps at some point I should TRY to install Moveable Type to see if I like it better, but for the time being, I’m sticking with Wordpress.
Posted on March 22, 2007 10:03 PM; Permalink
Kilian Valkhof said:
heck, and I find the wordpress upgrade to be too much of a hassle :-/
Posted on March 23, 2007 12:04 PM; Permalink
Mithraugion said:
REALLY? I just FTP backup the thing while I’m playing video games, come back, upload the thing while playing more video games, and then finish the installation in less than three minutes. Not much of a hassle… to me at least. Is it easier for MT?
Posted on March 23, 2007 10:06 PM; Permalink
Michael said:
WordPress is famous for its “Five Minute Install”, but the upgrade procedure is pretty simple too.
Technically speaking, you can use just a single template file in your theme, but it makes a lot more sense to seperate al the code. For example, you probably don’t want to have all of the code for the header in the main template.
You might want to read the post on my blog titled WordPress: Market Full, Competition Unrivaled.
Posted on April 1, 2007 3:21 PM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
Michael: It’s true that WordPress has a tremendous market (not without reason), but I wouldn’t say that it’s unrivaled. It’s probably more that the fraction between WordPress and a collective of other bits of blogging software, excluding the “Big Three Minus WordPress”: Movable Type/TypePad, TextPattern, and Expression Engine is more favorable towards WordPress.
By which I mean, hell yeah they’ve got a lot of users, but they’re still not unrivaled. I can’t do that English thing today :(
Posted on April 22, 2007 8:10 PM; Permalink