Happy Monday, folks! I have to say, in the short time I’ve been doing these updates, I’ve received a great response from the Movable Type community. If there’s any way I can make MT Monday more useful for you, or if you know of a blog or website I should feature here, please let me know.
Now, on with the news!
Plugins
WebPurify & Mouthwash — Commenters must be getting particurly vulgar lately, since two profanity filters were released this week. WebPurify uses an online service for its filter, while Mouthwash — written by Dan Wolfgang — leaves it up to you to build your own list of bad words.
Batch Template Options — Byrne Reese released Batch Template Options, which allows you to change the publishing method for multiple templates from the template listing screen. I know a lot of MT users that will be happy to see this. Many people were upset when the option to disable publishing a template disappeared from the listing page. Thanks, Byrne!
Blog Link
Six Apart is making use of the LinkedIn API with the release of Blog Link. As 6A explains it:
The functionality of Blog Link is simple: It’s an application you can add to your LinkedIn profile that shows your recent blog entries to anyone who views your profile, while also giving everyone the option to browse blog posts from the people you’re connected to.
Blog Link is free and works with most any blogging platform.
Tips & Tricks
Have you ever locked yourself out of your own MT blog? Trust me, it can be done. Beau Smith provides the MySQL commands to reset your password in the database. Thanks, Beau!
This week, a very useful page was added to the Movable Type documentation: The Ultimate Guide to Template Module Caching. I’ve written before about how potentially useful template caching can be. This new guide covers it in-depth and is a must-read if you’re looking to speed up publishing.
If you’re wondering whether template caching will speed up your install, Byrne Reese released a tool this week for you. The MT Template Test tool will give you lots of useful information for debugging publishing issues. Be sure to check it out.
And finally, since we’re talking about speed issues, we have the top 5 things you can do to make Movable Type even faster. I can personally vouch for 1, 3, and 5, and I’ve heard very good things about 2 and 4, so be sure to take a look at those.
What have you done with Movable Type lately? Let us know in the comments.