Six Apart Announces Public Availability of Newest Version of its Popular Movable Type Weblogging Software

Press release> Six Apart, maker of award-winning Movable Type and TypePad weblog software, today announced the release of Movable Type 3.1. Movable Type 3.1 is a breakthrough weblog publishing system, providing users with an elegant and intuitive user interface for creating and managing weblogs. Version 3.1 features static and dynamic page generation, hierarchical category management, post scheduling and an extended plug-in architecture for the vibrant Movable Type Professional network.

Movable 3.1 comes just three months after the launch of Movable Type 3.0, a Developer’s Release which previewed the new plug-in architecture. “The rapid pace of updates to our weblogging software is indicative of Six Apart’s renewed commitment to Movable Type and its users,” said Mena Trott, Six Apart’s president and co-founder. “Movable Type 3.1’s new features ensure that it continues to be the standard by which other weblog tools are judged. Version 3.1 shows how we have extended Movable Type from a weblog tool into a true publishing platform.”

New features in Movable Type 3.1 include:

— The choice of static or dynamic PHP pages: Users can control whether they publish a dynamic or static page on a per-template basis, allowing them to optimize between fast web pages builds and low server loads. This allows for greater flexibility, control and speed for weblog publishers.

— Post scheduling: Authors can now set a time and date for posts to appear, enabling automatic updates to weblogs. With post-scheduling, authors are freed of time constraints and their readership is kept up to date.

— Hierarchical category management: A new category management interface provides bloggers with fine-grained control over the organization and display of posts. The ability to add categories and move sub-categories enables bloggers to dynamically respond to the demands of both content creation and their readership.

— Application-level callbacks: Moveable Type 3.1 gives developers more control, allowing their plug-ins to hook into application events such as page rebuilding and extend them with custom functionality.

Six Apart said the new features in Movable Type 3.1 guarantee customers the tools they require to create the weblogs they imagine. Because Movable Type 3.1 is a flexible and robust development platform, users will continue to benefit from new applications built on the platform, such as the award-winning plug-ins from Six Apart’s successful Plug In to Movable Type Contest. These plug-ins are included in the MT 3.1 Plug-in Pack for Movable Type 3.1 and include:

— MT-Blacklist: a comprehensive spam-blocking and management system for comments and TrackBacks, with an advanced interface and remote importing of blacklist entries.

— XSearch/Plus: A system which allows you to plug in alternate search engines for Movable Type. This includes a working implementation of a powerful Plucene-based search engine.

— KoalaRainbow: A visualization engine for Movable Type which uses its own query language to generate graphics based on arbitrary queries of data in your Movable Type system.

— MultiBlog: A plug-in which allows you to include template content from one weblog to any other weblog in their Movable Type install.

— Markdown: A simple text markup language which allows you to create posts in plain text and have them display in semantically correct valid XHTML.

— Notifier: An email notification system which lets readers subscribe to be notified via email whenever an individual post, a category, or even an entire weblog is updated.

Movable type 3.1 can be obtained by visiting www.movabletype.org. The upgrade is free for current 3.0 users or can be purchased with support for as little as $69. A free limited use unsupported version is also available.

As previously announced, the Six Apart Professional Network launched today. The Six Apart Professional Network is a collection of resources for the community of developers, designers, consultants, IT/IS managers and enthusiasts who build on top of Six Apart platforms including Movable Type, TypePad and TypeKey. In addition to receiving early release of the Movable Type software, members have an online channel to promote and sell their products and services to customers worldwide, as well as having a mechanism to interact directly with other Professional Network members and the Six Apart team. For more information, go to www.sixapart.com/network.