Recently in movabletype Category

I upgraded this site's backend, Movable Type, to the latest version earlier today.

While the upgrade itself went pretty well there seem to be some really odd issues affecting this site. All the other sites running of this MT install are behaving fine, but this one is having issues with templates.
I'm currently trying to work out what the best course of action is, so please excuse the really ugly search results pages if you conduct a search.

I'm considering nuking the templates entirely and reverting back to a default template set before re-adding any of my own minor customisations (and they really are quite minor)

I suspect that I have some old template code floating around that is causing conflicts, but whether I will be able to isolate or not is doubtful - especially as it hasn't happened with any of my other blogs, which is truly bizarre!

Thanks to Donal for highlighting the issue for me.

Update: Nuking the template seems to have solved the problem. Of course I've now got to go back and customise them ... or maybe I can just wait as someone promised me a new design!

Update 2: Due to my own stupidity I managed to disable the single entry archives, so they weren't being created! That's now fixed.

Blogging company SixApart announced a major expansion earlier today. (They also quietly unveiled a new look for their main corporate site)

The company announced its acquisition of New York based Apperceptive  who will  form the core of their new services division. Apperceptive's team have not only worked on a lot of very high profile projects but have also developed quite a few extensions for Movable Type (I think I've a couple of them installed on this site!).


They've also announced a new advertising solution for both bloggers (publishers) and media buyers. As this is a new service I'd expect there'll be a delay before we start seeing it "in action".

Anil Dash's post on their main site covers their vision in some detail.

Earlier in the day Arvind posted an interview with Anil on the Blog Herald

The services side of the company will probably meet with a degree of criticism from some quarters, but it's not uncommon for software companies to handle a certain amount of this type of work inhouse.

Will this have a negative impact on the developers and consultants who work closely with SixApart?

Judging by reactions on the mailing lists probably not, though the company's detractors were vocal as usual.

What is interesting to see is the range of services that they are pushing. These range from basic installation and tweaking to a full migration and upgrade service.

While the $199 price tag may put off some people I can imagine that a lot of small businesses might be attracted. With the current rate of exchange it equates to a mere 125 euro for a blog "tune up".

They don't seem to be offering design services, which is a pity as I'd love to give this site an overhaul!

EDIT: Fixed a typo spotted by David Raynes' eagle eyes!

What's the significance of that number?

It's the number of lines in the Wordpress "XML" export that I used to migrate from Wordpress to Movabletype.

I put the XML in inverted commas as it doesn't validate. You have to "massage" it quite a bit to get rid of junk and make it pass a simple validation test.

Thanks to Niall for pointing me in the direction of XML Starlet, which is a command line XML validator.
Using XML Starlet and gvim I was able to edit and hack the XML file into a state where it was usable. One of the Japanese engineers in SixApart had already been doing some work on the importer, so the permalinks (basenames) weren't being messed with.
I'll provide a full write up on how the migration was done once I've ironed out a couple of minor annoyances (of my own creation)