Version 2.5 and a birthday

Version 2.5 and a birthday

10.08.2002

Movable Type 2.5

The other day, I remarked to Ben that I am repeatedly amazed that we have created software that enables thousands of people all over the world to publish their thoughts online. Movable Type began as a hobby, a way to occupy time previously filled by, well, employment. We never imagined that Movable Type would become as popular as it is, nor could we comprehend the way that it would change our lives. The past year has been amazing. We have had an active role in shaping a medium that thrives on the personal voice while building an application that truly is a labor of love.

When we released Movable Type in the early hours of the morning last October, I asked Ben if we were doing the right thing -- if we were really ready to release our pet project to the public. More importantly, would we be able to maintain enough interest and pleasure in its development and support to last a year. I believe Ben answered the question in the same manner I asked it, with a reluctance that somehow indicated that we had a lot of work ahead of us.

Though the year has been taxing, the rewards outweigh the sleepless nights and anxieties. Our tool is used by some of the brightest minds on the Web, we've had the chance to speak and attend numerous technology conferences, we had the opportunity to appear on television and radio and co-author a book. And probably, most importantly, Movable Type has given us the chance to not only meet many of the people who are shaping the Web, but also the new user who is learning that the Web is truly a two-way medium.

In the course of a year, many have assisted us along the way:

Thanks to our beta-testers, plugin developers, active members of our support forums and all other contributors. You do a tremendous job making the Movable Type community thrive and flourish. We're honored to have such an intelligent group of people devoted to helping others and providing resources that, quite frankly, make the software better.

Thanks to those who have embraced our software and the technologies that we continue to develop -- including many developers of other services and products. Thanks to those who have, over the past year, given us the opportunity to get over our fears of public speaking and share what we know about Movable Type and the realm of personal publishing.

Of course, thanks to all of our users. From day one, we've been overwhelmed by the interest in Movable Type; because of this demand, we are determined to release the best possible software we can offer.

Finally, many thanks go to our donors -- from the very first to the most recent and everyone in between. Because of their donations, we have been able to continue to actively develop and support Movable Type and make it our full-time jobs.

We look forward to the upcoming year, a year that will certainly be marked by exciting announcements and increased development to make Movable Type part of the next generation of personal publishing tools.

Thanks!

Mena and Ben Trott

About Version 2.5

View the full changelog to see the complete list of 85 updates, changes, additions and fixes added to version 2.5.

Here's a list of some of the major changes in version 2.5:

Localization: the MT interface can be available in multiple languages, on a per-author setting. A Spanish language pack is now available (thanks to Eduardo Arcos Barredo), and more languages will be translated in the upcoming weeks. (Language Packs)
Integrated Jay Allen's mt-search (Thanks, Jay!), modified with a number of new features and optimizations. (more info)
You can now easily ping blo.gs and other update services that accept pings adhering to the Weblogs.com XML-RPC interface. (more info)
Added optional TrackBack auto-discovery, which can automatically find TrackBack ping URLs based on permalinks in entry bodies. These entries can then be pinged without any extra effort. (more info)
More accessible default templates that follow guidelines from Mark Pilgrim's 30 Days to a More Accessible Web site.
Update pings (eg weblogs.com, blo.gs, etc) are now sent only when an entry is either new (and published), or was previously a draft, and is now published.
Added a new stylesheet as the new default style for new blogs.
A new "Keywords/Metadata" field has been added to the edit entry screen (click "Customize the display of this page" to enable it).
Image thumbnails can now be created using the NetPBM tools, if your system has those. Look at the ImageDriver and NetPBMPath settings in mt.cfg if you are interested. (more info)
TrackBack pings are now sent using HTTP POST instead of HTTP GET, and several problems with the embedded RDF (validation errors, improper use of Dublin Core attributes) have been fixed (Thanks to Paul Prescod for the pointers).