Slashdot Mirror
Using MovableType?
piecewise asks: "Everyone seems to be using a Webblog these days and I'm interested in getting my company into it in a big way. We have three web servers and use Akamai to keep the website cached and happy. How many Slashdot readers are webloggers? Have you used MovableType, on a large scale? Are there any security issues? Security's very important. Is there a solution to the 'cache problem'? In other words, as people input messages, might the data running across the net become out-of-sync? Thanks for any thoughts/experiences."
Moveable type is very cool. It really has helped make printing workable. I recomend it highly over wood cuts or hand lettering (caligraphy is very nice but just too slow for the fast pace of the modern office)
Since Slashdot is probably the largest weblog on planet Earth I would say that maybe... all of them?
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
While you're asking specifically about MovableType, I have to ask "what are the requiremens" first. Before you decice on any piece of software you first need to define what you're trying to accomplish. You mave have done this, but your post doesn't really suggest that it was a thorough investigation.
Do your servers meet the requirements of the weblog s/w? Do you need it to integrate with your existing AAA security services? Do you have perl expertise on staff or is there more familiarty with PHP? What type of usage pattern is expected? Is this for Intranet or Internet use (the post suggests Internet...scary business letting employees post a weblog to the Net).
There are lots of weblog s/w choices. Providing more input will help folks provide an assessment for you.
Mind the gap...
If security and worldwide replication are your core requirements, you ought to be using something that fulfils the requirements, such as IBM Lotus Domino.
(Implementing a weblog in Domino is pretty trivial. I've done it for myself.)
As it is, it sounds like you've found a Golden Hammer--you already know you want to use it as the solution, you just need to work out how to get it to fulfil those pesky requirements...
((Disclaimer: I work for IBM.))
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
From a geek standpoint, one of the best weblogging programs that I've used is blosxom. It's by Rael Dornfest, who edited the Google Hacks book, among others. I use it for my web sites, and it's a very simple, powerful, and flexible tool. Depending on how you need to use it, this may be a good way to go.
I have not used Moveable Type, so I can't comment on that. But I've had good experiences with blosxom.
=Brian
There is nothing so good that someone, somewhere, will not hate it.
I used MovableType until recently for my own personal website. Both as a blog and as the engine to power the news of the website.
:-)
.wml file template was very simple.
The advantage to MT is that it can store the info in one of 3 different databases (including a local file if you don't have SQL of some sort) and the only time the Perl application is accessed is when you're either adding a new entry to the blog or when someone is posting a comment. Everything is generated as HTML so when a user views the page, they're not calling any scripts. Keeps overheads down and allows for bigger sites on smaller servers.
Caching I found an issue. The HTML is static. So I quite often had to manually tell Squid to refresh the site if it was getting updated lots and I wanted to see those updates.
Multiple authors per blog is useful. Its pretty decent as far as permission system goes. I dislike the fact that a user can make certain changes (such as altering where on the file system their blog gets created) but this can be turned off simply enough with only minor loss of functionality to the end user themself. Then again, what they don't know they could've had, they won't miss.
Security isn't so bad. You can use HTTP authentication to stop the users getting in to the directory with the Perl app and then their username/passwd to access the prog itself. This gets complicated if you want to permit comments. However, Security concerns are few and far between. 2.64 takes care of all known bugs and when bugs are announced, a patch is pretty quickly released.
Remember, the average Joe doesn't need to even get near the Perl application if you disable comments. All they get is straight HTML.
People complain about the CSS and so on. I haven't had a problem with this myself. I found it pretty simple to modify the entire look and feel. The template structure is pretty straight forward and expandable. Adding something like a WAP
Hunt around, there are a heap of plugins for it. Including plugins that allow you to use WikiWord formatting and more.
While it was of use to me, it suited my purposes very well. Its very quick and scalable. I had about 30 blogs plus a news page running from the single install on a P200. Because the Joe is getting HTML and not running the Perl scripts to generate it every view, it doesn't need a major box.
AFAIK, MT always requires that the web server have write access to the area where MT is installed. The only safe way to deal with this is to run the MT cgis under a suexec wrapper, so they execute as your user. Otherwise, you have to make the files world-writeable, which is a terrible, terrible idea. I've seen many posts on MT forums telling people to do a chmod 777 -- don't listen to them!
About.com is an example large scale site using Moveable Type.
Are you sure MT is what you really want? I'll bet a wiki would be a better choice; we just installed one here at work and we're going crazy-go-nuts with it. We've installed PhpWiki, but Twiki looks useful, too.
The "home" of wiki is at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki, and the main book on the subject of wikis, The Wiki Way, has a companion website with downloadable code at http://wiki.org/.
Briefly, a wiki is a website that allows one to create and edit web pages without having to mess with accounts and permissions--just type in one's text into an edit box, click "submit", and it's up and running. We use it as a knowledge base, and I'm going to use it to record billable events and notes.
"The simplest possible database that could possibly work"--Ward Cunningham
Movable Type works quite well with PostgreSQL.
I currently run MT on OpenBSD with PostgreSQL, setup was painless and the performance is great.
If Akamai decently handles changes in static HTML you should have no problems.
For a buisness setting Zope with Plone might be a better idea, It's workflow controls would probably be a necessity.