Hacking Movable Type (ExtremeTech) [Paperback]

Jay Allen (Author), Brad Choate (Author), Ben Hammersley (Author), Matthew Haughey (Author), Ben Trott (Author), Mena Trott (Author), David Raynes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 076457499X | ISBN-13: 978-0764574993 | Publication Date: July 22, 2005 | Edition: 1

Ready to push Movable Type to the max?

Movable Type, that amazingly powerful personal publishing application, is the superhero of the Internet age. But when you push, poke, stretch, and otherwise coax it into producing even more, the possibilities for your Web content are simply superlative. Roll up your sleeves and get moving-here's the first book to tell you how.

Discover how to do all this and more
* Hack the perfect installation
* Hack the database
* Play with Atom, Perl, and XML-RPC APIs
* Write advanced plug-ins
* Master dynamic publishing
* Hack a super-powered blog app
* Ban comment spam
* Build customized templates

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Ready to push Movable Type to the max?

Movable Type, that amazingly powerful personal publishing application, is the superhero of the Internet age. But when you push, poke, stretch, and otherwise coax it into producing even more, the possibilities for your Web content are simply superlative. Roll up your sleeves and get moving—here's the first book to tell you how.

Discover how to do all this and more

1. Hack the perfect installation
2. Hack the database
3. Play with Atom, Perl, and XML-RPC APIs
4. Write advanced plug-ins
5. Master dynamic publishing
6. Hack a super-powered blog app
7. Ban comment spam
8. Build customized templates

About the Author

Jay Allen has been hacking Movable Type since before its first public release and has deployed MT on over a billion and a half systems, give or take a few orders of magnitude. He created the first MT plugin, called MT-Search, as well as one of the most necessary plugins, MT-Blacklist. He currently resides in the ever beautiful and weird San Francisco and works at Six Apart as Product Manager for Movable Type. He spends his off hours split almost evenly between spinning true house music, recharging personal electronic devices, and trying to find his keys.

Brad Choate has been hacking Movable Type since it was first released. He is now a Six Apart software engineer where he hacks Movable Type for a living, supporting his incredibly understanding wife and three little hackers.

Ben Hammersley is an English journalist and writer, and has been using Movable Type since version 1. He lives in Florence, Italy, with his beautiful wife and three greyhounds and is currently tending his cigar and dressing gown habit with little success. He invites you to visit.

Matthew Haughey is closing in on ten years of building websites and runs the popular MetaFilter weblog as well as half a dozen smaller weblog projects. He’s been tinkering with Movable Type since the very first private alpha that his friends, Ben and Mena Trott, let him test out. He’s been hacking away at it ever since.

David Raynes got his first taste of blogs in the first half of 2002, and was running his own by summer’s end that same year. Shortly after, his first plugin, MTSearches, was released, and the rest is history. One of his most popular plugins, SubCategories, was even integrated into Movable Type as of version 3.1. David works as a software engineer in Maryland, where he lives with his wife, Jenn, and their four cats (two his and two hers): Hans, Franz, Tim, and Gizmo. Eventually the feud between Tim and Franz will be resolved and there shall be only three.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076457499X
• ISBN-13: 978-0764574993
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,471,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ben Hammersley is a British writer and journalist, based in Florence, Italy. Previously writing as the first Internet reporter for The Times, he currently contributes to The Guardian.

Unlike many technology writers, Hammersley's stories often result from reporting from dangerous countries. He has worked in Iran and Afghanistan and interviewed the Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Hammersley has been influential in the RSS community and coined the term podcasting. He built and maintains the Lazyweb, and the weblogs of The Guardian. He is attributed with the first Warchalking in the wild, on a street corner in Kensington, London in June 2002.

Hammersley also regularly contributes to congresses and conferences, such as the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention and the Global Investigative Journalism Conference. He is a member of the advisory council of the Open Rights Group.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great concept, but completely missing content, October 21, 2005

By 

Jeremy Wilker "Jeremy Wilker" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hacking Movable Type (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

A great idea for a book but it falls flat in execution. The book promises several plugins and support files are available on its website but no such site exists. The book was published in July and still nothing. You cannot use Chapters 16 or 19 whatsoever, which were the exact reasons for my purchase. The site claims the hurricane is to blame. While I do have sympathies, wasn't that after July? Wouldn't you have your support site ready to go at publishing time? I have so far gotten no response from emailed queries about the missing content. I do not recommend this book due to this situation, which is a shame as it held so much promise. If you don't mind missing that portion, then perhaps you'll like this resource.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Why didn't I check reviews?????, May 17, 2007

By 

Mike Donovan (Middle America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hacking Movable Type (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

I purchased this book after browsing it at the bookstore and reading about all the nifty extra downloads available at the book's "companion site." Guess what? All the reviews are right - there IS NO SITE. It is now May of 2007 and the site STILL says it is "coming soon," with no explanation. The companion site (which sounded very cool in the book)was never developed and not only is there no explanation at the site - but not even here at Amazon where Matt Haughey and the other authors have the opportunity to write in the book blog - or leave comments to the reviews in answer to all those wondering about what happened. I just don't get it. The silence is deafening. No site? A disappointment, but no problem that can't be forgiven if someone just took the time to offer those of us who spent $30.00 an explanation. But even after 2 years of publication, that seems to be too much trouble. Shame.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Is this a joke?, April 8, 2006

By 

BookMan - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hacking Movable Type (ExtremeTech) (Paperback)

To be honest, I'm VERY disgusted with this book - I just purchased it this afternoon, started to read it and went to the web site that was supposed to contain plugins and other materials from the book, only to find that it is essentially an EMPTY site! The site is located at:

[...]

There is no reason that this book has been out for such a long period time and yet there is still no real support site! On top of that, one of the authors even touts that this bogus site is "coming soon." That's right, Jay Allen announces on his own blog that:

"Hacking Movable Type (which has a 'coming-soon' companion website, hackingmt.com) is finally out and it's even more fantastic than I remember."

That post is located at:

[...]

He made that post on August 18, 2005 and it's now the middle of April 2006. Frankly, I'm disgusted and can not recommend this book if the authors and publisher (Wiley) are so dishonest.