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<h3>Movable Type User Manual: WEBLOG CONFIGURATION</h3>
<p><a href="mtmanual.html">&laquo; Table of Contents</a></p>


<a name="__index__"></a>

<ul>

	<li><a href="#weblog configuration">WEBLOG CONFIGURATION</a></li>
	<ul>

		<li><a href="#core setup">Core Setup</a></li>
		<li><a href="#preferences">Preferences</a></li>
		<li><a href="#archiving">Archiving</a></li>
		<li><a href="#ip banning">IP Banning</a></li>
	</ul>

</ul>
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<p>
<h1><a name="weblog configuration"></a>WEBLOG CONFIGURATION</h1>
<p>Movable Type supports many options for configuring the way your weblog works.
There are four different screens in the <i>Weblog Configuration</i> section:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_Core_Setup"></a>Core Setup</strong><br>

The core values that are required when setting up a new weblog; in fact, when
you create a new weblog, these are all of the fields that you need to fill out.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Preferences"></a>Preferences</strong><br>

Assorted preferences that you can use to configure your weblog, its appearance,
and the Movable Type system. When you create a new weblog, these settings will
all default to reasonable values.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Archiving"></a>Archiving</strong><br>

The archiving configuration for your weblog, where you select the types of
archiving that you would like to use, and associate Archive Templates with
each archive type. When you create a new weblog, these settings will default to
reasonable values.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_IP_Banning"></a>IP Banning</strong><br>

The IP Banning screen, which allows you to ban certain IP addresses from
commenting on entries in your weblog and from sending TrackBack pings to your
weblog. When you create a new weblog, by default all IP addresses are allowed.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
<h2><a name="core setup"></a>Core Setup</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_Weblog_name"></a>Weblog name</strong><br>

The name of your weblog; this name will be used for display within the Movable
Type system itself, and it will also be sent to <i>weblogs.com</i> when sending
an XML-RPC ping (if you have enabled this option--see <a href="#notify weblogs of updates">Notify weblogs of updates</a>, below).
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Local_Site_Path"></a>Local Site Path</strong><br>

The path to the directory where you main index <code>file(s)</code> will be located. When
you use ``Rebuild'' to publish your site, your index templates will be
generated into this directory.
<p>An absolute path (a path starting with <code>/</code>) is preferred, because it is not
dependent on the location of your Movable Type directory; but if you choose to
use a relative path, the path should be relative to your Movable Type
directory.</p>
<p>This is a required field.</p>
<p>Example: <i>/home/melody/public_html/blog</i></p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Site_URL"></a>Site URL</strong><br>

The full URL (including <code>http://</code> and your site's domain name) to your public
weblog. This URL should not include the filename of your index file; for
example, if your index file is located at
<i><a href="http://www.your-site.com/blog/index.html">http://www.your-site.com/blog/index.html</a></i>, then the value for <a href="#item_Site_URL"><code>Site URL</code></a>
should be <i><a href="http://www.your-site.com/blog/">http://www.your-site.com/blog/</a></i>.
<p>This URL will be sent to <i>weblogs.com</i> when sending an XML-RPC ping (if you
have enabled this option--see <a href="#notify weblogs of updates">Notify weblogs of updates</a>, below).</p>
<p>This is a required field.</p>
<p>Example: <i><a href="http://www.your-site.com/blog/">http://www.your-site.com/blog/</a></i></p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Local_Archive_Path"></a>Local Archive Path</strong><br>

The path to the directory where you archive files will be located. An absolute
path (a path starting with <code>/</code>) is preferred, because it is not dependent on
the location of your Movable Type directory; but if you choose to use a
relative path, the path should be relative to your Movable Type directory.
<p>Note that, if you wish to place your archive files in the same directory as
your index files, the <a href="#item_Local_Archive_Path"><code>Local Archive Path</code></a> and the <a href="#item_Local_Site_Path"><code>Local Site Path</code></a> should
point to the same directory.</p>
<p>This is a required field.</p>
<p>Example: <i>/home/melody/public_html/blog/archives</i></p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Archive_URL"></a>Archive URL</strong><br>

The full URL (including <code>http://</code> and your site's domain name) to the archives
section of your public weblog.
<p>This is a required field.</p>
<p>Example: <i><a href="http://www.your-site.com/blog/archives/">http://www.your-site.com/blog/archives/</a></i></p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Timezone"></a>Timezone</strong><br>

Your local timezone. Note that this should <i>not</i> be the timezone where your
server is located, if your server is located in a different timezone; it
should be the timezone where <i>you</i> are located.
<p>This is a required field.</p>
<p></p></ul>
<p>
<h2><a name="preferences"></a>Preferences</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_Weblog_description"></a>Weblog description</strong><br>

The description of your weblog, to be displayed in the Movable Type Main Menu,
and in your weblog templates if you use the <code>&lt;$MTBlogDescription$&gt;</code>
tag.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Number_of_days_displayed"></a>Number of days displayed</strong><br>

The number of days displayed by default on your index templates. Note that
you can override this behavior in your <code>MTEntries</code> tag; this is merely the
default, used when you do not supply <code>MTEntries</code> with any attributes.
<p>For example, if you wish to display the last <code>15</code> entries that you have
posted to your weblog, you could use the <code>lastn</code> attribute to <code>MTEntries</code>
instead of relying on the default behavior:</p>
<pre>&lt;MTEntries lastn=&quot;15&quot;&gt;
...
&lt;/MTEntries&gt;
</pre><p>Note that, if you choose <code>7</code> days, 7 days means the last 7 consecutive days,
<i>not</i> necessarily the last 7 days on which you posted an entry. So if you
have posted on just 3 of the last 7 days, only the posts from those 3 days
will be listed on your main indexes.</p>
<p>Note also that a ``day'' is defined as the time from 24 hours ago to now, where
``now'' is the time at which you are rebuilding your site. It does <strong>not</strong> mean
from 12 AM to now on the current day. As an example, if you are including
<code>1</code> day on your index and you posted an entry one day at 6 PM, that entry
will show up on your index until the next day at 5:59 PM.</p>
<p>This is a required field.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Language_for_date_display"></a>Language for date display</strong><br>

Selects the language used for date and time display on your weblog;
specifically, this influences the month and week names, and the AM/PM
specifiers.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Default_Text_Formatting_for_new_entries"></a>Default Text Formatting for new entries</strong><br>

Movable Type offers a variety of formatting options for the text in your
entries. The default conversion, for example, encloses paragraphs within
<code>&lt;p&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;/p&gt;</code> tags, and converts line breaks into
<code>&lt;br&gt;</code> tags. You can customize the text formatting setting on a
per-entry basis, meaning that you can specify one formatting option for one
entry, and another option in another entry. You indicate your preference
per entry when creating a new entry, or editing an existing entry, in the
<i>Text Formatting</i> setting.
<p>The <i>Default Text Formatting for new entries</i> setting in your weblog
configuration controls the default value for <i>Text Formatting</i>. You
should select the text formatting option that you use most often, for
the sake of convenience.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Number_of_words_in_excerpt"></a>Number of words in excerpt</strong><br>

When you use the &lt;$MTEntryExcerpt$&gt; tag, and you have not defined an
excerpt for your entry, the excerpt is auto-generated from the first <code>N</code>
words of your entry.
<p>The number of words in the excerpt defaults to <code>20</code>.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Welcome_Message"></a>Welcome Message</strong><br>

When authors of your weblog view the main <code>Editing Menu</code>, they will be
presented with a message welcoming them, and providing a link to the manual
and some introductory text. You can edit this welcome message in the
<i>Welcome Message</i> configuration field to send specific messages to your
authors, post news about your weblog, etc.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Creative_Commons_License"></a>Creative Commons License</strong><br>

Here you can select a Creative Commons License to apply to the contents of
your weblog. Learn more about the available licenses at
<i><a href="http://creativecommons.org/learn/licenses/">http://creativecommons.org/learn/licenses/</a></i>. If you select a license, the
index page of your weblog will automatically be updated to include
information about the license you have chosen, and the same metadata will be
added to your RSS 1.0 feed in machine-readable format.
<p><strong>Keep in mind:</strong> Once you publish your work under a Creative Commons
license, and someone accepts the terms you've offered, you can't revoke
the license.  You can always take your work down if you change your
mind, of course, or specify that future entries in your blog are
available under some new licensing terms or full copyright protection,
whatever the case may be.  For more information about the details of
Creative Commons licenses, see
<i><a href="http://creativecommons.org/learn/licenses/fullrights">http://creativecommons.org/learn/licenses/fullrights</a></i>.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Preferred_Archive_Type"></a>Preferred Archive Type</strong><br>

Movable Type allows you to select multiple types of archiving. When linking
to an archived entry--for a permalink, for example--or when creating a master
archive index, the system needs to know your preferred archiving method; you
can think of this as your default archiving type. You can always override this
default, if you choose.
<p>If you have not selected any archive types (<a href="#item_Archive_Frequency"><code>Archive Frequency</code></a>, above), you
should select <code>No Archives</code> for your <a href="#item_Preferred_Archive_Type"><code>Preferred Archive Type</code></a>.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Notify_the_following_sites_when_I_update_my_weblog"></a>Notify the following sites when I update my weblog</strong><br>

weblogs.com and blo.gs are services that keep track of recently-updated
weblogs; in order to notify the services that your website has changed,
Movable Type sends an XML-RPC ping to their servers. When they receive this
ping, the services check your site to determine if it has changed since the
last time you sent a ping. If it has, your site will be marked as updated.
<p>If you would like Movable Type to notify weblogs.com and/or blo.gs of updates
to your site automatically--whenever you post an entry on your site--check
the corresponding box.</p>
<p>In addition to weblogs.com and blo.gs, there are other services that provide
similar functionality. If you would like to ping such services automatically,
and if they support the weblogs.com XML-RPC ping interface
(http://www.xmlrpc.com/weblogsCom), you can add the URLs for those XML-RPC
servers to the <i>Others</i> box. Separate the URLs with carriage returns.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Recently_updated_key"></a>Recently updated key</strong><br>

When you purchase Movable Type, you are given a unique key that you
can enter as your <a href="#item_Recently_updated_key"><code>Recently updated key</code></a>. This key will then be sent
to movabletype.org whenever you update your site, and your site will
be marked as recently updated.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Google_API_key"></a>Google API key</strong><br>

If you wish to use any of the Google API functionality (listing Google search
results on your site using <code>&lt;MTGoogleSearch&gt;</code>, for example), you
will need to sign up for a Google API key ( <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/">http://www.google.com/apis/</a> ),
then paste your API key into this field. Your key will be sent to Google's
servers whenever you use Google API functionality.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Turn_on_TrackBack_auto_discovery"></a>Turn on TrackBack auto discovery</strong><br>

When you write a new post in your weblog, Movable Type can look through your
entry for links to external sites. It can then attempt to determine the
TrackBack ping URL for those sites, and automatically send a ping to that
site, just as if you had determined the TrackBack URL yourself and
entered it in manually.
<p>This takes all of the work out of using TrackBack. You only need to link to
permalinks as you always have, and Movable Type can do the work for you. You
will be notified of the sites that are being pinged on the <code>Pinging...</code>
screen.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Accept_comments_from_unregistered_visitors"></a>Accept comments from unregistered visitors</strong><br>

If you allow comments on your site, you can allow them from registered
visitors, from unregistered visitors, or both. See
<a href="./mtmanual_comments.html">COMMENTS</a>.
<p>This option determines whether you accept comments from visitors who
haven't authenticated themselves using an outside authentication
system like TypeKey. These visitors may be completely anonymous or you
may require them to supply a name and email address, but there is no
guarantee of such a commenter's identity.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Require_Name_and_Email_Address_Information"></a>Require Name and Email Address Information</strong><br>

Check this box to require commenters to supply a name and email
address of their own at the time of commenting. Unchecking this box
allows commenters to comment anonymously.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Enable_unregistered_comment_moderation"></a>Enable unregistered comment moderation</strong><br>

When comment moderation is enabled, comments from unregistered users
will not be displayed on the site until you as the weblog owner
approve them. This moderation applies to individual comments.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Accept_comments_from_registered_visitors"></a>Accept comments from registered visitors</strong><br>

This option allows you to accept and manage commenter identity
information from an external authentication service. Enabling this
option does noot prevent unregistered visitors from commenting; to do
that, uncheck the option ``Accept Comments from Unregistered Visitors.''
<p>To enable this feature, be sure to enter a ``TypeKey Token'' below. This
is the identifier that identifies your site to the TypeKey
authentication service.</p>
<p>Caveats: If your weblog domain is different from the domain of your
Movable Type application, commenters using Internet Explorer 6 may
have trouble logging in to comment on your site. This is because
Internet Explorer 6 doesn't allow your weblog to fetch your cookie
information from Movable Type, which contains the logic to decode
it. For example, this situation would arise if your weblog was at
<code>www.joesjournal.com</code> but you log into Movable Type at
<code>http://www.my-hosting-company.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi</code></p>
<p>When configuring your TypeKey settings at typekey.com, be sure to
enter the URL of your Movable Type application, as opposed to your
weblog URL. To continue the above example, you would need to enter
<code>http://www.my-hosting-company.com/</code> into your TypeKey preferences at
typekey.com. It is not necessary to enter the path information
(e.g. <code>cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi</code>).</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Enable_auto%2Dapproval"></a>Enable auto-approval</strong><br>

When commment registration is enabled, you can choose to deal with
those registrations in two ways. When this option is checked, a new
user's comments will go into a holding tank until you manually approve
that individual. Subsequent comments from the same recognized
commenter will be posted immediately. When this option is unchecked,
commenters will be auto-approved; but you can still ban any commenter
later on.
<p>To approve a new commenter, log in to MT and use the ``Commenters''
button at the left side of the screen. Once you've located the
commenter, hit the ``Approve User'' button. This will display all of
that commenter's pending comments, and future comments by that
individual will be posted immediately. If you instead click the ``Ban
User'' button, that commenter's pending comments will be deleted and
the commenter will be banned from your site unless you later approve
that individual.</p>
<p>Clicking on ``Ban User'' when a commenter is new has the effect of
deleting all of that user's comments to date. However, if you have
ever approved a user, clicking ``Ban User'' on that individual will not
affect any exsting comments. ``Approve User'' and ``Ban User'' only affect
the user's existing comments if you have already approved or banned
that user.</p>
<p>``Auto-approval'' only applies to <i>registered</i> commenters.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Require_email_addresses_from_TypeKey"></a>Require email addresses from TypeKey</strong><br>

Normally, if you are requiring comment registration, the email address
of a commenter is not passed to your weblog. This protects the privacy
of the commenter, and yet you can still identify that person by using
their TypeKey identity page.
<p>If you prefer to ask TypeKey to pass each commenter's email address to
your site, check this option. Upon signing in, the user will have the
option to pass his or her email address, or to keep it hidden and
cancel the comment attempt.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Text_Formatting_for_comments"></a>Text Formatting for comments</strong><br>

Specifies the text formatting option to be used for visitor comments on your
weblog. For example, the
<i>Convert Line Breaks</i> option encloses your paragraphs in <code>&lt;p&gt;</code>
and <code>&lt;/p&gt;</code> tags, and converts line breaks to <code>&lt;br&gt;</code>
tags. The option selected here will be applied globally to all comments in
the system. Note that Text Formatting is executed after the comment is
cleaned up using Sanitize.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
<h2><a name="archiving"></a>Archiving</h2>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_Archive_Frequency"></a>Archive Frequency</strong><br>

The frequency/type of archiving that you would like to use on your weblog. You
can select multiple archive types; doing so will require that you define
templates for each archive type (see <a href="./mtmanual_templates.html">TEMPLATES</a>). Note
also that selecting multiple archive types will slow down the rebuild process,
because there are simply more files to rebuild; the extra files will also take
up more of your allotted space on the system.
<p>You do not have to select any archive types, if you don't want archiving on
your weblog; just leave all of the boxes unchecked.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Archive_Templates"></a>Archive Templates</strong><br>

For each type/frequency of archiving that you choose, you have the option of
assigning multiple Archive Templates to be applied to that particular archive
type. For example, you might wish to create two different views of your
monthly archives: a page containing each of the entries for a particular
month, and a calendar view of that month. Or, you could use different templates
to create hi-fi and lo-fi versions of your archives.
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Archive_File_Templates"></a>Archive File Templates</strong><br>

Allow you to customize the names/paths of your archive files, using standard
Movable Type tags. This allows you to impose a directory structure and
hierarchy on your archives. For each <code>Archive Type</code> that you use, you can
define an <code>Archive File Template</code> in the box to its right on the
configuration screen.
<p>By default, individual archive files are given a name based on the
title of the entry; for example, an entry entitled 'Our Magnificent
Day at the Beach' might be given the filename our_magnificent.html,
and are stored in a directory based on the month of the entry:
2004/05/our_magnificent.html. (Note that users of previous Movable Type
versions can choose backward-compatible filenames in Weblog Config.)</p>
<p>However, you may want to change the way your archive paths are formed.</p>
<p>For example, you may wish to impose a hierarchy on your archives,
based on the category into which you've placed them; for example, you
would place all entries in the category <code>Books</code> into a directory
called <i>books/</i>. To do this, you can use the following <code>Archive File
Template</code> for your <code>Individual</code> archives:</p>
<pre>&lt;$MTEntryCategory dirify=&quot;1&quot;$&gt;/&lt;$MTEntryID pad=&quot;1&quot;$&gt;.html
</pre><p>A final example: by default <code>Weekly</code> archives are named using only the start
date of the week (<i>week_2002_01_06.html</i>, for example). If you would like to
include both the start and end dates in the filename, you can use the following
<code>Archive File Template</code> for your <code>Weekly</code> archives:</p>
<pre>week_&lt;$MTArchiveDate format=&quot;%Y_%m_%d&quot;$&gt;-&lt;$MTArchiveDateEnd format=&quot;%Y_%m_%d&quot;$&gt;.html
</pre><p><a href="#item_Archive_File_Templates"><code>Archive File Templates</code></a> are defined using a subset of the standard Movable
Type <a href="./mtmanual_tags.html">template tags</a>. The following tags can be used in
<a href="#item_Archive_File_Templates"><code>Archive File Templates</code></a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<code>&lt;$MTArchiveDate$&gt;</code> (<a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtarchivedate">doc</a>)
and <code>&lt;$MTArchiveDateEnd$&gt;</code>
(<a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtarchivedateend">doc</a>) for date-based archives
(<code>Monthly</code>, <code>Daily</code>, <code>Weekly</code>)
<p></p>
<li>
<code>&lt;$MTArchiveCategory$&gt;</code>
(<a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtarchivecategory">doc</a>) for <code>Category</code> archives
<p></p>
<li>
<code>&lt;$MTCategory$&gt;</code>
(<a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtarchivecategory">doc</a>) for <code>Category</code> archives
<p></p>
<li>
Any of the <code>&lt;$MTEntry*$&gt;</code>
(<a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#entry listings/archive pages">doc</a>) tags for
<code>Individual</code> archives
<p></p></ul>
<p><strong>NOTE:</strong> when using <a href="#item_Archive_File_Templates"><code>Archive File Templates</code></a>, you <strong>must</strong> append the file
extension that you wish to use for your archive files (as in the examples
above). The file extension that you specify in <code>File extension for archive
files</code> will not be used.</p>
</ul>
<p>
<h2><a name="ip banning"></a>IP Banning</h2>
<p>To ban a certain IP address from commenting on entries in your weblog and
sending TrackBack pings to your weblog, you can use the IP Banning screen
(part of the <i>Weblog Configuration</i> set of screens).</p>
<p>Note that IP banning is not an exact science, and that it should <strong>not</strong> be
considered true security for your site, because an IP address does not
necessarily ``mark'' a user as unique. IP addresses are often dynamically
assigned by ISPs, for example; this means that a user's IP address may change
from one session to the next. In addition, computers at public sites (a
library, for example) may always have the same IP address, but the user using
the system will certainly not always be the same.</p>
<p>In other words, you should be careful when banning IP addresses.</p>
<p>To add a new banned IP address, enter the IP address into the <code>IP Address:</code>
box, and press <code>ADD TO LIST</code>. To remove an IP address that is currently
banned, check the checkbox next to that IP address in the <code>IP Ban List</code>,
and click the <code>DELETE</code> button.</p>

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