George Drapeau recently wrote about his experience Installing and running Movable Type on OpenSolaris. Though George seems to be technially savvy, installation of MT is not always easy because each server environment in which it is installed is different.
A few months ago (with the help of a few Perl hackers at Six Apart), I wrote a step-by-step guide to Install Movbale Type on a Mac which required the installation of a foundation of software commonly pre-installed by most web hosting companies. This included Xcode Tools (specific to MacOS), MySQL, PHP5, Perl modules, Image Magick and common image libraries.
While I can install Movable Type without assistance, I needed guidance to install the system software which is commonly installed by most web hosting providers. When a web host meets the system requirements for Movable Type, installation is as easy as installing any of today’s self-hosted CMS products.
I’ve rewritten the install and upgrade guides with a progressive disclosure of detail such that those already comfortable with performing such installations have access to simple guides.
These guides will work for both MT4 and MT5.
Quick Install Guides
- Install via FTP using the Configuration Wizard
- Install via SSH with manual configuration of the
mt-config.cgi
For those who may be installing for the first time or need more details:
Because ungrading is esentially installation + backup, the new upgrade guide is similar to the detailed installation guide, but adds backup steps and tips for general administration of Movable Type:
To support these installation and upgrade guides, the following reference guides were created:
These guides have been inspired by many previous Movable Type installation guides, messages on the mailing lists, comments in the Movable Type Documentation, and installation guides from other sites and software products.
So check out the new Installation Guides and provide any feedback you have such these documents can be a resource for the whole community. Some documents are still in a draft state. Please leave any comments on the individual docs if you have questions or comments.
A few other documentation-related notes:
- An index template aggregating MT5 documentation will continue to list new docs as they become available. Documentation will continue to be produced through the release date.
- The Recently Updated Documentation page lists the last 300 documentation pages that have been updated.
Enjoy!
Bud on December 3, 2009, 6:10 a.m. Reply
Beau, I was extremely impressed with the typepad motion install on my macbook pro. It was just a question of running easy_install from the command line, and kapow, it was there.
One has no such luck with movable type and never has. Further, the detailed instructions I see written up become out of date with each new OS release and, often enough, with each new MT release (particularly going from MT3 to MT4). I think one of the major issues has been the inclusion of an imagemagick dependency.
If you could get MT down to a cpan style install, you’d get substantially greater developer uptake.
On a more general note, typepad motion is an exciting direction for you guys. It allows developers freedom over interface elements and services while leaving service management (a bane to many) to you guys.
Beau Smith on December 3, 2009, 5:54 p.m. Reply
So true Bud, I wish installing MT was simpler. Six Apart definitely aims to make things easier, faster, more secure, etc with all newly released products.
Installing an app within a pre-installed framework (such as TypePad Motion build using the Django Framework) still requires prerequisites, lucky enough some of them such as Python are pre-installed on MacBooks.
For now, I hope these guides ease installation. In these guides I’ve described differences between installing MT4.x and MT5. MT3 wasn’t too different, but the installation process has always been very similar.
althea242424 on May 31, 2012, 2:25 a.m. Reply
Great! This helps a lot. I am trying to install this on my Mac, Now, I know how~ I’ll get back to you if error occurs.
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colin_ng on June 27, 2012, 4:06 a.m. Reply
I’m new to MT and at first was worried that i wouldn’t be able to install it myself. Then I found these guides. Followed the instructions and everything is up and running! Thank you for taking the time and writing these!
Kathleen Carley on September 3, 2012, 5:53 a.m. Reply
My Chrome doesn’t allow me to see the first link of the article and I can not read George Drapeau’s post.
Petar Ivanov on September 10, 2012, 9:15 p.m. Reply
It is a great to have such tutorial, but you need to improve and reach the level of Wordpress and their famous five minutes instalation.
Lewis on October 4, 2012, 7:11 a.m. Reply
Well, due to the potential new MT releases in the future some of these guidelines may not be appropriate any more, but this is something that simply cannot be overcome…
Amanda Andre on October 19, 2012, 9:41 a.m. Reply
Great piece of work Beau :)
Damion on October 29, 2012, 10:28 p.m. Reply
“When a web host meets the system requirements for Movable Type” I don’t want to argue, but I am quite sure that the installation of Wordpress is far easier than the installation of Moveable Type. Of course, Moveable Type offers many more opportunities, no doubt in that, but the process of installation is easier.
iwin.vn on November 6, 2012, 12:36 a.m. Reply
I am no whiz at the technical side of server management, but I would consider myself a bit more technically savvy than the average man/woman who would wish to use MT4.
Martin on November 13, 2012, 3:15 a.m. Reply
Hi Beau, where can we find the theme you have used in your site? The red is really cool and I would like to used in one of mine sites?
LwisM on November 22, 2012, 2:16 a.m. Reply
Hi, I use SmartFTP but I can’t find the function which creates the configuration wizard. Can you tell me where it is, because I follow your guidelines step by step but I stopped on this one.
Ogden on November 28, 2012, 3:29 a.m. Reply
Hello, where can I find tutorial about installing Movable Type on Amazon virtual private cloud hosting? I’ve tried several times, but without success.