To create a new screen in the Movable Type application a developer needs to do three things:

1. Create a template for rendering the contents of the page
2. Define a mode handler which populates the template's context with data
3. Register a method to route requests to the mode handler

Creating a Template

The templating language used by the blogs published by Movable Type is the same language used for rendering pages within the application. This templating language provides a rich set of template tags that abstract developers and designers away from the core application using a customizable, but still rigid set of semantics that make Movable Type more secure and less error prone. It also ensure thats any new page that is creating using this language will work equally well on any operating system and using any database.

Users familiar with Smarty, JSP, ASP, PHP or any other popular web based templating framework should feel at home using Movable Type's templating language that allows developers to easily interweave the programattic display of data with HTML.

Here is an example Movable Type application template:

<mt:setvarblock name="page_title"><__trans phrase="This is a page title"></mt:setvarblock>
<mt:setvarblock name="html_head" append="1">
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function do_something(f) {
    alert("Something!");
}
// -->
</script>
</mt:setvarblock>
<mt:include name="include/header.tmpl">

<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" 
    action="<mt:var name="script_url">">
<input type="hidden" name="__mode" value="a_mode" />
<mt:if name="blog_id">
<input type="hidden" name="blog_id" value="<mt:var name="blog_id">" />
</mt:if>
<input type="hidden" name="magic_token" value="<mt:var name="magic_token">" />

<mtapp:setting
    id="some_id_field"
    label="<__trans phrase="Enter text here">"
    hint="<__trans phrase="Yay, text.">"
    content_class="field-content-text">
    <input type="text" name="foo" size="30" />
</mtapp:setting>

<mt:setvarblock name="action_buttons">
    <button
        type="submit"
        accesskey="s"
        title="<__trans phrase="Continue (s)">"
        class="primary-button"
        ><__trans phrase="Continue"></button>
</mt:setvarblock>
<mt:include name="include/actions_bar.tmpl" bar_position="bottom" 
    hide_pager="1" settings_bar="1">
</form>

<mt:include name="include/footer.tmpl">

This template demonstrates a number of different user interface components that anyone is free to use to make creating a user interface simpler:

• <mtapp:setting> - used for rendering form and input elements in a standard way
• <mtapp:button> - used for rendering a Movable Type HTML button
• <mt:include> - used to include HTML and template fragments contained in other files and templates
• <mt:if> - a simple conditional statement
• <mt:setvarblock name="html_head" append="1"> - a way of including javascript at the head of your page

Define a Mode Handler

Once you have created a template you need to define a mode handler which will be responsible for loading the template, populating its context with parameter input and data, and then returning its HTML. The HTML returned by your handler will be displayed directly to the user's browser.

It is recommended to use the $app->build_page method to assist in both loading and processing your template. It will handle error reporting and what not for you.

Here is an example CMS package you can include within a plugin that will process incoming requests for a single mode.

package MyPlugin::CMS;
use strict;
use base qw( MT::App );
sub plugin {
    return MT->component('MyPlugin');
}
sub id { 'myplugin_cms' }
sub some_mode {
    my $app = shift;
    my $input = $app->{query}->param('some_form_parameter');
    my $plugin = MT::Plugin::MyPlugin->instance;
    my $tmpl = $plugin->load_tmpl('some_template.tmpl');
    return $app->build_page( $tmpl, $param );}
}

Register Your Mode Handler

Ok, so you have a template and a mode handler for displaying and processing the template to the user. You now need to instruct MT on how to dispatch requests to this handler. This is done by registering a "mode" within MT's registry, like so:

sub init_registry {
    my $plugin = shift;
    $plugin->registry({
        applications => {
            cms => {
                methods => {
                    my_mode =>
                         '$MyPlugin::MyPlugin::CMS::some_mode',
                },
            },
        },
    });
}

See also:

• Creating a New Screen in the Application
• Creating Menu Items
• Creating List Filters of "Quick Filters"
• Template Tag Reference Manual
• User Interface Components Reference