I’m always excited when there is some kind of upgrade to MovableType, especially if it’s a quick and easy one. Before you do upgrade to 5.1 make sure you back up everything, literally. I thought I had and thought I had made a huge mistake (which luckily was easily fixed). I thought I had downloaded a complete site backup. What it turned out to actually be though was a System backup. I’m not entirely sure what that means but I do know it was not what I thought. When you think you’ve made a huge mistake and didn’t download the proper backup, you may go through what I did. So, first and foremost, make sure you download the correct backup from your host, then backup (and hey maybe even export entries) from each blog hosted with your MT setup. After you’ve done that, read the instructions.
Unlike previous upgrades of MovableType you do not want to overwrite the files of the previous version. You want to put them in their own file folder in the cgi-bin and make a new mt-static folder to go with version 5 as well. After doing that, changing the file permissions (etc) you’re ready to do the check and login for upgrading. Remember to change the config file to recognize the new paths to the new folders! This is one thing that I forgot to do.
After everything upgrades, login. Everything is completely different. The setup is more like WordPres with the menu down the side instead of being along the top. One thing that isn’t working for me inside the system are avatar photos. I’m not sure why yet but once I figure it out I will let you know. I tried finding out where the photos are supposed to go but I can’t find that in the file folders on the server - the one they are talking about doesn’t seem to exist. I uploaded new photos to try and use as an avatar in the system but they were no listed as a possible photo to use. I need to look through the manual and see if this is addressed.
I haven’t tried everything in the new system yet. I have removed spam trackbacks, looked through the settings regarding the blog info and registration setup to make sure everything was still the same and so forth. Things seem to be larger in the new system. The window in which you type your post out is larger and does not need to be resized (nor can it be). The menu being at the left is much more nicer than the one in 4.3 because I won’t accidentally run my mouse over it to do something else and end up having the menu floating over the post box. With the new menu you actually have to click in order to open and close the menu.
The theme is the same with the gray, blue and green throughout. It may take some time to get used to the new format and layout but it shouldn’t take long at all. Everything is there, everything works and hopefully there will be some new themes to go with the new version before long. Enjoy the new system, mt users.
