June 2002 Archives

Movable Type 2.21 has now been released with a very important bug fix to the MySQL schema.

The bug was that the created_on columns were timestamp fields, which means that MySQL updates them when an explicit value is not provided for them--this modifies the Authored On dates of any entries you modify. This bug will not occur if you are using MT itself, but only if you try to issue an insert or update command from the mysql client, phpMyAdmin, or another client tool. Thanks to shanson for finding this bug.

Version 2.21 has an updated schema that fixes the problem. So:

If you have not yet upgraded to 2.21 or installed Movable Type:
You can just install the system as normal, because the fixed schema has been integrated into the distribution.

If you have already upgraded, AND you are using the MySQL support:
1. Upgrade to 2.21 per the usual upgrade instructions.
2. Download this additional file and unpack it. It contains a CGI script called mt-upgrade221.cgi.
3. Upload mt-upgrade221.cgi to your webserver in ASCII mode into the directory containing mt.cgi.
4. CHMOD mt-upgrade221.cgi to 755
5. Run mt-upgrade221.cgi from your web browser. It should list the "alter table" statements that it is performing, then tell you that "all went well". If so, you're upgraded successfully, and you can delete mt-upgrade221.cgi from your server.

If you have already upgraded, and you are not using the MySQL support:
It is not urgent that you upgrade to 2.21, although there are some other small bug fixes in this release. Note: if you're not using MySQL, you don't have to run mt-dbupgrade221.cgi.

Here's the full changelog. The upgrade and full install for 2.21 can be download from the download page.

Movable Type 2.2 is now available for download.

Amongst the small fixes and improvements documented in the changelog, there are two very large new features with this release.

• TrackBack is a framework for peer-to-peer communication between weblogs; it can track cross-weblog discussions, it can provide remote content repositories, it can emulate guest authoring, etc. A more detailed introduction to TrackBack is available here. Please read through the documentation to learn how to set up TrackBack on your blog.
• The system can now use a MySQL database for backend data storage, as an alternative to the Berkeley DB storage. If you are installing Movable Type for the first time, you'll have the option of installing the Berkeley DB version or the MySQL version. If you're upgrading, we've included a conversion script to transfer your data from Berkeley DB to MySQL.

The other big change is this website. We've reorganized the content, improved the FAQ, and modified the terms of the commercial license. Please let us know if you find problems on the new site.

And, as always, please export your blogs before upgrading. Believe me, the time spent doing this will surely be less than any time spent trying to fix problems with your data (if something does go wrong, that is).

Update Thanks to all who replied. We've got a good number of testers lined up now.

Are you currently a Movable Type user?

Do you have a lot of free time this weekend? And if so, are you interested in beta-testing version 2.2? If so, please send me an email noting how much time you have to devote to testing, how long you've been using MT and if your server supports (hint, hint) MySQL databases.