MT Blogroll Manual

MT Blogroll began as a simple link manager but has now evolved into much more. Create unlimited blogrolls. Importing links from other link managers, Bloglines and del.icio.us. Group links using categories and tag them too. Using bookmarklets you can add a link to your blogroll with one click and the blogroll sidebar allows you to easily browse through your blogroll.

The best feature however is MT Blogroll's integration with external services. MT Blogroll can first ping Technorati and PingoMatic for last update times of links in your blogroll. It can perform two-way synching with del.icio.us such that links added to MT Blogroll are automatically added to del.icio.us and vice versa. And it can integrate with your digg account such that links you digg are automatically added to MT Blogroll.

All of this is available through an extremely polished interface that fits right into Movable Type and with easy to use template tags you can publish your blogroll in your templates.

MT Blogroll is free for personal users, however, a donation of $ is greatly appreciated. Commercial users are encouraged to support this plugin by donating at least $

Prerequisites

You must have:

1. Movable Type 3.3 or higher.

Download

To download MT Blogroll, select the download format you would like, .zip files are good for Windows servers while .tar.gz files are good for Unix/Mac servers.

Select download format:
.zip (Good for Windows servers) .tar.gz (Good for Unix/Mac servers)

Installation

Extract the distribution and preserve the directories. The directories that have been extracted correspond to the directories in your Movable Type installation. Upload these directories to your Movable Type installation such that file structure looks like so:

MT_DIR/
|__ mt-static/
|  \__ plugins/
|     \__ Blogroll/
|       |__ styles.css
|       |
|       |__ images/
|         |__ bookmarklet.gif
|         |__ dashboard.gif
|         |__ icon-arrow.gif
|         |__ icon-minus.gif
|         |__ icon-plus.gif
|         |__ icon-quickadd.gif
|         |__ integration.gif
|         |__ tags.gif
|
|__ php/
|  \__ plugins/
|     |__ block.MTBlogrollCategories.php
|     |__ block.MTBlogrollLinkCategories.php
|     |__ block.MTBlogrollLinkIfTagged.php
|     |__ block.MTBlogrollLinkIfUpdated.php
|     |__ block.MTBlogrollLinks.php
|     |__ block.MTBlogrollLinkTags.php
|     |__ block.MTBlogrollTags.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollCategoryCount.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollCategoryDesc.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollCategoryDescription.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollCategoryID.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollCategoryLabel.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkBlogAuthor.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkCategory.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkDate.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkDesc.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkDescription.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkID.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkModifiedDate.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkName.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkPriority.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkRel.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkTarget.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkUpdated.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkURI.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollLinkURL.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollTagCount.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollTagID.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollTagName.php
|     |__ function.MTBlogrollTagRank.php
|
|__ plugins/
   \__ Blogroll/
     |__ Blogroll.pl
     |__ mt-blogroll.cgi
     |
     |__ tmpl/
     |  |__ add_bm.tmpl
     |  |__ bookmarklets.tmpl
     |  |__ categories.tmpl
     |  |__ debug.tmpl
     |  |__ edit.tmpl
     |  |__ edit_category.tmpl
     |  |__ edit_placements.tmpl
     |  |__ entry_prefs.tmpl
     |  |__ footer-popup.tmpl
     |  |__ footer.tmpl
     |  |__ header-popup.tmpl
     |  |__ header.tmpl
     |  |__ import.tmpl
     |  |__ import_end.tmpl
     |  |__ import_start.tmpl
     |  |__ init.tmpl
     |  |__ integration.tmpl
     |  |__ list.tmpl
     |  |__ list_power_edit.tmpl
     |  |__ list_sidebar.tmpl
     |  |__ list_tags.tmpl
     |  |__ login.tmpl
     |  |__ settings.tmpl
     |  |__ tags.tmpl
     |
     |__ lib/
        |__ Blogroll/
        |  |__ App/
        |  |  |__ CMS.pm
        |  |  |__ Update.pm
        |  |
        |  |__ Category.pm
        |  |__ Links.pm
        |  |__ Placement.pm
        |  |
        |  |__ Template/
        |     \__ ContextHandlers.pm
        |
        |__ Config/
        |  \__ Simple.pm
        |
        |__ Date/
        |  |__ Format.pm
        |  |__ Language.pm
        |  |__ Parse.pm 
        |  |
        |  |__ Language/
        |     |__ Afar.pm
        |     |__ Amharic.pm
        |     |__ Austrian.pm
        |     |__ Brazilian.pm
        |     |__ Chinese_GB.pm
        |     |__ Czech.pm
        |     |__ Danish.pm
        |     |__ Dutch.pm
        |     |__ English.pm
        |     |__ Finnish.pm
        |     |__ French.pm
        |     |__ Gedeo.pm
        |     |__ German.pm
        |     |__ Greek.pm
        |     |__ Italian.pm
        |     |__ Norwegian.pm
        |     |__ Oromo.pm
        |     |__ Sidama.pm
        |     |__ Somali.pm
        |     |__ Swedish.pm
        |     |__ Tigrinya.pm
        |     |__ TigrinyaEritrean.pm
        |     |__ TigrinyaEthiopian.pm
        |
        |__ DateTime/
        |  \__ Format/
        |     \__ Mail.pm
        |
        |__ IO/
        |  |__ AtomicFile.pm
        |  |__ InnerFile.pm
        |  |__ Lines.pm
        |  |__ Scalar.pm
        |  |__ Scalar.pm.html
        |  |__ ScalarArray.pm
        |  |__ Stringy.pm
        |  |__ Wrap.pm
        |  |__ WrapTie.pm
        |
        |__ Log/
        |  |__ Dispatch.pm
        |  |    
        |  |__ Dispatch/
        |     |__ ApacheLog.pm
        |     |__ Base.pm
        |     |__ Email.pm  
        |     |__ File.pm
        |     |__ Handle.pm
        |     |__ Output.pm
        |     |__ Screen.pm
        |     |__ Syslog.pm 
        |     |
        |     |__ Email/
        |     |  |__ MailSend.pm
        |     |  |__ MailSender.pm
        |     |  |__ MailSendmail.pm
        |     |  |__ MIMELite.pm
        |     |
        |     |__ File/
        |        |__ Locked.pm
        |
        |__ Net/
        |  |
        |  |__ Delicious/
        |  |  |__ Bundle.pm
        |  |  |__ Config.pm
        |  |  |
        |  |  |__ Constants/
        |  |  | |__ Api.pm
        |  |  | |__ Config.pm
        |  |  | |__ Pause.pm
        |  |  | |__ Response.pm
        |  |  | |__ Uri.pm
        |  |  |
        |  |  |__ Constants.pm
        |  |  |__ Date.pm
        |  |  |__ Iterator.pm
        |  |  |__ Object.pm
        |  |  |__ Post.pm
        |  |  |__ Subscription.pm
        |  |  |__ Tag.pm
        |  |  |__ User.pm
        |  |
        |  |__ Delicious.pm
        |
        |__ Time/
        |  \__ Zone.pm
        |
        |__ URI/
        |  |__ Escape.pm
        |  |__ Title.pm
        |
        |__ XML/
        |  |__ Simple.pm    
        |  |
        |  |__ OPML/
        |  |  \__ SimpleGen.pm
        |  |
        |  |__ Simple/
        |     \__ FAQ.pod
        |
        |__ YAML/
        |  |__ Error.pm
        |  |__ Family.pm
        |  |__ Node.pm
        |  |__ Transfer.pm
        |
        |__ YAML.pm
        |__ YAML.pod

If successfully installed, MT Blogroll will appear in the Plugin Listing under System Overview like so:

and you can access the Dashboard by either clicking the plugin's name or clicking Settings. Each Blogroll can be accessed by going to a blog's main menu and under Plugin Actions clicking the Edit My Blogroll link:

The Interface

Dashboard

The Dashboard is similar to Movable Type's System Overview page. From here, you can keep track of MT Blogroll news, statistics and create bookmarklets.

Each blog in Movable Type has it's own separate blogroll. To access a blogroll, use:

• the pull down menu at the top of the screen on the Dashboard
• the Edit My Blogroll link on a blog's main menu in Movable Type

Listing

This screen lists all the links in the current blogroll in an interface that is very similar to Movable Type's entry and comment listings. Information about each link including its name, description, url, category, priority and hidden status is displayed. Clicking on a link's name will take you to the editing page where you can edit the link's details. Checkboxes at the side allow you to select and delete links from the blogroll. The graphic at the end of each row will take you to the website linked.

The listing can be manipulated in several ways:

• Filtering - Similar to Movable Type listings, links can be filtered by several criteria:
  • status - you can filter links based on whether they've been marked as visible or hidden
  • category - you can filter links based on the category they've been assigned to
  • tag - you can filter links based on their tags
• Display Options - Here you can customize how the listing appears:
  • show - you can specify the number of links to display per page
  • view - allows you to choose between compact and expanded views. In the expanded view, the description and author of the links are also displayed.
  • sorting - you can customize the sorting of the links by priority, name and created on date and in ascending or descending order

The Open Batch Editor link will open the Power Editing Mode.

Editing

This screen allows you to add and edit links in your blogroll. The page contains a variety of different fields that can store information about your links and are grouped by functionality:

• Priority - this field allows you define a custom sort order for your links i.e. if you want your links to always appear in a certain order

• Hide - this checkbox allows you to have private links that will not be published on your blog but will be visible from the admin interface of MT Blogroll.

• Name - The name or title of the link

• URI - The URI (or URL) of the link

• Authors - The name(s) of the author(s) of the link

• Description - A short description of the link

• XFN Relationships - Using the XFN generator, you can define a human relationship with the link. Read more about XFN here

• Category - This drop down menu allows you to assign a primary category to a link (similar to assigning a primary category to an entry in Movable Type). The link underneath the drop down menu will allow you to choose more categories to assign to this link.

• Tags - You can also tag your links. Tags are another way to classify your links and are less structured than categories. More information on tagging

• Target - This field allows you to define the target of the link - determines which window in a user's browser the link will open:

  • _self will open it in the same window
  • _blank will cause the link to be opened in a new window
  • _parent is used in a webpage with frames and makes the link load in the immediate frameset parent of this document
  • _top is also used in conjunction with frames and makes the link load in the full body of the window.

An easy way to add links to your blogroll is to use the Quick Add box underneath the breadcrumbs. This box is available throughout MT Blogroll. Simply enter a URL and MT Blogroll will fetch all the details it can (typically the name, description and authors) and add the link to your blogroll.

Categories

This screen lists the link categories you have created. It display's each category's name, description and the number of links assigned to the category, if you click on this, you will be taken to the listing page which will display all links assigned to this category.

Click the category name to edit the category.

Tags

The blogroll tag listing screen is identical to Movable Type's similar screen. Tags used on the blogroll are listed here. To rename or merge tags:

1. Navigate to your blogroll's tag listing screen by clicking the Tags link found in the Manage section of the sidebar navigation menu.

2. Within your blogroll's tag listing table, locate and click the tag that you wish to edit. This will open a tag editing field for the selected tag.

3. Modify or rename the tag as desired.

4. Click the Rename button to the right of the editing field to save your change. All links containing the renamed tag will reflect this name change.

To merge tags, rename the tag to match the name of the second tag with which you wish it to merge.

Integration

MT Blogroll is capable of integrating with several services to make link management easier.

Update Times

MT Blogroll is able to get the times links on your blogroll were last updated. This can either be retrieved from Pingomatic or Technorati.

The gathering of update times is configured from this screen. It can be configured on both the system level (i.e. applying to all blogrolls) or on the blogroll level (such that only the blogroll is updated). To enable the gathering of update times:

1. Check the box to Enable the gathering of update times
2. Choose a service to get the update times from. Currently MT Blogroll is capable of gathering the update times from Pingomatic or Technorati. We recommend you use PingoMatic as the service seems to return update times for a greater number of blogs and responds faster than Technorati. If you choose Technorati as the service, you will enter an API Key which can be obtained from the Technorati Developers website. Note: If you use Technorati, you can make a maximum of 500 requests per day.
3. Chose a duration. The value of this field will be used to evaluate the MTBlogrollLinkIfUpdated tag - the tag compares the time of rebuild to the link's last update time and if the difference is within the duration selected, the tag is evaluated as true.

By default, MT Blogroll registers a task with Movable Type to run a maximum of once an hour. This task can be triggered by the Activity Feeds feature in Movable Type.

Del.icio.us

MT Blogroll is capable of integrating with del.icio.us and can be configured from this screen. Del.icio.us integration can be configured on a blogroll level:

1. Enable the integration by checking the box which will reveal the rest of the options that can be configured.
2. Enter your del.icio.us username and password
3. Finally, choose an author from the Synch As drop down menu. This author will gain ownership of any links imported from del.icio.us

Hit Save and del.icio.us integration will be enabled hence from now on those links you add to MT Blogroll will get added to del.icio.us. To enable two-way integration, MT Blogroll registers a task to synch with del.icio.us (and thus download links added to del.icio.us). This task runs a maximum of once per day and can be triggered using the Activity Feeds feature in Movable Type.

Digg

MT Blogroll is capable of integrating with digg.com and can be configured from this screen. Digg integration can be configured on a blogroll level:

1. Enable the integration by checking the box which will reveal the rest of the options that can be configured.
2. Enter your Digg username
3. Choose an author from the Synch As drop down menu. This author will gain ownership of any links imported from digg
4. When MT Blogroll downloads links from Digg, it might find a conflict (i.e. a link downloaded from Digg might already exist in MT Blogroll). The Override checkbox allows you to control what will be done during a conflict. If checked, the link from digg will override the one stored in MT Blogroll, otherwise the dugg duplicate will be ignored.

Hit Save and del.icio.us integration will be enabled hence from now on those links you add to MT Blogroll will get added to del.icio.us. To enable two-way integration, MT Blogroll registers a task to synch with del.icio.us (and thus download links added to del.icio.us). This task runs a maximum of once per day and can be triggered using the Activity Feeds feature in Movable Type.

Importing

From this screen, you can import your links from a variety of other link managers. Links can be imported in two ways:

Importing via OPML

MT Blogroll is capable of importing OPML files. OPML files are files that contain information about a group of links, most feed readers and link managers allow you to export your links to an OPML file. More information on OPML is available at the [http://www.opml.org/ OPML website]. To import links via OPML:

1. If your OPML file in online, enter the url to the OPML file in the OPML URL field; this URL should be a full URL including the domain name, for example http://www.example.com/links.opml. Blogrolling users can find their OPML URL in the Get Code section of the Member Panel.

2. If the OPML file is on your computer, choose it by clicking the Browse button

3. Choose a category to which imported links will automatically be assigned. This field is optional and if no value is selected then imported links will not be assigned to any category.

4. Hit Import Links and after links have been imported, you will be taken to the blogoroll listing. A rebuild is necessary to have the links show up on your site.

Importing from Bloglines

MT Blogroll is capable of importing directly from [http://www.bloglines.com Bloglines]. To import from Bloglines, simply enter your Bloglines username (not the email you use to login) and hit Import Links. After links have been imported, you will be taken to the blogoroll listing. A rebuild is necessary to have the links show up on your site.

If you are unsure of your Bloglines username, log into Bloglines and go to the My Feeds section. In the right hand pane, click the Share tab and note down the value of the Your User Name field - this is the value you need to enter into MT Blogroll.

Importing from Delicious

To import links from del.icio.us into MT Blogroll:

1. Enter your del.icio.us username and password
2. Select a default category for these links to be assigned to. This is not required
3. Click Import Links and your links will be imported from del.icio.us

Exporting

Your links can be exported by MT Blogroll from the Export screen. To export links, simply click the button choose a location to save this file. Links are exported in the OPML formatted which means it can be re-imported into MT Blogroll or many other link managers or feed readers.

Bookmarklets

MT Blogroll offers a variety of bookmarklets to make adding to and viewing your blogroll a piece of cake. A bookmarklet is essentially a browser favourite or bookmark but with some javascript. MT Blogroll offers two bookmarklets:

Blogroll It!

Similar to Movable Type's Quickpost bookmarklet, MT Blogroll's Blogroll It! bookmarklet allows you to add links to your blogroll in a click.

Creating the bookmarklet is quite simple. Simply choose the fields you would like displayed in the Blogroll It! window and then hit Create. By default, a Blogroll It! window will always have:

• a pulldown menu for the blogroll to post to
• a pulldown menu to select the status (visible or hidden) of the link
• a text entry box for the name of the link
• text entry box for the link's URI.

After clicking Create, you will be given a link for the Blogroll It! bookmarklet. Simply drag this to your browser's bookmarks toolbar or bookmarks folder to create the bookmarklet. To use Blogroll It! simply click the bookmarklet and a window will be created with several fields filled in. Choose a blogroll to add the link to and fill in the rest of the fields and once you're done hit Save. The link will be added to the blogroll and you'll get a prompt to rebuild (only after a rebuild will the new link show up on your blog's pages).

Blogroll Sidebar

MT Blogroll also contains a sidebar bookmarklet. Simply install the bookmarklet by dragging the appropriate link (for the browser you are using) to your browser's bookmarks bar or bookmarks folder. On clicking the bookmarklet, your browser's sidebar will open with the MT Blogroll sidebar loaded and you can easily browse through your blogrolls.

Template Tags

The following template tags are available and need to be used in your templates to display your blogroll. These template tags can be used in both static and dynamic templates.

• MTBlogrollLinks
  • MTBlogrollLinkID - Each link in MT Blogroll is given a unique ID. This tag displays the ID of the link.
  • MTBlogrollLinkURL - A link's URL.
  • MTBlogrollLinkName - A link's name or title.
  • MTBlogrollLinkBlogAuthor - The name of the person who authors the link
  • MTBlogrollLinkDescription - A link's description.
  • <MTBlogrollLinkRel - A link's XFN Relationship. It should be used within an anchor tag like so <a href="<MTBlogrollEntryURI>" rel="<MTBlogrollEntryRel>">...</a>
  • MTBlogrollLinkIfRel
  • MTBlogrollLinkPriority - A link's priority
  • MTBlogrollLinkDate
  • MTBlogrollLinkModifiedDate
  • MTBlogrollLinkCategory - The name of a link's primary category
  • MTBlogrollLinkCategories
  • MTBlogrollLinkTarget - A link's target
  • MTBlogrollLinkUpdated - The most recent time a link was updated. You must configure Update Times Gathering first.
  • MTBlogrollLinkIfUpdated
  • BlogrollLinkTags
  • BlogrollLinkIfTagged
• MTBlogrollCategories
  • MTBlogrollCategoryLabel - The name of the category
  • MTBlogrollCategoryDescription - The description of the category.
• MTBlogrollTags
  • MTBlogrollTagID - Each tag is given a unique ID which can be display with this tag.
  • MTBlogrollTagName
  • BlogrollTagCount - Provides a count of the links that a tag in context assigned to them.
  • BlogrollTagRank

A Powered by MT Blogroll link will appear at the end of every blogroll listing. License holders and donors will receive instructions on how to remove this link.

Examples

This first one is a simple listing of all the links in your blogroll. For each link, the link's description is shown in the tooltip when someone hovers over the link and the link's relationship and target are also added if values have been entered.

<div class="module-archives module">
<h2 class="module-header">Blogroll</h2>
<div class="module-content">
<ul class="module-list">
<MTBlogrollLinks>
<li class="module-list-item"><a href="<$MTBlogrollLinkURI$>" title="<MTBlogrollLinkDesc>"<MTIfNonEmpty tag="BlogrollLinkRel"> rel="<MTBlogrollLinkRel>"</MTIfNonEmpty> <MTIfNonEmpty tag="BlogrollLinkTarget">target="<MTBlogrollLinkTarget>"</MTIfNonEmpty>><$MTBlogrollLinkName$></a></li>
</MTBlogrollLinks>
</ul>
</div>
</div>

This next block is useful for those that like to show update times on your blogroll. This code block will list all the links in your current blogroll and for each link, a star (*) will be added to the beginning of each link if it has been recently updated. The link's last update time is shown in the tooltip but if no update time is available for the link, its description is shown in the tooltip. Like the above code block, the link's relationship and target are also added if values have been entered.

<div class="module-archives module">
<h2 class="module-header">Blogroll</h2>
<div class="module-content">
<ul class="module-list">
<MTBlogrollLinks>
<li class="module-list-item"><MTBlogrollLinkIfUpdated>*</MTBlogrollLinkIfUpdated> <a href="<$MTBlogrollLinkURI$>" title="<MTIfNonEmpty tag="BlogrollLinkUpdated">Last Update: <MTBlogrollLinkUpdated><MTElse><MTBlogrollLinkDesc></MTElse></MTIfNonEmpty>"<MTIfNonEmpty tag="BlogrollLinkRel"> rel="<MTBlogrollLinkRel>"</MTIfNonEmpty> <MTIfNonEmpty tag="BlogrollLinkTarget">target="<MTBlogrollLinkTarget>"</MTIfNonEmpty>><$MTBlogrollLinkName$></a></li>
</MTBlogrollLinks>
</ul>
<p>* denotes a recently updated blog</p>
</div>
</div>

Previous Versions

MT Blogroll is only compatible with Movable Type 3.3 and above. If you use a previous version of Movable Type, check the list below for a compatible version:

• MT Blogroll 2.12 - Compatible with Movable Type 3.2

Support

MT Blogroll is free for personal users, however, a donation of $ is greatly appreciated. Commercial users are encouraged to support this plugin by donating at least $

For support, visit the forums

Personal Users

MT Blogroll is free for personal users, however, a donation of at least $ is greatly appreciated.

If you have a problem installing or using MT Blogroll, visit our forums

Commercial Users

You can download, install and try a fully functional version of MT Blogroll for a 30-day evaluation period. If, after this period, you wish to continue using the plugin, you are expected to purchase a commercial license for $. Purchasing a commerial license entitles you to priority support via The Helpdesk.

Enterprise Users

You can download, install and try a fully functional version of MT Blogroll for a 30-day evaluation period. If, after this period, you wish to continue using the plugin, you are expected to purchase an enterprise license for $. Purchasing an enterprise license entitles you to priority support via The Helpdesk.