Hello,
On January 5th 2010, I downloaded and installed MT 5.01. I like it, however, I designed custom templates for the main index.html and the style sheet. I just cannot get the application to work with my templates. I found instructions on the Movable Type site and it gives me these key codes to paste in place of one of my post.
<MTEntries>
<h2><a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a></h2>
<div><$MTEntryAuthorLink$> on <$MTEntryDate format="%x % X"$></div>
<MTIf tag="EntryBody">
<$MTEntryBody$>
</MTIf>
</MTEntries>
This is the code I found in the instructions
The page I found these directions in http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/designer/creating-themes-for-movable-type.html Titled: Roll Your Own Theme
It suggest I replace one of my entry titles with with the mttitle code above and to replace the body with mtbody code and so on down the line for the rest of the code. I have, and in a whole bunch of different ways to no avail. I usually end up with my style formatting messed up. Or at times my style formatting in tack but with the post I have replaced tags with being duplicated twice and even at one time three times on the same page.
I also cannot post any new entries when I follow the directions. I imagine I am not understanding the directions correctly. The last time I customized my templates and style sheets on the Movable Type program was back with 2.6. It was very easy back then, as the default template was easy to figure out, now, the default template is all just MT tags, you have to post some entries, publish and then view your published sites source code and copy it to your text editor to work with it. Thats ok and simple enough, but how do you integrate the above tags into your customized template before replacing the default template with the customized one? That is my problem.
I recently upgraded late last year from 2.6 to 4.3. I did not bother attempting to customize 4.3 since I saw that MT 5 would be out in January. Well now I have MT 5 installed and have customized templates ready to roll, but cannot get them up. Or actually, I can get them up and running and looking like I want them, but I cannot make them work. No post will post. That is when I found the directions listed above, but I still cannot figure out exactly how to integrate the code above into my custom templates.
Is there anyone out there that can assist me? I refreshed all the templates on my site in the mean time until I hopefully can get some help. Also the topic of instructions I have been following on the page I linked to above is titled Roll Your Own Theme. Another thing, the default template in Movable Type 5, the one with the mt-entries is not the same as the one above, this is what I find in my sites current default 5.0 template index.html.
This is my current code in MT 5's default template <mt:Entries>
<mt:Ignore><!-- Use the Entry Summary module for each entry published on this page --></mt:Ignore>
<$mt:Include module="Entry Summary"$>
</mt:Entries>
As you can see it is quite different. I need more simplified or clear detailed directions. I certainly hope there is someone out there who can help.
Thanks a million in advance,
Richard
ralopez1@msn.com
Reported on Movable Type 5
Richard,
Lots has changed since 2.6, and yet the core of MT hasn't changed since then. The template tags that you're used to seeing have just bee moved. Previously, if you wanted to make a change to how an entry was displayed, you had to update 4-6 different places where your various templates would invoke the <$MTEntryBody$> tag. Now, instead of having that code duplicated across multiple templates, they've centralized some code. Now, you only need to update it in one place, and it will show wherever you're using that code - it's far handier and easier to update.
If you notice, when you're modifying the default entry template in MT5, look over on the right side, and you'll see a link to the Entry Summary module. If you click on that link, you'll see all the tags you previously saw (and lots more). That's the place you're probably looking for to make your modifications.
Although the templates are now more compartmentalized and separated, if you choose, you can certainly go back to the old method, and use the tags right in the template as opposed to utilizing template modules. There's a lot to learn when upgrading 3 generations of Movable Type in one fell swoop. The best I can say is to go through trial and error. Post bite-sized questions to the forums and we'll be happy to thelp you out.