I used to make HTML sites, but know very little about MT, so sorry for what may turn out to be stupid questions.
I have a company website in MT5.11 (kurodahan.com). It features several blogs, any of which is fine for this discussion. I want to take the entire site setup (excluding displayed entries and stuff), just the design, the CSS files, the bitmaps and such necessary to make a new site that looks the same, and put it on a new domain. I don't mind if entries are copied as well, because they can just be deleted later easily enough.
As it happens, both domains are virtual and hosted at pair.com, simplifying a lot of tasks. I can even (if I wish) use the same MT installation for both websites (but suspect this would not be a good idea).
I realize some of the filepaths will point to the old website; that fine, because I can just search for them and change them to the new domain. If the structure is the same, it should all still work in theory.
So the question is, is this possible? And if so, is there any information on how I might go about it somewhere?
Alternately, if there isn't much information on this, what would you charge me to do it?
Thanks for your time
Edward Lipsett
Reported on Movable Type 5
This is something I'm looking into as well, as our company moves to Wordpress. I'll definitely report back on what I know.
Just to be sure, I want to open the new site in MT5 as well... everything is the same except the domain name!
Perhaps MT wasn't the right choice, considering I know nothing about it, but unfortunately the choice was made for me.
Thanks, Tyler.
Edward, you should definitely use the same MT install (as far as I know). That was MT's strong point way back when.
MT does not make it easy to create a new site, however. But I'd suggest you do these things:
1. Copy the relevant CSS files over (or just use full URL's to reference the old ones, if you want them to both be tied to each other for good).
2. Create relevant New Templates in the MT Install and specify the correct output files (basically copying from the old site). Then copy over the contents of each template, replacing links (of course).
3. Copy over the relevant Archive templates.
This should get you almost there if you're sticking with MT.
Good luck and Cheers!
The reason is was planning on NOT using the same MT install (although it would be the same version) is that then all the MT background bits and pieces are shared between the two domains. While I want to copy them now, they will evolve in different directions, and it would be -- painful -- to change something in one website and discover that it had mutated in the other.
Hi Edwards,
I would recommend you to backup your movable type database and installation files (cgi and mt-static).
When backing up your installation, don't do it from inside Pair ACC because if you do it that way, the database is going to contain the database name, and a command called "USE $DB NAME$".
That means, that when you would like to import that database content inside a database with a different name, it won't work.
So, from inside the Pair ACC go to the databases, then inside your current database, then go to manage it and open up phpmyadmin.
From there, select all the tables and pick export. This is going to export only the database content, not also its name and the USE command.
Then backup your installation CGI folder and mt-static one. Remember to always handle the CGI files in ASCII mode.
Once the above is done, you could create a new database, go inside it with phpmyadmin and import your saved database tables.
You could also upload the CGI folder and mt-static under your 2nd domain site path.
Point the mt-config.cgi file to the new details (domain name, database details etc.).
Login inside movable type and before anything else, at each blog level settings, change the URL and the site path to match your 2nd domain, where you're now installing MT.
If your blog is large, you will have to wait a bit for this process to be completed. If it hangs with an error, it would be good if you update the paths at the database level from inside phpmyadmin (you should know that the paths are inside a few tables, not just one or two).
When everything is done, you could go ahead and delete the entries so that you will remain only with the design (templates, images and css files), as per your requirement.
Kind Regards,
Mihai Bocsaru
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Web Development
Movable Type Consulting
Six Apart Partner
http://www.pro-it-service.com/
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Movable Type Demo
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Thank you, Mihai,
That's a bit over my head, I'm afraid... I've hired a designer to make a new site.