Movable Type 3.16 released

We've just launched Movable Type 3.16, which we previewed to Professional Network members on the email list and members-only blog last week. We've heard a lot of good feedback from you about Movable Type since the launch of the Professional Network a few months ago, and this release addresses many of your requests.

The focus for Movable Type 3.16 is on code quality and cleaning up little issues and bugs that have crept into the code base, either in the past year or, in some cases, since Movable Type was first released.

To get started, you can get Movable Type now, or log in to your account to upgrade. Or, read on to find out more details.

A solid, high-quality platform

First, above all you've told us that you want a solid, predictable and reliable platform. As plugin developers and professionals working on weblog deployment we want to make sure you have the most reliable platform possible. With the significant platform changes made in Movable Type with the 3.0 release and the addition of large new areas of functionality with dynamic publishing and subcategories in version 3.1, we've added a lot of new features. With the release of 3.16, we're working to make sure all that functionality is as reliable as possible.

Blog once, run everywhere

Second, you told us that you deploy Movable Type in multiple environments, ranging from test deployments on localhost on your laptop, to staging on workgroup servers running IIS, to production environments on LAMP. Movable Type's support for multiple operating systems, databases and web servers, adds up to well over 8,000 possible supported configurations.

With all those variables in mind, we've made a concerted effort to make sure the platform runs well everywhere. Windows admins will find that configuration URLs for plugins work correctly now, Atom and XML-RPC endpoints work better on Windows, plugin developers won't have to write convoluted code to handle Windows servers properly, and more features work identically regardless of where you're deploying. And with all the focus being given to SQLite these days, we've made our SQLite support a first-class peer to other databases for those who are not able, or don't want, to run a full database server.

Movable Type 3.16 includes the a new version of the nofollow plugin by default, with a newly-added configuration screen which allows you to disable the plugin or exercise more control over how links are modified.

The nofollow plugin is being released with a Perl Artistic license so that you can make improvements to it or use it as a base for your own plugin development work. Several of our best practices recommendations for plugins are demonstrated in this plugin, and we'll be expanding our documentation to show you how to work from this base for your own work.

Better reliability

The 3.16 release of the Movable Type platform makes a significant number of security enhancements and improvements to the core of the application, marking this as a highly recommended update for Movable Type installations. In addition, improvements to internationalization support make it easier to post in the application regardless of your language of choice. And improvements to the TypeKey implementation solve many of the user experience issues faced by commenters on Movable Type-powered sites.

In addition to these fixes, we've added more than a hundred more tweaks, updates, and fixes to the platform, all of which make it easier to count on Movable Type for your needs as a weblog professional.

In short, we're recommitting to code quality with this release, to reduce the number of .01 (or .001) bug fix versions of Movable Type which you have to deal with. This should be a welcome change for web hosts and a great way to reduce hassles for everyone who maintains Movable Type installations.

More to come

This release positions Movable Type for the rapid evolution we're planning, allowing us to build and release our new features on a solid, stable platform. We'll also be accompanying the platform releases with improved documentation, additional guides like our Guide to Combating Comment Spam, and more information on building your career with blogs and Movable Type.