Major features in Beta-3

Major features of this release include:

• Feeds.app Lite

  Movable Type users have long desired for a way to easily include content from other blogs onto their own. Feeds.app, created by Movable Type developer Tim Appnel, is the best and most widely used plugin for this purpose. In fact, it's so good that we joined forces with Tim to create and bundle for your feed-publishing pleasure the new Feeds.app Lite plugin.

  With Feeds.app Lite, you can easily re-publish feeds from other sources on your blog. What's more, it works seamlessly out of the box with WidgetManager (also introduced in Movable Type 3.3) so management of that content is drag-and-drop easy. We thank Tim for his tireless dedication and this fantastic functionality which is sure to be used by an incredibly large number of feed-hungry Movable Type bloggers.

• The Movable Type configuration wizard

  In every release we seek to stremaline the installation, upgrade and configuration processes for Movable Type. In Beta-2 we introduced the new, slim mt-config.cgi which was intended to more accurately reflect the ease with which Movable Type can be configured. In Beta-3 we go a step further by introducing the still-experimental Movable type Configuration Wizard.

  Upon installation of Movable Type, running mt-wizard.cgi will start the process of configuration discovery for items such as StaticWebPath, database connection information, sendmail/SMTP setup. The wizard will automatically test your settings along the way to make sure that everything is kosher. Then, when you're all done, the wizard will write out your configuration for you, if permissions allow. The whole process is so easy and painless that we think it's a shame that you only use it once.

• Open source plugins

  If it weren't already obvious by the large number of CPAN and open-source contributions we make at Six Apart which are used by tens (hundreds?) of millions of people usually without even realizing it, we're big fans of open source. We're also big fans of our developers and the number one way that developers learn about the Movable Type APIs is through the code.

  That's why we're happy to officially announce that all plugins created by the Movable Type team and bundled with the application are licensed under the Artistic License, the same license that Perl itself uses. This means that developers can learn from and even leverage the work we've done in StyleCatcher, SpamLookup, GoogleSearch, WidgetManager, TemplateRefresh and nofollow for their own purposes, saving them time and also propagating the best practices employed by the people who work on Movable Type every single day.

Other features in Beta-3

Other features and improvements in this release include:

• Lots of improvement to messaging within the application to clarify functionality such as notifications, import/export, StyleCatcher, deletion of authors and more
• Massive improvements in internationalization/localization for both plugins and in the application.
• The smooth operation of entry tag autocompletion even in Safari!
• Bundling of the GoogleSearch plugin
• Entry tags are now included in feeds and all other templates where entries are listed.
• Usability improvements in both StyleCatcher and WidgetManager
• Completion of full support for title-less entries (Hi Dan Sanderson and Rebecca Blood!)

Notable bug fixes in Beta-3

As always, there are bug fixes and in Beta-3 there are many. However, there are two notable ones which may interest many of you who were affected in Beta-2:

• Important fixes to MTEntries attributes, especially under dynamic publishing and in employing the category, tag and include_subcategories attributes.
• Better detection for changes to entries and templates for the purposes of triggering the unsaved changes warning

You can see all of the changes in the Beta-3 release notes. And as always, if you encounter any bugs in the program, please submit them as soon as you can! Release time draws near...