We've seen an amazing response to the release of Movable Type Pro and Movable Type 4.2. As with any project of this scope, we have discovered a few small but significant issues, which are addressed by our release of the Movable Type 4.21 update last week.

Full details of the 4.21 update are available on movabletype.org, the community site that's a companion to this official product site. The issues resolved between 4.2 and 4.21 are particularly important for customers using Custom Fields or extensive template mappings.

Below you'll find the Movable Type Update Advisor. If you are using a version of MT prior to 4.2, this guide makes it easy to plan your move to Movable Type 4.2.

Move from MT 4.1 or earlier to Version 4.21

• Release Type: Feature Release, with significant new features, improved performance, and enhanced security.
• Mandatory? Strongly Recommended for all MT users on all versions, especially those concerned about performance.
• Performance Implications: Expect significant performance increase. This release provides publishing improvements of 2x to 3x on unmodified templates, and search speeds can improve up to 100x. Administrators can further enhance performance with a few simple optimizations.
• Plugins Affected: None that we are aware of — all MT4.x plugins should work in MT 4.21. Some plugins should be updated to newer versions to take advantage of features in this release.
• Templates Affected: No changes in your templates are required. Taking advantage of some new features in MT 4.2 and MT Pro can require optional template modifications.
• System Requirements: This release has no new or additional system requirements. Many configurations will find decreased system requirements, especially around memory usage.
• Licensing considerations: Smooth sailing. MT 4.21 is a free update for users of any version of MT 4.0. MT Pro is a free update for all paying users of MT 4.x and is a free download for bloggers.
• Upgrade Fatigue: No planned updates are scheduled until the next feature release of MT4. This will only change if significant security issues are found which require a 4.2x release.

Downloads are available in your account for current customers or through the download page.

Want to know more?

To learn more, read our announcement post about Movable Type Pro and version 4.2, or check out "It raises the bar", our roundup of the critical reaction to MT Pro's launch.

To find out more about the specific fixes between 4.2 and 4.21, view the version 4.21 update announcement. And consult the Movable Type documentation for information about the new release, including what's new in Movable Type 4.2.

Today, we're releasing the latest update to Movable Type, version 4.2, and along with it we're announcing the launch of Movable Type Pro, a profoundly powerful new set of capabilities that shows the web where blogging is going next.

So, what's new in this release?

• Movable Type Pro lets you turn any site into a full social publishing platform, combining all of Movable Type's abilities as a blogging and CMS with social networking features like profiles, ratings, user registration, forums, following, and more.
• The platform upgrade to Movable Type 4.2 fulfills the top three requests made by our community -- it's up to 100 times faster for common tasks, features much simpler templates for customizing your site, and includes 100% free and open source TypePad AntiSpam for keeping junk comments off your site.
• Movable Type Pro includes all of the features in the Movable Type Community Solution and more, giving you all the power of this enormously successful social networking platform. And if you're a personal blogger or have a current MT license, Movable Type Pro is a free update.
• Movable Type remains the most secure publishing platform of its kind. As part of developing these new versions, we completed the most intensive proactive search for security issues in the history of the platform.

First, we set publishing free. Next up, social networks.

These announcements are a milestone for the entire Movable Type community, but they represent a vision that we've been building for years. Almost seven years ago, when Movable Type was first being created, the power of publishing on the web was still largely in the hands of a few giant media companies. In the years since, thanks in no small part to the community of bloggers who got started with Movable Type, that power has been unleashed, making it possible for anyone to publish with all the professionalism and presence of a giant media corporation by using easy-to-use, open tools.

Today, we're bringing the same idea to social networking. Providing social features to your community doesn't mean you have to give up control of your community to a giant media entity. Managing a community online is something you can do yourself, using easy-to-use, open tools.

Enough theory -- here's the features in MT Pro:

• Everyone's invited. You can easily add full-featured forums, community blogs and group blogs to your site, and since Movable Type has always managed an unlimited number of blogs in one interface, you can keep track of all those conversations using a single set of tools.
• Membership. It's easy to allow anyone on the web to register on your site, or to sign in with MT's industry-leading OpenID support. Once they're in, your site's members get full-fledged customizable profiles, personalized user pictures (avatars), and can follow their friends or other site members they're interested in.
• Call it "UGC", if you must. Any member of your community can, with appropriate permissions, submit content for publishing on your site. Administrators have full ability to review submissions, and submitted posts show up on user profiles right next to their comments and other activity. Whether you call it "user-generated content" or just "a good idea", it's built right in.
• Ratings and Recommendations. Any registered user on your site can vote for content they like, making it easy to create "most popular" or "most recommended" lists on your site. You can even create your own voting communities within your site -- think "Digg in a box".

And all of those features are on top of the amazing new powers of MT 4.2:

• It's fast. MT's smart caching only publishes the parts of the page that change, and the core engine's been radically revamped to make it more efficient. The result? Using your current templates, publishing can be two to three times faster, right out of the box. Some testers have seen results with publishing up to ten times as fast or more.
• Templates are super simple. MT has always been designed so you don't need a ton of plugins to do fancy things with your site's design. But with all that power, our community told us that we also needed to make sure templates were still easy to understand. So in MT 4.2, templates are vastly simplified, and easier than ever to customize. And live template previews even let you see design changes before they're published on your site.
• 100% Free AntiSpam. TypePad AntiSpam is the best comment spam prevention service on the web. And it's 100% free no matter how many comments you get, plus it's open source and Akismet API compatible so it's easy to hook up to your site. With MT 4.2, it's also built right in to Movable Type.
• Even better APIs. OpenID suppport, OAuth libraries, and the ability to add in plugins to connect with the iPhone, Action Streams and more are all built right in. And all of your MT4 plugins should keep working just fine with this update, or have been updated to work even better in 4.2.
• Plus all the power of MT4. A powerful built-in asset management system. Integrated widget management. The smartest template editor around. The ability, as always, to manage an unlimited number of blogs and authors all in one place. Industry-leading support for new technologies and features. And an absolutely unparalleled community of passionate developers, designers, bloggers, and experts.

Savannah, Georgia-based website design and development firm Heideldesign uses Movable Type to create award-winning sites for a diverse client base.

Find out more in the Heideldesign Case Study.

Provocative fashion designer Kenneth Cole uses Movable Type to foster social awareness and cultivate spirited conversations on the AWEARNESS Blog.

Find out more in the new AWEARNESS Blog Case Study.

We've been championing blogging in the enterprise for years, so we are thrilled to note that one of the biggest and most respected enterprises in the world is blogging on Movable Type.

Blogs.Oracle.Com (BOC) is managed by the Oracle Technical Network and consists of hundreds of blogs authored by both employees and Oracle partners. Technologists, scientists, marketing professionals, and groups all maintain Movable Type blogs that aggregate up to Blogs.Oracle.Com, and the result is a rich view into the diversity and vitality of the company and its ecosystem.

The technology underlying BOC was developed by Oracle Asia Research and Development Center, a group located in the Asia Pacific that is tasked with creating innovative solutions based on Oracle technology. They chose to implement the Movable Type platform atop Oracle's Content Database to create a scalable network of hundreds of blogs.

Blogs.Oracle.Com is a space where collaboration, communication and knowledge sharing can take place across the enterprise and with partners and customers. Both internal and external blogs enable Oracle teams to interact with each other, vendors and customers quickly and efficiently.

Prior to implementing Movable Type, the company had been using a platform that did not provide RSS capabilities, entry tagging, or the ability to post different types media. Now, as one Oracle blogger writes, "we are finally catching up." And catching up they are - Oracle bloggers are already off to a great start, creating content and developing a dialogue around many key business areas.

Among the blogs on the BOC are a Social CRM blog, the Oracle Open World Blog, and the OTN Tech Blog written by head of the Oracle Technical Network Justin Kestelyn.

Blogging within and without the enterprise - especially on the scale of Blogs.Oracle.Com - is a tremendous show of confidence for this medium, and we look forward to watching Oracle use the Movable Type platform to connect and communicate more powerfully than ever before.