Spanner Wingnut's Muddleware Labs

Windows Live Writer has an odd view of the theme of this page, but I do have it operating now with both nfoCentrale Status and Spanner Wingnut.  That completes the first pent-up item on my Next Generation blog customizations.

The advantage of this, for me, is the ability to have local drafts.  I can also cross-post rather easily using Windows Live Writer to post the local copy to multiple blogs, etc.

I will be doing more customization with Windows Live Writer.  I do need tags as well as images to work.  There may be additional provisions to be concerned about as well.

Right now, I am just happy to have this much working, ending the frustration of my previous efforts.

It is time for a victory lap, a little mt-config.cgi cleanup, and a relaxing evening dinner break.

PS: I am also going to see if automatic trackbacks are working even when I make a post through Windows Live Writer.

Spanner Wingnut is now fully functional.  Format customization and authoring/maintenance improvements can now begin.  This is the foundation for all next-generation nfoCentrale blogs.

At this point,

• Spanner Wingnut is operating as the second Movable Type blog implemented on nfoCentrale.
    
• Comments and Trackbacks are fully functional
     
• A stock Movable Type template is in place with no customization beyond basic layout choice and identification of some categories.
    
• The previous, Blogger-generated Spanner Wingnut posts and archives are preserved in their entirety:
• the last main page 
• the last blog feed
• the one category (label) archive for blog development
• the full set of posts and their archive pages back to the 2004-06-17 initial post 

There is more to do.

Spanner Wingnut now becomes the laboratory for further customization of blogs, including

1. Setup of Windows Live Writer for authoring
      
2. Customization of Templates anc use of plug-ins as a basis for cloning further blogs that are currently dormant
     
3. Confirmation that a second blog under the same domain (e.g., orcmid.com) can be created and operated successfully, now that multiple domains are working.

This update supercedes the fledgling status and the progression of difficulites that are now resolved. 

As part of Plan B, I arranged for orcmid.com/cgi-bin/mt/ and orcmid.com/mt-static to be implemented as symbolic links to the places where those Movable Type materials are located on the web-hosting GNU/Linux account.

This required access to the account via PuTTY and operating in the command-line shell.  The resulting inspection shows the linked directories:

I also confirmed that the linked directories are accessible through their web URLs, http:orcmid.com/mt-static/ and http://orcmid.com/cgi-bin/mt/.

This did not change anything one way or the other, however.  The blogs worked as before, and comments are still not functioning on Spanner Wingnut.  That's because the Movable Type configuration has not been adjusted to reflect these modifications.  I am hoping that is all that is lacking.

To have these new locations be used from pages of blogs implemented on Orcmid's Lair (orcmid.com), I must upload yet-another modified mt-config.cgi file.  This one will restore the domain-relative use of the main paths, as follows:

My feeble attempt to fix cookie paths has apparently had no effect.  The logon processes appear to work.  However, I am apparently not recognized as logged-on at Spanner Wingnut and/or the comment form simply doesn't come up.  The ceremony succeeds, but the result doesn't occur.

When I try this:

This appears to work:

And so does this:

I can see the cookies.  If I delete the cookies they reappear.  I tried republishing what I could but that makes no difference.

If I enter a bogus user name and password, I also receive the appropriate error message.  On password recovery, I notice that there is only one e-mail address on file.  It's not my usual one but it is the one that I have messages reporting Movable Type activity use.  But the full ceremony, including notification that there has been a password recovery request, works fine.  (I ignored the request, and everything works as expected.)

I can also register a new user, not with an user ID already used, and that ceremony, including e-mail confirmation, works just fine:

The common factor is that the comment form simply doesn't come up.  I am fairly certain nfoCentrale Plan B is called for: creation of cgi-bin/mt/ in all anchored sites that have Movable Type blogs.

Before enjoying the Plan B pain, I will make one more change on the off-chance that the simplest thing, however inplausible, might work.

Here's a simple change to mt-config.cgi that I should probably make anyhow:

We'll just have to see what happens.  Stay tuned. 

I'm operating on the theory that the next problem to solve, having comments working on anchored-domain blogs like Spanner Wingnut, involves cookie settings.  This is suggested as relevant when sub-domains are involved.  I am crossing my fingers and hoping that it also applies when add-on domains are introduced.

If this succeeds without breaking anything that was previously working, I can then move on to the more enjoyable aspects of customizing Spanner Wingnut to a level that can be cloned as Movable Type implementations of my other nfoCentrale blogs.

I am starting with the following addition to mt-config.cgi:

Before this change, any attempt to sign on for commenting simply caused the entry page to appear again, even if a new registration was made or an OpenID provided. 

Now we'll see if this simple, single change makes any difference (and doesn't break anything that is already working).

The first effort to inject a Movable Type blog atop the old Spanner Wingnut blog was not entirely successful:

• I did succeed in getting the blog to publish.
   
• I failed to have the blog format properly, as if it couldn't find the template and CSS information - I got a raw HTML form of the blog post (see below).
     
• The MT 4 image and any references to mt-static/ were to orcmid.com/mt-static/ and not the common location that I have established for the blog engine to use for all blogs operated on this single web hosting account.
     
• The Trackback, Search, and other URLs were to a cig-bin/mt/ also in orcmid.com/ and there was, of course nothing there.

I now have improved on that by editing the mt-config.cgi file to establish absolute locations for the mt-static/ and the cgi-bin/mt/ to be used for all functions. 

There are still some problems.  I have been unsuccessful signing in to leave comments on Spanner Wingnut, for example.  I will need to make some simple tests to see what is and is not working.

Meanwhile, here is what my first effort appeared as:

This post is for confirmation of the Movable Type injection over the existing Spanner Wingnut blog.

This is part of the progressive conversion from Blogger to Movable Type.  If this post succeeds, it accomplishes step 2: creation of a second blog under a different nfoCentrale anchored-site domain.

The previous Blogger materials remain available:

• The last "main page."  The previous archives can be found from that page.
    
• The last "blog feed."  This corresponds to the last main page.  The standard feed location is (fingers-crossed) now produced for the pages produced via Movable Type. 

We are starting with the "Unity Blue" Movable Type template, in a 2-column thin-wide layout.  We will continue experimenting here until we have matched the essentials from the Blogger versions.  That will guide us in customization of the remaining blogs.