Want to play with LifeType? Just browse on over to my.mu.nu and sign up for an account. Offer open only to Munuvians and friends of Munuvia. Spammers will be shot.

Oh yes: This is a test system, running on beta code. If we decided to go with it - which is a distinct possibility - it will be cleaned out and reinstalled, so don't get too carried away.

I'm interested in people's thoughts, particularly on the template system. It's based on the Smarty template engine, which is fast, flexible, and powerful, but yucky. It suffers from the Designed by programmers for programmers mindset.

There are a few other things I don't entirely like about LifeType, but it works, it is free (free of charge and open source), and it actually does what we need. There is no other open source system I know of that does. Most (Wordpress, Textpattern, Pivot) don't do multiple blogs at all. Those that do (Nucleus, b2evolution) don't sufficiently separate the blogs, so you don't get the level of control that you are used to with Movable Type.

Movable Type, and even more, Expression Engine, do what we want, but both are sold under licenses that preclude doing what we do.

The best solution would of course be Minx, which is still progressing (albeit very slowly). If I can jump-start things with LifeType, then even if we move to Minx in a year's time we will have had a year of running on a good system.

Oh yes: LifeType was called pLog until a couple of weeks ago, and they're still tidying up the new release of the code, so it kind of says "pLog" everywhere. Don't worry about it; there will be a new version out shortly and we will be installing that before we go live (if we go live).

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:27 AM | Comments (71) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

1 I like everything except the template system. If I could go in and change a few things in my css I'd be happy, but no way to do so from the Dashboard as far as i can see. Other than that the whole thing is smooth, and I like as good if not better then MT. Nice pick Pixy!

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at November 15, 2005 06:25 AM

2 Looks like I can do so with ftp access according to the Lifetype forums. Expected as much, and not an issue for me, but may be for less experienced users.

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at November 15, 2005 06:34 AM

3 Hey Pixy,

Could we give this plug in a spin:

http://wiki.plogworld.net/index.php/PLog_1.0/Plugins/templateeditor

It:

"The plugins offers complete template editor capabilities for pLog. It includes the following features.

1. Template Sets Browser (Delete/Copy)
2. Template Files Browser (Delete/Edit/Copy)
3. Template Files Editor with a Online Smarty Editor (under development)
4. Backup of template files."

Might be the key plugin that makes this bad biy manageable!

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at November 15, 2005 06:50 AM

4 Hey Pixy,

Could we give this plug in a spin:

http://wiki.plogworld.net/index.php/PLog_1.0/Plugins/templateeditor

It:

"The plugins offers complete template editor capabilities for pLog. It includes the following features.

1. Template Sets Browser (Delete/Copy)
2. Template Files Browser (Delete/Edit/Copy)
3. Template Files Editor with a Online Smarty Editor (under development)
4. Backup of template files."

Might be the key plugin that makes this bad boy manageable!

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at November 15, 2005 06:50 AM

5 I've actually installed that. Maybe I need to go and activate it somewhere. I'll take a look.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 15, 2005 07:04 AM

6 Maybe that is it. I'll keep an eye out for it.

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at November 15, 2005 07:09 AM

7 Template editor is go!

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 15, 2005 07:11 AM

8 Trying it...

Updated CSS...

No luck. :-(

Not sure why.. will poke it with a stick again...

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at November 15, 2005 07:15 AM

9 The system caches pages, so you might need to force it to reload. The cache is flished after 90 seconds, so if it doesn't work, just wait a little while.

If it still doesn't work, it's probably broken.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 15, 2005 07:21 AM

10 How would I force it?

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at November 15, 2005 07:31 AM

11 Reboot?

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 15, 2005 08:09 AM

12 Actually, I was thinking shift-reload.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 15, 2005 08:10 AM

13 It doesn't remember commenters. There's a plugin to do that, but it requires a change to the templates as well. All 60 of them. Meh.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 15, 2005 08:21 AM

14 Hmmm.

Playing with the template editor -- what's this new tag language with {} symbols? It looks familiar with "foreach," but it's not real clear. I can see the "by programmers for programmers" mentality here for sure!

Also, it might be supposed to be dynamic, but I don't see it. When I enable various plug-ins, nothing happens to my main page ever...

Posted by: Ogre @ at November 15, 2005 02:59 PM

15 Heck, I even completely changed my template and it didn't pick that up, never mind small changes in individual files of the template... ???

Posted by: Ogre @ at November 15, 2005 03:01 PM

16 Did you switch to use the new template in the Blog Settings page? Just asking because... I didn't.

The template engine is called Smarty. At least there's some documentation for that part.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 15, 2005 03:10 PM

17 OK, I got the template changes to work. It makes sense actually. When you go in to edit the current template it makes a new template titled "New_WHATEVER_THE_TEMPLATE_YOU_ARE_USING_NOW" and to use it you need to go to Blog Settings and select it. Makes sense. It protects the included template in case you screw it up.

So far I really like LifeType. It has a few issues with Firefox, but that is all. That issue was with the New Post editor.

It is much better then Wordpress.

Posted by: Nick Queen @ at November 15, 2005 04:27 PM

18 Oh. I see that now, thanks!

Now if I can just figure out what I'm turning on and how to make it all show up on the blog -- like when I turn on recent comments plug-in -- is there somewhere else you have to go to make it appear that I can't find?

Posted by: Ogre @ at November 15, 2005 06:15 PM

19 Just don't make a typo in your email addy when you sign up, or you'll have an orphan blog floating around and have to start over!

Posted by: Susie @ at November 15, 2005 06:34 PM

20 I'm too old to learn new things! I can't even figure out how to post!

Posted by: Susie @ at November 15, 2005 06:53 PM

21 I can fix your orphan for you, Susie. Although since this is just a test system it probably doesn't matter that much.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 16, 2005 02:51 AM

22 I'm confused. Do munuivans already have accounts, or do we have to create them?

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at November 16, 2005 05:15 PM

23 Never mind. I figured it out. OK, I've re-created my blog (except for blogrolls) using LifeType. Virtually identical. When do we start??

http://my.mu.nu/index.php?blogId=14

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at November 16, 2005 06:59 PM

24 Trying to figure out the code for the nested comments plugin, but all I get is gibberish. Seems like the example is missing a {/foreach}.

If any of the beta testers has nested comments working right, post the code please.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at November 16, 2005 09:24 PM

25 Please add the plugin for technorati tags:

http://www.phpmagazine.net/resserver.php?blogId=1&resource=tags.zip
http://www.phpmagazine.net/1_ill_blog_your_mind_reloaded_/archive/718_technorati_and_delicious_tags_new_plog_plugin.html

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at November 16, 2005 09:25 PM

26 Hey Pixy,
The login doesn't like my username or password. I'm using the same combo that gets me into MT.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.

Posted by: JohnL @ at November 16, 2005 09:26 PM

27 Note to self: Register first, you idiot!

Figured it out. Never mind.

Posted by: JohnL @ at November 16, 2005 09:30 PM

28 Never mind. I figured out my problem with nested comments. Very enlightening exercise.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at November 16, 2005 10:45 PM

29 OK, new question. What is GD support? I tried to turn on AuthImage but I get a comment saying GD support is not enabled when I open the window to enter comments. Some sort of graphics library required to manipulate the image block, I would guess.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at November 16, 2005 10:50 PM

30 Nice work, Angry!

We're currently running on beta code, and there's a new version due out soon. Most of the response has been favourable so far, although there are some bugs and other oddities that need to be cleaned up and I need to get some more documentation together.

If we do go live with it I'll make sure to save the current system so that people can copy anything they've done across.

GD is a PHP library. I thought it was turned on already, but apparently not. I'll fix that now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 16, 2005 11:46 PM

31 Thanks Pixy. I've worked hard to get a certain look for AGWN, and I'm glad I can fashion a good facsimile with LifeType. And the new features are really quite slick.

Posted by: Angry in T.O. @ at November 17, 2005 12:10 AM

32 I've rebuilt PHP with GD support, and the AuthImage thingy is working now.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 17, 2005 01:35 AM

33 Oh, and the current editor in LifeType is the old HTMLArea, which works okay but is kind of clunky. I'll be replacing it with TinyMCE, which is what they're using in the development version of LifeType and also what I've been working with in Minx.

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 17, 2005 01:52 AM

34 Pixy,

I attempted to register and I received the error message "a problem with your user name or already in use", or something like it. I then attempted to retrieve my password, operating under the assumption that Physics Geek was already registered, but still no go. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Posted by: physics geek @ at November 17, 2005 07:59 PM

35 You oon't seem to be there at all. Could you try again?

Posted by: Pixy Misa @ at November 18, 2005 03:51 PM

36 Hi. Happened across this site when searching for LifeType references.

I am curious as to what "problems you have with Firefox"? And did the template editor plugin solve all of the things you don't like with LifeType? If not, let me know. (please email me, as I might not get back here, or at least not for a long time, till I happen randomly upon it).

I can't guarantee I can add whatever code/feature you desire, but if I know about it, it is much more likely.

Posted by: jondaley @ at November 24, 2005 02:09 PM

37 I had forgotten about this little toy -- but the spammers found it:

http://my.mu.nu/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=24&blogId=3

Posted by: Ogre @ at December 15, 2005 06:20 PM

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