This page explains how to set up the free version of the Movable Type blog software on your Web site and configure your first blog. Movable Type is one of the most popular blog packages available.
(Note that the free version of Movable Type is for personal use only and cannot be used for commercial purposes. If you are unsure about the license or you don't wish to pay for a commercial license, you may wish to consider using WordPress instead — WordPress is completely free.)
These instructions are based on Movable Type 3.31, although other versions are similar.
First of all, download the most recent version from http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/pricing.
Select the free version that does not come with support. You will probably be asked to create an account and register before you can download the software. When ready, download the .zip version.
Movable Type uses a MySQL database to store the blog entries. We recommend creating a new database specifically for Movable Type. To do this, follow our instructions to create a MySQL database.
There is no specific format that you must follow when naming the database. We are assuming that the name is "mtexample" — if you use a different name, just type that name instead of "mtexample" when following the instructions below.
Copy the file called mt-config.cgi-original and rename it to mt-config.cgi. Open mt-config.cgi using a simple text editor like WordPad.
Make sure the "CGIPath" is set to the following (in particular, be sure there is a "/" at the end):
CGIPath http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/mt/
Make sure the "StaticWebPath" is set to:
StaticWebPath http://www.example.com/mt-static/
A few lines further down, set the following values in the MySQL Configuration section.
ObjectDriver DBI::mysql Database mtexample DBUser mtexample DBPassword ****** DBHost localhost
(Use your actual database password instead of the asterisks.)
Finally, delete the other database configuration lines for POSTGRESQL, SQLITE and BERKELEYDB databases.
Save the changes.
Connect to your Web site using FTP. Check to see if there is a directory (folder) named cgi-bin; if not, use your FTP program to create one.
Go into the cgi-bin directory and create a new directory named mt.
Upload everything except the mt-static folder into the "mt" directory that you created.
Finally, upload the mt-static folder and its contents to the top level of your Web site.
Use our script checker to set the correct "permissions" for the scripts in the cgi-bin/mt/ folder. This will need to be done for each script (just click the Fix Script button for each one).
Open the "/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi" address in your Web browser.
The following page should appear:
Choose a username, such as "admin", and an e-mail address for the account administrator. Enter a password and a phrase that can be used if you forget the password.
Then click Finish Install.
Click Login to Movable Type.
This will take you to the control panel login for Movable Type. (You might want to add this URL to your bookmarks.)
The login screen should now be displayed:
Login using the username and password that you created. You'll see this screen:
Now that Movable Type is installed, you should configure your first blog. To do this, click the "Configure this weblog" link.
The configuration screen now lets you choose the directory to install your blog into. We'll assume the blog is put into a folder called blog. However you could call this anything you like, or even install the blog at the top level of your Web site.
If the directory does not exist, the installation script will create it. If the directory does exist, then the script will install the blog files into it: take care not to overwrite existing files. We recommend installing the blog into a new directory.
Enter the following for the "Site URL":
http://www.example.com/blog/
Enter the following for the "Site Root":
/var/www/html/ex/example.com/blog
The screen should look like this:
Click "Save Changes". You'll see this screen:
Click "Rebuild My Site". You'll see:
Click "Rebuild" to rebuild all files.
You should now be able to view your blog at http://www.example.com/blog/ (or whatever location you chose above).