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Install MovableType on Stage.

Ok, here I start the lesson of MovableType! ;)

I will tell how to SECURELY install it on the Stage account. But before that, You have to know things as following. And I don't want to spend time to explain about them. So you can google them.

A terminal emulator

The terminal emulator is just a terminal application. For example, if you are using Mac OS X, Terminal.app is the one. And if you're Windows user, I don't know much about it, but I think you can use TeraTerm SSH, Putty or Guevara (only in Japanese, but very cool)... And you're in Classic Mac OS (such as Mac OS 9, or OS 8), you can try NiftyTelnet SSH.

Little experience with terminal

What I will tell you is almost always on terminal windows. You have to put like " cd ../ " or " link -s /home/blah-blah-blah... ", so-called CUI (Character-based User Interface). But don't be afraid. If you have a little imagination, you can get over it. Basically, you just type as what I write here.

A secured file transfer(SCP) tool.

The reason why I try to write this is that I want my friends be secured. FTP is a great way but a bit out-of-dated and totally NOT SECURED. Everytime you send a password by FTP, you give the chance for crackers to get it. So you better use, for Mac OS X users; FUGU or CyberDuck (not stable enough but it will be cool!). For Windows users; WinSCP is the best and brightest. For Mac Classic; no free graphical tools for SCP, but you can use NiftyTelnet SSH as a SCP tool. It's not graphical though..

Ok, so let's get started!

1. Download "Full version with Libraries" archive from Movabletype.org.
From here, I recommend you to download Full version with Libraries. You can download it free, as long as you are student (lie ;). I strongly recommend you to download Gzipped TAR file, although you using Windows. It's because I will handle it on Stage (unix environment).
2. Extract it on your home directory ( /home/USER/ ).


Upload that archive file as it is, on your home directory of Stage with SCP/SFTP software which I mentioned before. And logon to Stage with a terminal software. Then, on that directory, type it like this;
$ tar -xvzf MT-2.661-full-lib.tar.gz
So, you'll see how you extract it (Don't surprise. Nobody can catch up with the list scrolling so fast..). And put it in the public place and rename it for "mt", like this;
$ mv MT-2.661-full-lib public_html/mt 
So, you have put the MovableType folder (as "mt" directory ) on your public place. Try to see it by browser. ( http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~USER/mt/ )
3. Make a " db " directory on your home directory.


I recommend you to use Berkeley DB because it'll be easy. So, as the official installation said, you have to make a database directory outside of your web-accessible directories. So type like this;
$ pwd
/home/USER
$ mkdir db
(Why I put the "pwd" command at first? It's because I want you to confirm where exactly you are. "db" directory should be outside of public_html!)
4. Edit " mt.cfg " (basically, you have to edit 2 spots, and 1 option.).


I think this part is most important and difficult part (if we have some difficulty in this instruction ;). You have to configure two points; "CGIPath" and "DataSource" line. I recommend you to use vi, but any text editor, such as pico, emac or &c.. will be Ok. On the very first part, you will see those two lines. So, change it like this;
CGIPath http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~USER/mt/
DataSource /home/USER/db
If you are not English-native people, and want to use your language like Spanish or French, you should change the line 306. The original line is "# PublishCharset Shift_JIS". Change it like this;
PublishCharset UTF-8
(The point is, you have to eliminate the fist # mark.)
5. Make a " .htaccess " file on your "mt" directory.


" .htaccess " file is a local configuration file for HTTP server. You can overwrite the configuration regionally. You have to allow the server to execute your cgi files on "mt" directory. So, use text editor and type like this;

$ pwd
/home/USER
$ cd public_html/mt
$ vi .htaccess

The inside of ".htaccess" file is like this;

Options ExecCGI
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

6. Execute " mt-load.cgi " .


So, exciting part is coming! Execute the MovableType Program! Access the URL with you browser. First run the environment checking appication. Type like this in your browser's location box
http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~USER/mt/mt-check.cgi
(Of course you have to change "USER" to your account number)
Then, we can make the database of MovableType (by itself). Type again like this;
http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~USER/mt/mt-load.cgi
If you see " Done loading initial data! All went well. " in the browser window, congrats! You almost done!!


7. Delete waste files, and make a Symbolic link of " mt.cfg "


As the page you saw just now, you have to delete " mt-load.cgi " file because it is the initializer of your blog. If you leave it, somebody can access it and reset your blog.. So type it like this;

$ pwd
/home/USER/public_html/mt
$ rm -i mt-load.cgi
rm: remove `mt-load.cgi'?

(Type y, when you are asked to erase it..)
And this is also security matter, you shouldn't show your directory structure on the Internet. So, make " mt.cfg " file a symbolic link. Type like this;

$ pwd
/home/USER/public_html/mt
$ mv mt.cfg ../../
$ ln -s /home/USER/mt.cfg ./

That's it! Congratulations! Access your blog ( http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~USER/mt/mt.cgi ), and login with Username (Melody) Password (Nelson). Phew.. So, next time, I will tell you how to configure the blog, probably..

Posted by mizo at February 5, 2004 09:00 PM | トラックバック