This is BrainLog, a blog by Dan Sanderson. Older entries, from October 1999 through September 2010, are preserved for posterity, but are no longer maintained. See the front page and newer entries.

June 18, 2007

Movable Type 4.0 beta is out, with tons of new features, a new design, and a promise to open source the code base. Among other things, it includes a built-in rich text editor with multimedia capabilities. Anything to simplify multimedia asset management is most welcome.

I decided to jump into the beta and upgrade this place, and I was extremely impressed that the upgrade went so smoothly. The upgrade process is as simple as before: Just pour the new files over the old ones, and sign in to upgrade the database. Considering how much is brand new under the covers, it's amazing that my blog doesn't look any different from the outside. I've also tried out a fresh install, and that too is especially impressive.

As excited as I am about the new features, I don't recommend the beta if you care more about your web presence than the opportunity to test new software. It's complete enough to run a web site, but it's definitely unfinished in some spots. Little things from MT 3 still haven't been added to MT 4, though I assume most of them will be back before the official MT 4 release. My understanding is that downgrading isn't really an option, so for that reason alone, you might want to wait to pull the trigger on your MT 3-based web sites.

A running list of issues I've had with the upgrade to MT 4 beta 2, all of which will probably be fixed before the official release (and yes I've filed bug reports):

  • Attempting to edit a comment causes a runaway memory drain, resulting in a server error. I probably shouldn't be admitting that in public, but it's the most serious issue I've found so far. This might be limited to my blog or Dreamhost, because it ought to be a beta-stopper.
  • The QuickPost bookmarklet is not yet implemented. My old bookmarklets don't work, and there is no new one. (6A confirmed this feature will be re-added.)
  • Entries without titles appear as "..." in the admin interface. Since almost all of my entries lack titles, this is a serious issue for me. I had to convince 6A that this was a problem back when MT 3.0 was in beta, so I hope I can do so again.
  • The template tag MTTagArchiveLink has been renamed MTTagSearchLink.
  • The template tag MTEntryLink used to appear in the default "your comment is pending approval" template without the use of an MTEntries container. This is now an error, so the default template no longer works, nor does my derived template.