Movable Type v4.x Installation Tutorial

This Following tutorial describes how to install Movable Type with your NEXCESS.NET web hosting account. NEXCESS.NET specializes in hosting Movable Type blogs and this tutorial is meant to help you quickly setup your site with our web hosting service.

Movable Type is a popular weblog publishing system. It is distributed under the GPL ("General Public License") meaning its is free to download and use. What distinguishes Movable Type from rival weblog publishing systems is the simplicity of its installation and management.

For the sake of this tutorial we'll assume that you own the domain 'johnsmith.com' and are setting up Movable Type at http://johnsmith.com/movabletype/.

1. Setup a database for Movable Type to use
   The first thing to do is to run through the SiteWorx MySQL tutorial and create a MySQL username and database for Movable type to use. For the purpose of making this tutorial simple, we are going to use db_user as the Movable Type database user and mvtp_db as the Movable Type database.
2. Download the software, and edit the config file
   Download the latest version of Movable Type from the Movable Type website and unzip the contents of the zip file to your desktop using a program like WinZip. Inside the unzipped folder, locate the file named "mt-config.cgi-original" then open it with your favorite text editor. Change the CGIPath to http://johnsmith.com/movabletype/mt/ and the StaticWebPath to http://johnsmith.com/movabletype/mt-static. Remember to replace Johnsmith.com with your own site's domain name. Input your MySQL Database, User Name, and Password. finally, remove the sections titled: ## POSTGRESQL ## and ## SQLITE ##, and save the file as mt-config.cgi
   
   Your config file should look something like this after editing
3. Upload the files to your web hosting account
   We now need to open an FTP connection to our site. If you need help with FTPing files, you can check out the FTP tutorials on our tutorials page. Create a new folder called movabletype, which is where we'll be uploading the Movable Type files. In the movabletype directory make a folder called "mt" without the quotation marks then open it. Then go to the Movable Type folder we unzipped on your desktop and FTP all the files and folders except for the "mt-static" folder, to the "mt" folder on your site. Then upload the "mt-static" folder to your the movabletype directory on your site. Once the movable type files are finished uploading, you should now have two folders in the movabletype/ directory one named "mt" and another named "mt-static".
4. Setting permissions on the files
   Now you'll need to change the permissions on some files and folders in order for the install script to be able write to them. You can do this using the CHMOD function of your FTP program. If you don't know how to do this, check out the FTP tutorials. For this example, we'll change the permissions as follows:
   chmod the "mt-add-notify.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-atom.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-check.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-comments.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-feed.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-search.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-tb.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-testbg.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-upgrade.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-wizard.cgi" file to 775
   chmod the 775 "mt-xmlrpc.cgi" file to 775
5. Run the online install script
   Open your favorite browser and go to http://johnsmith.com/movabletype/mt/ You should see a Movable Type welcome screen. Wait a few seconds and you will be redirected to the "Create Your Account" page - fill-out the appropriate fields and click continue. The next screen will ask you to "Create Your First Blog"
   
   Time to create your first blog on Movable Type!
   Input the Blog Name you wish to use. Notice that the blog name will be the extension your readers will use to access the blog. For example in our case, our readers will go to http://johnsmith.com/movabletype/jays_blog to access our blog. Select the appropriate Time-zone, then click finish install. Movable Type will now initialize the database, and commence the install. Once completed, Movable Type will display "Installation Complete" page. Click the "Sign in to movable type" button. Sign in to Movable Type.

You have now successfully installed Movable Type. Need more help? Try the official Movable Type install guide, or feel free to log in to my.nexcess.net and submit a ticket, and we'll help you out. Don't forget, Blog Responsibly!

Back to web hosting tutorials page, or find out more about our Movable Type 4 hosting and support