I have never used Movable Type before. I have some experience with PHP and MySQL. I would like to know what experiences others have had customizing this application. Is the template system easy to learn? How is the SEO? Am I going to have to fight with my art director because I can't make it look exacly like he want's? (I know, that's a loaded question, but I think people will understand what I mean). How difficult is it to upgrade or add security patches? Is the sixapart team helpful? If we build the site for our client, is it easy for the client to add info without risking that they alter the layout?
Thank you,
TecBrat
Full Version: Considering Movable Type For A Newspaper Site
Movable Type is a great solution for what you're looking for, but you might not be able to host it in-house, depending on how you're hosted. That said, there are some solutions (say, FTP-driven Blogger.com) that have virtually no requirements for hosting. But if you want control and scalability then MT works wonders. It's very easy to add additional contributors to a blog and to host multiple blogs with one install.
The template system of MT is much more robust than, say, Wordpress, but you won't find as many plug-and-play designs for MT. The great thing about MT is that it's really flexible and powerful. There are some good plug-ins too that can extend the functionality of MT if there's something specific that you want.
MT has dynamic publishing via PHP, but its strong suit is really static publishing. So knowing XHTML & CSS tends to be a better skillset for MT than PHP.
Upgrades are always very easy in my experience, and they don't come very frequently, which may be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your perspective. MT has been around the block for a while so there aren't many security problems that arise.
I've had good luck with Six Apart support in the past and haven't had to use them in quite a while.
And yes, you can limit the access a certain user has to the system. So you can set them up so that they can only make posts and upload files, for example, and not have any access to the templates or settings. So you can remain an admin on the MT install, and let the bloggers go to it without worrying that things are going to break.
I'm a web dev for a group of ten newspapers in the midwest, by the way.
The template system of MT is much more robust than, say, Wordpress, but you won't find as many plug-and-play designs for MT. The great thing about MT is that it's really flexible and powerful. There are some good plug-ins too that can extend the functionality of MT if there's something specific that you want.
MT has dynamic publishing via PHP, but its strong suit is really static publishing. So knowing XHTML & CSS tends to be a better skillset for MT than PHP.
Upgrades are always very easy in my experience, and they don't come very frequently, which may be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your perspective. MT has been around the block for a while so there aren't many security problems that arise.
I've had good luck with Six Apart support in the past and haven't had to use them in quite a while.
And yes, you can limit the access a certain user has to the system. So you can set them up so that they can only make posts and upload files, for example, and not have any access to the templates or settings. So you can remain an admin on the MT install, and let the bloggers go to it without worrying that things are going to break.
I'm a web dev for a group of ten newspapers in the midwest, by the way.
Thank you for the excellent response. I'll look a little further into it.
QUOTE (dstout @ May 18 2007, 11:16 PM) 
Movable Type is a great solution for what you're looking for...
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