I've created a collobration web site using Movable Type between a few friends but I'd like to have a a list of the authors in the corner of the main page (and links to either email or webpage or stats).

Is it possible to do this in some dynamic fashion rather then by hand?

I've looked through the Moveable Type documentation and you can do this for Categories and Entires but not for Authors.

There isn't currently any way I've found to dynamically create this.  I create all the lists on theredkitchen by hand as I add authors.  

Kristine

You could do it using the mysql backend with:

$listauth = "SELECT author_id, author_name, author_nickname, author_email, author_url FROM mt_author";

Here's sample code (but you can make it output however you wish... you just change the echo line.)  You need to configure the database connection to let the code know where the data is.  Fill in name_of_database, domain, user, and pass.
 You're probably going to want to work some sort of spam protect in there if you're going to display the emails.

Hope this helps!
Brenna

Oh my goodness, you rock!  Now I'm gonna go back and look for a thread that might tell me how to do this so it just displays the authors attached to one blog instead of all of the ones in my entire database... I'll post back if I find it!

Kristine

Hmmm, I believe that somehow I have to connect author_id with permission_author_id so I can output permission_blog_id.

I want to display only the authors with permssion to post to blog_id=3

Maybe something like this:


Hmmm, I think I'll do some searching on Google to see if I can figure out how to do this  I may be totally barking up the wrong tree - when Brenna comes back, she can straighten me out

K

You could change the query to also check the mt_permission table and only return authors that have permission_blog_id set to the blog you specify (8 in this example)

I was writing when you posted!  :)

You can link the tables together by naming each table:
FROM mt_author a, mt_permission p

I named them "a" and "p", but it can be whatever makes the most sense to you:
FROM mt_author table1, mt_permission table2

When you use them in the select, you also refer to the name of the table then:
SELECT a.author_id, a.author_name......
or SELECT table1.author_id, table1.author_name,


Then you tell the query which fields are linked in the two tables, in this case, author_id:
WHERE (p.permission_author_id = a.author_id)

Ben posted this example for me somewhere around here and it works slick.    I had to ask the first time I tried to link tables up.

Hey cool, I wasn't far off on my thinking at least - I just didn't quite know how to express it in the correct coding!  I'm off to go try this out

Ya know, this could really revolutionize my TRK blog  

Next thought on this same thought-train....
Converting my Master Author Archives (current tut on how I do it is here) to MySQL  I really would love to figure it out, so maybe once I figure this list thing out, then I'll be on the path to working on that too.  I think that by linking the tables for entries and the authors together, it would be possible.  I'll do some searchign on this too

Kristine

Yep, the list worked out terrifically!  Now i have a list of all my authors emails and webpages, and can stylize it and use it for my main author list!

Now how would you suggest spam-protecting that address, since it comes right out of the database - I obviously can't use spam_protect="1".  Hmm, maybe some more research would be good on that on my part... either finding some method of modifying it after it comes from the database or maybe even changing the addresses in the database somehow?  Hmmm...  Maybe I'll leave that out for now.

As for my author archives, I'm thinking that maybe I could set an Array in PHP of all authors (their usernames or author_id) that have permission to post to blog_id=3.  Then set up this so that it does fills in a value of the array as many times as there are authors.


That gives me all of the posts that I've created (author_id=1 is me) in blog_id=3 (theredkitchen).

Oh shoot, its time to get ready for work.  I'll work on this more later!!!!  I can't wait, I want to figure this out!

Is there anyway to do this without using MySQL?

A list of authors?  Nope.  Author Archives - you can check out my tutorial, but it still has to be edited every time an author is added or removed.

So the MySQL is by far preferred, now that we have it figured out!!

Kristine

Actually I've come kinda close to what I wanted.

I took the script from this thread Comments Leaderboard and changed it ever so slightly to list Authors who've posted at least once and a link to something (it doesn't include Authors who haven't posted it and anyway who cares about them?).  

I'm thinking I may use your tutorial to create an Authors Archive including all the Authors and then use this script to link into it from the front page.

Would it be possible to use the Regex plugin to replace an email address with some javascript code or a server-side script call that would thwart spambots?

This thread prompted me to write a new plugin-- MTAuthors. It's available here:

 http://www.bradchoate.com/past/mtauthors.php

Comments/feedback welcome!

Brad

Wow, amazing again Brad.  Thanks!

This is exactly what I was looking for!

The only thing missing is a "number of posts" but it has everything else I was originally looking for!

Thanks!

Ok, 1.1 now supports 'AuthorBlogCount' and 'AuthorEntryCount': MTAuthors 1.1

Would you mind to share the idea to make the Authors Archive i too am eagerly searching for the same; but till date unable to make so... It would be great help of yours. Thank you