I have about 30-odd feeds on bloglines, which is around average. According to their faq the average is more than 20 (I wonder how more than a certain number can be considered as average). I subscribe to quiet thoughts and pizzaorme — so I can be notified if there’s a comment on my website; and to keep track of mm. :)

What’s always been a niggling annoyance is that my favicon doesn’t appear in either feed. I’ve noticed more and more of my feeds getting their favicon “noticed” by bloglines, but it’s been at least 2 years and mine is still blank. I know it’s probably cos the favicon is in the root directory whereas the feeds are in their own folders.

Googling pointed me to a couple of forums but the answer seems to be “email bloglines with your url”. Not satisfactory, and I imagine not bloglines’ preferred method.

It was easy when I found it. I need to Claim my urls first, by going to my profile and clicking on Publisher Tools. I entered the site url and it found the 3 feeds: rdf, xml, atom. I then needed to do 2 things to prove my ownership:

1. make a new post with a code they gave me
2. add a code to the index template

Clicking on Verify and it confirmed that I managed to claim 2 out of the 3 feeds. For some reason the rdf feed didn’t authenticate, probably because it’s old. I subscribe to the xml one anyway, so it was fine.

Once verified, I returned to the Publisher Tools page and there was an Edit link next to each feed url. I was then able to specify the location of the favicon in the edit menu.

I wonder why this isn’t in the Help section, or at least more obvious.

After yesterday’s musings, I made a prototype page for the gallery using simpleviewer and flickrviewer.

1. download SimpleViewer
2. download flickrviewer
3. get flickr api key
4. configure api key — the instructions are supposed to be simple but proved to be more fiddly than I thought
   
   • make a note of the key and the shared secret key
   • click “edit key details”
   • enter details of the application — I put simpleviewer and flickrviewer
   • under callback url enter the location of the simpleviewer application:
     http://invisiblecompany.com/gallery/simpleviewer
   • create a login link in the format:
     http://flickr.com/services/auth/?api_key=[api_key]&perms=[perms]&api_sig=[api_sig]
     [api_key] is my api key
     [perms] can be read, write or delete — write includes read and delete includes r/w
     [api_sig] is the md5 sum of [secret]api_key[api_key]perms[perms], meaning if [secret]=123 and [api_key]=999 and I set write permissions I get 123apikey999permswrite. A simple online tool converts to md5: 3062e84e9b0014d31c5ee946ef4283a9
     my login link is: http://flickr.com/services/auth/?api_key=999&perms=write&api_sig=3062e84e9b0014d31c5ee946ef4283a9
   • enter the login link in the browser and flickr will ask me to grant permission for simpleviewer to access my flickr folders
5. in Dreamweaver or a text editor edit flickrviewer.php according to instructions in the file
6. ftp to server
7. point browser to gallery location
8. clear cache if necessary

This displays all the pictures in my favourites flickr set. Full screen shot to see the location of the flash viewer.

Cross-posted from the main journal.

Researching into how best to redo the gallery. I don’t have stats but it seems to me that a typical personal website will include a blog and a place to put photos. I’m surprised that there aren’t more integration between the likes of flickr / photobucket and MT / Wordpress. May be I’m not looking hard enough, but I don’t think so.

Like many before me, I hacked MT to make it a sort of photoblog/gallery type page. Six Apart say it’s straightforward — witness the number of SA staff using Byrne Reese’s PhotoGallery. But honestly, it’s not immediately intuitive, especially the treatment of thumbnails. There’s the flickrphotos plugin but there’s a fair bit of fiddling needed, it seems to me.

Of course, I don’t have to use MT or a specific CMS. There are several popular solutions:

1. gallery
   PHP/database, flexible, seems easy to install but I’m not sure how well it can integrate to the MT-based css. Apparently some performance issues.
2. lightboxphoto
   Full-featured, gallery maker more suited for professionals selling their photos. The most basic license is $399.
3. pixelpost
   PHP/mysql based, developed specifically for photoblogging. Looks fantastic, allows comments and all that we’ve come to expect of a blogging software.

But I’m not going to use pixelpost or gallery (forget about lightboxphoto) because these require that my images are uploaded and hosted on my server. Not that I haven’t done that, but for the purposes of the gallery I really want to use flickr. Why? The practical reason is because of tags, sets, convenience and not having to upload to multiple locations. They’re neatly organised on flickr, I just want to link them back.

I’m glad I’m not the only one considering the options.

There are quite a few options. My thoughts:

1. chasr
   Simple app that displays thumbnails of sets, click on one and it goes to a page with the photos, then the photo itself. Includes recent photos and popular tags. In order to view private pictures, add comments and the like, I have to sign into flickr. Feels to me like it replicates flickr feel on my own website.
   comment: not for me. I’m not looking for a flickr clone, I’d like something that looks more elegant. Apparently I can play with the demo to see how my sets look like, but I never got it to work.
   
   
   
   
   
2. pictobrowser
   A flash widget that displays flickr pictures. Simple filmstrip design and interface. Choose a set, tag or group and it generates a block of code to embed into a webpage.
   comment: very easy, no need to worry about design. But it’s for single sets or tags only, and in order to display multiple sets, I’ll need to code it myself. Basic, but I need more functions. Here’s my 26thngs for Sept06.
   
   
   
   
3. jetphoto
   More of a desktop photo organiser that happens to generate a flash web album after it’s uploaded to flickr. Has GPS and geotagging. In use, it’s very Windows look and feel. The flash feature generates a pop-up page that has fairly basic navigation elements. For instance clicking on the photo brings me back to the album.
   comment: I don’t want to organise my photos through their application because I use iPhoto on the desktop. The whole point is I don’t want to manage my photos in multiple places. Such a Windows-heavy application won’t make many friends with mac users anyway.
   
   
   
   
4. satellite
   Another PHP application that makes use of flickr’s API. Uses mootools and slimbox for sleekness. Displays thumbnails of pictures of a set; clicking on one dims the set and overlays the picture in question over the set. Looks nice, very nice. Comes with a black and a white theme, so I’m not sure how much it can integrate into a sitewise css.
   comment: nice, worth looking at.
   
   
   
   
5. flogr
   Similar to Satellite in its use of the slimbox overlay method. Themes are customisable and EXIF data is displayed.
   comment: similar in concept to Satellite, appears to have a few more features. Worth looking at.
   
   
   
   
6. simpleviewer
   Very popular. Generates a flash slide show with thumbnails of remainder of photos at side, makes it easy to navigate. Integrates with flickr, wordpress as well as desktop apps like iPhoto.
   comment: I like this. Clean and neat navigation.
   
   
   
   

Verdict? At the moment it’s between simpleviewer and flogr/satellite. It’s to do with navigation — do I like the slimbox overlay approach or the filmstrip approach. Ah, decisions.

Started with the cleaning up. It’s easy to copy entries from one blog to another, just follow these simple instructions. I found I didn’t need to ftp the data txt file to my computer because my website’s control panel allows me to text edit. I did it anyway to backup the file.

Copied over entries in delicacies to quiet thoughts — just the few entries on where I lived and odd bits.

Merged both writing sections. Reorganised so there were parent categories and each story / article is a sub-category. Twiddling with the main index template code so it displayed sub-categories the way I wanted wasn’t as difficult as I thought. I took the MT3 default index template, made small changes and previewed after each change. I kept the old code.

<MTTopLevelCategories>
<MTSubCatIsFirst></MTSubCatIsFirst>
<MTIfNonZero tag="MTCategoryCount">
<h2 class="title"><a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>"
title="<$MTCategoryDescription$>"><MTCategoryLabel></a></h2>
<$MTCategoryDescription$><br /
<MTEntries>
<a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a> |
</MTEntries><a href="<$MTBlogURL$>download.php" title="download">downloads</a>
<br /><br />
<MTElse>
<br /><h2 class="date"><MTCategoryLabel></h2>
</MTElse>
</MTIfNonZero>
<MTSubCatsRecurse>
<MTSubCatIsLast></MTSubCatIsLast>
</MTTopLevelCategories>


<!--original code for 2.661 when there weren't sub-categories
<MTCategories>
<h2 class="date"><a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>"><$MTCategoryLabel$></a></h2>
<$MTCategoryDescription$><br />
<MTEntries>
<a href="<$MTEntryPermalink$>"><$MTEntryTitle$></a> |
</MTEntries><a href="<$MTBlogURL$>download.php" title="download">bonus features</a>
<br /><br /><br />
</MTCategories>
-->

I deleted a couple of unused folders. So this morning I had 9 blogs on my installation. Now I have 7, including 2 that will be deleted eventually — I’m keeping them so I can test when I next upgrade. The gallery will be moved away from MT … what to, I don’t know yet. Ultimately I’ll have 4 sections, and pizzaorme.

I changed the favicon, this is the 3rd version now, and finally a logo that is recognisably as me cos I use it as an avatar on forums. It should be good as general website logo too. This time, I dispensed with the GraphicConverter method. I cropped the image tighter and used a free online favicon generator. Can’t even remember which one, I just googled it. Nicer than the blue blob on black, eh?

Done it. Thanks Elise.

Deleted everything I did yesterday in terms of upgrading.

Create new MT folders
Renamed the final 2.661 mt folder to mt 2.661. Copied 3.35 folder and renamed it mt. This means none of the old files are in the new folder. MT suggests that we overwrite new files into the existing folder — this is confusing, as there is a potential for old files and scripts to stay in the folder.

Renamed existing mt-static file to mt-static 2.661. Copied 3.35 mt-static to the root directory (it must be outside cgi-bin).

Configure setup script
Duplicated mt-config.cgi-original and renamed it mt-config.cgi. Made changes to database parameters. In 3.35 there is no longer mt-db-pass.cgi, the password is in the config.

ObjectDriver DBI::mysql
Database invisibl_mtDB
DBUser [username]
DBPassword [password]
DBHost localhost
DBSocket /tmp/mysql5.sock

Scrolled through the 2.661 final cfg file and copied over custom commands.

#================ CUSTOM SETTINGS ==================
# These are copied over from the final 2.661 cfg file

CommentScript mt-cmts.cgi
TrackbackScript mt-tbk.cgi

DBUmask 0022
HTMLUmask 0022
UploadUmask 0022
DirUmask 0022

HTMLPerms 0775
UploadPerms 0775

The last two were really important. These directives set the permission for archives and pages generated. In the tutorial and default, it’s set at 644. But when I rebuilt the site (more later), I got a 500 error (top). Now that 500 error must be a server side error because I have my custom 500 error page (bottom). Which is what tweaked me to the fact that I needed to specify permissions.

Upgrade
Once the files were in place, I pointed the browser to the MT admin panel: http://www.invisiblecompany.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi and hey presto! It automatically detected the new installation. I clicked “Begin Upgrade” and it zipped through the process. There was just about enough time to do a couple of screenshots, and it was done.

Rebuild
I decided against dynamic publishing, so not so many additional customisations. All I did was to take out the dirify on uri names and switched to the new (well, new in MT3) basename naming convention. So now pemalinks have the format: /archives/yyyy/mm/dd/entrytitle.php.

Rebuilding was done blog by blog. It was quite harrowing, I deliberately left the 2 most important till last — pizzaorme and *quiet thoughts* — rebuilding my main journal with 900+entries was scary. There was too much there at risk.

New Look
And for posterity’s sake, the final 2.661 admin screen and the initial 3.35 admin screen.

I’m on an upgrade kick. I downloaded MT4.0 beta, and then realised I had to upgrade to 3.35 first before attempting the upgrade to 4.0. Reason is that there were so many new features in version 3 that it’s probably safer, to make sure everything works.

Spent most of the afternoon doing it, but kept on getting 500 errors.

Turns out, it had to do with my database. Before I did the upgrade, I backed up everything — the website to the mbp and exported the database. My host recommended upgrading from mysql 4 to 5, so I followed the instructions.

Then I had to change mt.cfg so it points to the new database. I changed DBname and DBhost to the new values. Kept the user and password the same. Didn’t work. Hey, I’m no DBA alright! I posted a ticket to suresupport and got an answer back within 15 mins. This is what I needed to do.

In mt.cfg change from

ObjectDriver DBI::mysql
Database invisibleDB
DBUser [username]
# DBHost localhost

to

ObjectDriver DBI::mysql
Database invisibl_mtDB
DBUser [username]
DBHost localhost
DBSocket /tmp/mysql5.sock

The password is in mt-db-pass.cgi, so it didn’t need to be changed.

Works now.