Recently in Trash Category

I never dreamt of suffering from lousy deals with justhost dot com again. The nightmare just started with an invoice a month ago. The document charged me annual hosting fee with several options identical to what I have signed up February 2009.

Some dissatisfaction made me leave the hosting service around April 2009. Then, I thought that everything was settled down without any problem. I got confirmation of account cancellation. That was why I could get prorated refund by proper credit card transaction.

I dropped so many lines of appeal that I was not a subscriber any more. Billing department answered for my messages with bureaucratic comments generated by automated reply system. Several staffs responded in person, however, next reply was neglected same way. They insisted that my account was still active because I had not done cancellation process last year. I could not believe it. I wondered how the account was active. If so, what was the refund that I got last year?

Whether my account was still active or not, I did not want to pay for unwanted hosting service. I requested them to cancel the account with full refund every day and night. I did not utilize any facilities from justhost.com, of course. In the long run, they processed my request with PRORATED refund in a month. What an appalling customer care?

What I am afraid of now is that they may charge me next year again. That must not happen, however.

Keeping user's own data consistently requires painful process always, for example, in front of software update and/or hosting relocation. This is (was) also the case with Movable Type to some extent. Shortly speaking, this blog post rendered from Movable Type 5 platform in success. Let me share my experience how I managed to migrate from version 4 to brand new 5 with all articles as well as custom templates.

First of all, here are my configurations that you may want to know about.

• Old configuration
• Movable Type 4.3x
• ActionStream 2.1
• Cumulus 1.2
• New configuration
• Movable 5.01
• ActionStream 2.1 (MAKE SURE to get it from here or refer to forum Q&A)
• Cumulus 1.2 (the same as from old configuration)

In brief, I tried these steps

1. Back up entries (menu "Export Entries" from old installation)
2. Create new database for Movable Type 5 (kept Movable Type 4 database untouched)
3. Install fresh Movable Type 5 (kept Movable Type 4 installation untouched) with plugins
4. Import entries (menu "Import Entries") at new installation
5. Copy custom template from Movable Type 4 to 5 MANUALLY (copy & paste; labor intensive but sure bet)
6. Copy configuration of plugin(s) as needed (the same as above)

Above procedure is just one out of numerous ways you may think of. My goal was to populate old articles with Movable Type 5 by fresh installation. Automated upgrade from Movable Type 4, you may choose if you don't want to be bothered about complexity of migration over fresh installation.

I (also you, probably) encountered two hurdles in the middle of migration. One was incompatibility of ActionStream 2.1. Resolution was already here (just download version 5 aware port!). The other was how to import entries because the dashboard did not show me any clue how to do. Now, let's dive into details and workaround which I escaped from stalemate with.

Upon the first sign-in after the installation process, one special blog (new term called "Website" from Movable Type 5) will be available. It is a kind of an aggregator or integral point of its dependent blogs. That's why no "Import Entries" menu can be seen from it.



Just leave this Website untouched for a while. Re-configure the "website" if needed in the future. Then, create a blog under that "website". You will be asked about template set, directory locations, and so forth by the same way you would be on previous installations. Once a new blog is created under the "website", it will bring you all facilities familiar with us. We can see a menu, "Import Entries"



Due to this "website" scheme and the procedure I tried above, your blog ID will be "2" instead of "1" taken by the "website." In most cases on previous Movable Type distributions, the first blog should take blog ID "1", however. This situation will make archive cache corrupt on search engines without any doubt. Configure mod_rewrite (.htaccess) or something like that if corruption matters to you seriously. I did not touch anything because search engines would refresh their cache in the long run. :-)



Except two issues above (action stream compatibility and entry import), everything will be favorable for experienced users in Movable Type installation. I hope this helps. One good news is that new Movable Type now supports "Export theme" facilitating custom templates archive and making it available as a part of blog theme pool in automated manner. No more copy & paste!!

One of my recent jokes with colleagues and friends was, "Everything is ready with me except an iPhone." All services as well as facilities that I had subscribed and run were mobile aware and ready to interconnect with mobile devices. The first photo upload dates back to August 2006 at flickr. The first blog post was made April 2005. Others around that time.

With the start of iPhone service a month ago, I signed up subscription plan with black colored handset. The iPhone enabled me to access Internet services from wherever I am. There is no change in services that I would enjoy; however, there is dramatic change in the way of using them with the help of Wi-Fi or 3G network omnipresent.

It's time to say bye-bye to this old handset below. Huh, nearly 5 years with me.