Customizing default ping options in Movable Type

May23

Customizing default ping options in Movable Type

Software/Weblog platforms/Six Apart

Movable Type allows you to easily publicize your blog by pinging Weblogs.com, blo.gs, and Technorati with each post. Movable Type administrators should view these three built-in services as default options that can be easily changed for each Movable Type installation.

Think of the three checkboxes above as three variables: BlogsPingURL, WeblogsPingURL, and TechnoratiPingURL. These variables can be overridden in your Movable Type configuration file (mt.cfg) by adding a line with the variable name and value. Each replacement server must be a valid XML-RPC ping beacon similar to Weblogs.com.

BlogsPingURL http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

Adding the line above to your mt.cfg file will send a ping to Ping-o-Matic instead of blo.gs when the first option is selected.

Now you just need to change the text next to the first option so users are not confused. You will find the weblog preferences page at /tmpl/cms/cfg_prefs.tmpl starting at line 241 in Movable Type 3.16.

Why not just list the other ping beacon in the "Others" box? You can only set other ping beacons to notify on a per-weblog basis and once the data exists each ping beacon listed will receive a notification. It's better to let your users have the option of turning on or off their pings, but you can choose your own set that best suits your users' needs. If you are running a service for podcasters you might choose to ping audio.weblogs.com instead of weblogs.com as one option. Or if you are deploying within a firewall you might have your own internal ping beacon for updates. Either way, the choice is yours.

Posted at 9:56PM
Updated at 4:56PM
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James Stewart on May 24, 2005 at 8:57 AM wrote: #

Thanks Niall. I've been meaning to make that change for a while so this was a timely reminder.
the bulldog on May 26, 2005 at 3:46 PM wrote: #

the folks at SixApart recommended that this was possible in Typepad, as did they at technorati. They suggest customizing the "Post" template. However, that doesn't seem to work or i'm missing a significant step. can your tweak be replicated using typepad and/or how can I add automatic pings to typepad blogs? thanks
? Niall Kennedy on May 26, 2005 at 11:15 PM wrote: #

Some ping beacons will bull the URL parameter from your TrackBack ping, figure out your base weblog URL, and process the ping as it might for a weblogs.com style ping. TypePad allows you to send TrackBack pings wherever you would like but you cannot choose your own list of sites to notify of updates. See TypePad help for more details. I recommend you bookmark the Ping-o-Matic submission page for your weblog and visit it with each post to TypePad, Blog*Spot, or sites with limited ping ability. With aggregators at My Yahoo! and My MSN updating your feed off a ping you really can't afford for potential readers to not see your new content. If notifying multiple sites on update is an important feature for you I suggest you let the TypePad team know how you feel.