Using Azure

Configuring Movable Type

To use Azure with Movable Type, you must have the Perl modules LWP::UserAgent and SOAP::Lite installed and working with your instance of MT. See the Movable Type Install Instructions for information on how to achieve this.

In addition, Movable Type by default will always publish a post you submit to the server from Azure, regardless of whether you have selected the publish option or not. To override this, add the line: NoPublishMeansDraft 1 to your MT configuration file (mt.cfg).

Configuring Azure

Once you have installed Azure, start it up. Exactly how you do this will depend on your phone or PDA. When you have Azure running, go to the menu and choose Setup. This opens the setup screen where you can configure Azure. Several options are available:

Max Body Size. This specifies the maximum number of characters a post body, extended body and excerpt may be. If you are runnning Azure on a limited device such as a phone and are running into problems when editing these parts of your posts, try adjusting this size down a bit.
Recent Post Count. This specifies the number of recente posts Azure will download when asked to. The larger this number, the more data will be downloaded and the longer it will take.
Time Zone. To set the time zone for your blogs, select Time Zone from the menu. This opens the Time Zone List screen. Select the offset from GMT which matches your time zone.

When you're done, select Save to save your changes, or Cancel to discard them.

Adding a weblog

To create and edit posts from Azure, you must tell it about your blogs. To add a blog, select Add Blog from the menu. This will open the Add Blog screen. Fill in the three fields on this screen.

The Blog Address field is the full URL of the XML-RPC CGI script which is part of your Movable Type installation. This CGI is usually called mt-xmlrpc.cgi and can be found in the same directory as the mt.cgi file.

For example: http://myblog.nonexistant.com/mt/mt-xmlrpc.cgi

Enter your Movable Type username and password in the next two fields. When you are done, select Okay from the menu. Azure will log in and retreive and display a list of blogs from the server which you can use. Select the blog that you wish to add and choose Select from the menu. The blog will be added to Azure's list.

If you have already added a blog, then the address, username and password of the currently selected blog will be automatically inserted into the fields of the Add Blog screen. This saves you from having to re-enter the details again if you use multiple blogs on the one server. If you do not wish to use these defaults when adding another blog, just delete them and enter the desired values.

Azure downloads information about your blog and stores it locally so when you are creating new posts or editing drafts, Azure does not need to be connected to the Internet. If you change your blog's configuration, for example: adding, deleting or renaming a category, you must tell Azure to update its information about your blog. You can do this by selecting the blog from My Blogs and choosing Refresh Blog from the menu.

Creating a post

Once you have added a blog, you can now create new posts for it. Select the blog on the My Blogs screen and choose New Post from the menu. This displays the New Post screen.

Edit the fields on this screen as desired, but you must at least make sure a title has been entered. The fields on this screen are:

Title. The title of the post. This is field must be filled out.
Category. The primary category of the post. This list is retreived from the server.
Authored On. The date this post is published. For this to be accurate, the time zone for the blog must be set. See above for details.
Options.. Select the desired Movable Type publication options.

The body, extended body and excerpt may be edited by choosing the appropriate item from the menu. See the next section for details.

When done, choose Submit from the menu. This submits your changes to the server where they will be saved. If you selected the Publish option, the post will be published on your blog.

Select Back from the menu to cancel the new post. It will saved as a draft.

Editing post bodies

When editing the body or the extended body of a post, you are presented with a screen containing a text box. This text box behaves just like the one in your web browser when editing posts on the web. Type the text of the body of the post into this text box.

You can also type in HTML tags to format the text. Azure does not provide WYSIWYG editing, but if you have Convert linebreaks Movable Type will automatically convert single and double new lines to <br> and <p> tags for you.

Azure can insert some commonly used tags to make formatting the post easier. To insert a tag where the text caret is positioned, simply select the desired element from the menu. For example, choosing Anchor from the menu will insert <a href=""><a> into the text.

Tags can also be inserted around existing text. To do this, position the caret where you want the start tag to be located and select Mark from the menu. This records the location of the start tag. Move the caret to where the end tag should be (or type just some more text) and select the desired element from the menu. The text between the mark and the caret will be wrapped in the start and end tags.

Editing a recent post

To edit a recent post, select the blog on the My Blogs screen and select Recent Posts from the menu. Azure connects the blog's server, retreives the list of recent posts and displays them. Select the desired post from the list and choose Edit from the menu. The Edit Post screen will open.

This screen allows you to edit the post as if you were creating a new one. Edit the post as needed and select Submit when you are done to save your changes to the server.

If you want to cancel your changes, select Back from the menu. The post will be saved as a draft and the list of recent posts will be retreived again from the blog's server.

Draft posts

Draft posts are automatically created for you when you edit a new or existing post and do not submit it to the blog's server. Drafts are only created if you changed the post in some way, for example by changing the title or body of the post.

Drafts are stored locally on the device running Azure, they are not saved to the blog's server. Because of this, there are two important things to remember about using drafts:

Your drafts may be lost when upgrading Azure! Finish them and submit to the server before upgrading to ensure you don't lose your drafts.
You can only store a limited amount of drafts, especially if you are running Azure on a phone.

To edit a draft post for a blog, select the blog on the My Blogs screen and choose Draft Posts from the menu. The list of draft posts for that blog will be displayed. Select the desired draft from the list and choose Edit from the menu.

Once you have finished the post, select Submit from the menu and the draft will be submitted to the server and the draft will be deleted from your device.

To save the draft for later, select Back from the menu.

A draft can be deleted without submitting it to the server by selecting the draft from the list and choosing Delete from the menu.