Overview

This plugin provides a jQuery interface for published blogs on the Movable Type Publishing Platform. The interface is responsible for rendering sign in/out/up links on a page based upon the state of a user's session. It exposes event handlers for authentication events so that developers can bind to the DOM handers that respond to a user logging in or out.

This library is meant to service partly as a replacement for the bulk of the standard javascript file that is typically found in every Movable Type template set or theme.

Currently this library is limited to:

displaying a greeting to logged in or logged out users
rendering login/logout/edit profile links

Getting Started

Before you begin, make sure you have a copy of jQuery 1.3 or greater installed on your system/website. You will need to include this in your web page or Movable Type templates:

Install Javascript Index Template

Found in this package is a file containing template code that is meant to be published as an index template for any blog that utilizes this jQuery library. You can find this template code in the file called: javascript_mt.mtml.

Navigate to your blog's Design > Templates area.
Click "Create index template."
Cut and paste the contents of javascript_mt.mtml into the newly created template.
Set the output file name to mt.js.
Click "Save and Publish."

Add Your Script Tags

Once your mt.js file has been published you have all that you need to get started. The next step is to add the javascript libraries to your web site. Add this code to the header of your web site.

<script type="text/javascript" src="mt.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.mtauth.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.mtgreeting.js"></script>

Note: you may need to adjust the paths to each of the scripts above depending upon where they are located on your web server.

Edit Your Web Page

Now let's look at some actual HTML and javascript that you can use on your web site and blog:

<html>
  <head>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="mt.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.mtauth.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.mtgreeting.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function() {
      $('#greeting').greet();
    });
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="greeting"></div>
  </body>
</html>

Usage

Configuration Options

mode - Controls whether links for signing in, registering will be constructed using the open source version, or will link to the Movable Type Pro equivalents. Possible values are: "mtos" and "mtpro". (default: mtos)
loggedInMessage - The message to display in the target element when the user is logged in. (default: 'Welcome, %p! %o')
loggedOutMessage - The message to display in the target element when the user is NOT logged in. (default: '%i or %r')
noPermissionMessage - The message to display in the target element when the user does NOT have permission to leave a comment. (default: 'Welcome, %p! %o')
indicator - A reference to a 16x16 indicator/spinner graphic
loginText - The text to use in the login link. (default: 'Sign In')
logoutText - The text to use in the logout link. (default: 'Sign Out')
registerText - The text to use in the register link. (default: 'Sign Up')
editProfileText - The text to use in the edit profile link. (default: '%u')
greetingContainerTag - The HTML tag to wrap the Greeting phrase in. (default: 'div')
loginClass - The CSS class name to be added to login links. (default: 'login')
logoutClass - The CSS class name to be added to logout links. (default: 'logout')
registerClass - The CSS class name to be added to register links. (default: 'register')
ajaxLogin - A boolean value indicating whether the framework should first attempt to log the user into the CMS via an AJAX call. Set to false if you want to forcibly send users to the login screen, which can be useful if a page refresh is required upon successfully signing in. (default: true)
isPreview - A boolean value indicating whether a user is currently previewing an entry or comment. (default: false)
returnToURL - An optional return to URL that will override typical defaults. This controls the page a user will return after logging in, out or registering.

The following settings are set via the mt.js file (inside the index template you published previously).

mt.entry.id - The ID of the current entry in context. This is used when constructing return to URLs for commenting forms. (default: 0)
mt.blog.community.script - The name of the community script. This is only valid for Movable Type Pro users. (default: mt-cp.cgi)
mt.blog.comments.script - The name of the comment script. (default: mt-comment.cgi)
mt.links.signIn - The sign in URL for this blog.
mt.links.signOut - The logout URL for this blog.
mt.links.signUp - The register URL for this blog.
mt.links.editProfile - The URL for editing the current user's profile.
mt.blog.id - The ID of the blog currently in context.
mt.blog.registration.required - Whether registration is required for the current blog or not. (default: false)
mt.blog.staticWebPath - The URL to the Movable Type static web path.
mt.cookie.name - The name of the cookie storing session data.
mt.cookie.domain - The domain of the cookie storing session data.
mt.cookie.path - The path of the cookie storing session data.
mt.cookie.timeout - The length of time the cookie being set to store session data will last. Time is expressed in seconds. (default: 14400)

Customizing Messaging

To customize the messages that are rendered out to your greeting element, the following options can be used when initializing the greet function:

loggedInMessage: 'Welcome, %p! %o'
loggedOutMessage: '%i or %r'
noPermissionMessage: 'Welcome, %p! %o'

The following are the tokens currently supported:

%p - profile link, e.g. edit profile
%u - user's display name
%i - login link
%o - logout link
%r - register link

Customizing Link Text

The messages above contain tokens that will be replaced with full links tags. To customize the labels for those links, these options can be provided:

loginText: 'Sign In'
logoutText: 'Sign Out'
registerText: 'Sign Up'
editProfileText: '%u'

Example

$('#greeting').greet({
  editProfileText: 'edit profile',
  logoutText: 'logout',
  loggedInMessage: 'Hello, %u. (%p | %o)',
  loggedOutMessage: '%i or %r'
});

Events and Callbacks

There are a number of events that this plugin will fire when specific conditions occur or are met. They are:

onauthchange - fired when a user is determined to be logged in or out. Receives as input a reference to the MT User object containing the user's info.

User object contains these elements:

is_anonymous - true if the user is NOT logged in
is_authenticated - true if the user is logged in
can_post - true if the user has permission to post entries on the current blog.
is_author - true if the user has the role of "Author" on the current blog.
is_banned - true if the user has been banned from making comments or entries on the current blog.
is_trusted - true if the user has been granted the status of "trusted" on the current blog.
userpic - the URL to the user's userpic.
name - the user's display name.