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<h3>Movable Type User Manual: TRACKBACK</h3>
<p><a href="mtmanual.html">« Table of Contents</a></p>
<a name="__index__"></a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#trackback">TRACKBACK</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#setting up trackback">Setting up TrackBack</a></li>
<li><a href="#using trackback">Using TrackBack</a></li>
<li><a href="#trackback ping format">TrackBack Ping Format</a></li>
<li><a href="#reference documentation">Reference Documentation</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<hr size="1" color="#CCCCCC">
<p>
<h1><a name="trackback"></a>TRACKBACK</h1>
<p>Movable Type's TrackBack system allows peer-to-peer communication and
conversations
between blogs. Imagine that you write about a movie you just saw in an
entry on your Movable Type-powered blog. Another MT blogger reads your
entry, and wants to write an entry referencing your original post. He could
just comment on your blog, but he'd like to keep the post in his own
database and host it on his site.</p>
<p>Using TrackBack, the other blogger can automatically send a ping to your
blog, indicating that he has written an entry referencing your original
post. This accomplishes two things:</p>
<ol>
<li>
On your site, you can automatically list all sites that have referenced a
particular post, allowing visitors to your site to read the response on the
other user's blog.
<p></p>
<li>
It provides a firm, explicit link between his entry and yours, as opposed
to an implicit link (like a referrer log) that depends upon outside action
(someone clicking on the link to your entry).
<p></p></ol>
<p>You can use TrackBack for more than just communication on particular entries,
however. You can also associate TrackBack pings URLs with categories in your
blog. Whenever you post an entry to that category, the URLs you have
associated will automatically be notified of your post. This allows remote
sites to keep a repository of references to posts all around the web.</p>
<p>For example, if you run a site about Perl, you might want to provide a
repository of links to Perl articles on other weblogs. Using TrackBack, you
can allow other weblogs to ping a particular category in your own blog,
whenever a new entry is posted that pertains to this category.</p>
<p>These are just examples of TrackBack usage. TrackBack itself is a framework
for peer-to-peer communication between weblogs; it can track cross-weblog
discussions, it can provide remote content repositories, it can emulate
guest authoring, etc. The technical side of TrackBack is very simple: when
you want to notify a remote site of your existence, you send a ping to that
site. The format of these pings (simple HTTP GET requests) is discussed
<a href="#trackback ping format">below</a>. In the Movable Type implementation of
TrackBack, we've added password protection to category pings, IP banning,
automatic RSS output, and email notification of new pings.</p>
<p>In other words: we want TrackBack to benefit, and to be useful to, more than
just Movable Type users. We want to encourage integration of this feature
into other weblog tools; that's why we have documented the ping format below
and have tried to make the basic framework very simple. Feel free to
email us (<a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>) if you have questions.</p>
<p>
<h2><a name="setting up trackback"></a>Setting up TrackBack</h2>
<p>If you are a new Movable Type user, the TrackBack tags are included in the
default templates, so you are ready to use it as soon as you install Movable
Type. You can skip down to Step 5.</p>
<p>If you are an existing MT user, you'll first need to set up your templates
to handle TrackBack pings. Start at Step 1.</p>
<ol>
<li><strong><a name="item_Create_a_TrackBack_Listing_template%2E"></a>Create a TrackBack Listing template.</strong><br>
In <i>List Templates</i>, edit the <i>TrackBack Listing template</i> and initialize
it with the template body from the default templates. You can find that here:
<pre>http://www.movabletype.org/default_templates.shtml#trackback
</pre><p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Update_your_stylesheet%2E"></a>Update your stylesheet.</strong><br>
An entry's TrackBack pings are displayed in a popup window similar to that
used for listing an entry's comments. The default template that you added
in Step 1 uses some CSS styles new to version 2.2. If you are using one of
the default styles provided with Movable Type, copy and paste in the updated
version from the styles here:
<pre>http://www.movabletype.org/default_styles.shtml
</pre><p>If you have a custom stylesheet, you can either customize the <i>TrackBack
Listing Template</i> to match your site's styles, or add new CSS styles to
your stylesheet for the classes <i>.trackback-url</i>, <i>.trackback-body</i>, and
<i>.trackback-post</i>.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Add_TrackBack_code_to_your_Main_Index_Template%2E"></a>Add TrackBack code to your Main Index Template.</strong><br>
Add the following code in the <script> section of your Main Index
Template:
<pre>function OpenTrackback (c) {
window.open(c,
'trackback',
'width=480,height=480,scrollbars=yes,status=yes');
}
</pre><p>Now, inside of your <MTEntries> tag, add the following code to
display a link to the TrackBack listings for each entry:</p>
<pre><MTEntryIfAllowPings>
| <a href="<$MTCGIPath$>mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view&entry_id=<$MTEntryID$>" onclick="OpenTrackback(this.href); return false">TrackBack
(<$MTEntryTrackbackCount$>)</a>
</MTEntryIfAllowPings>
</pre><p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Add_TrackBack_ping_data_to_index_and_archive_templ"></a>Add TrackBack ping data to index and archive templates.</strong><br>
In your Main Index Template and in your category and date-based archive
templates, add the following tag directly after the main
<code><MTEntries></code> tag:
<pre><$MTEntryTrackbackData$>
</pre><p>Then, in your Individual Entry Archive Template, add this same tag anywhere
in the template:</p>
<pre><$MTEntryTrackbackData$>
</pre><p>When you rebuild, this will add the necessary information to your public
files to allow Movable Type's bookmarklet to parse out entries that allow
TrackBack and to grab the ping URL for those entries.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Create_a_TrackBack%2Denabled_bookmarklet%2E"></a>Create a TrackBack-enabled bookmarklet.</strong><br>
A TrackBack-enabled bookmarklet is just a new version of the standard
Movable Type bookmarklet, with one new feature: when you use the bookmarklet
to post to your blog, it will look at the current page in your browser
to see if it has any entries that have enabled TrackBack. (It obtains this
information using the tag we added in Step 4). If there are any entries,
the bookmarklet will allow you to select from the list of TrackBack-enabled
entries on that page that you can ping with your new post. When you post
your new entry, Movable Type will ping the URL for the appropriate entry
automatically, just as if you had entered the URL manually into the <i>URLs
to Ping</i> box.
<p>This simplifies the process of referencing a post on another site using
TrackBack.</p>
<p>If you are already using a bookmarklet, you will just need to recreate it
using the same fields you are using now, plus the <i>TrackBack items</i>
field. If you are not yet using a bookmarklet, you can create one.</p>
<p>Go to the <i>Main menu</i>, then click on <i>Set Up Bookmarklets</i>. Follow the
instructions to create the new bookmarklet, and be sure to include the
<i>TrackBack items</i> field.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_That%27s_it%21"></a>That's it!</strong><br>
Now you're ready to start using the TrackBack system.
<p>You can test your bookmarklet by going to the following page in your browser:</p>
<pre>http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/
</pre><p>Once your browser has loaded the page, click on your Movable Type
bookmarklet. In the window that opens, you should see a pulldown menu at
the top labelled <i>Select a TrackBack entry to ping:</i>. The menu contains
a list of all of the TrackBack-enabled entries on the above page.</p>
<p>If you see the menu, your bookmarklet is working, and you're ready to start
using TrackBack!</p>
<p>If you don't see that line, run <i>mt-check.cgi</i> to determine whether you
have <i>LWP::UserAgent</i> installed. That module is required to use TrackBack.</p>
<p></p></ol>
<p>
<h2><a name="using trackback"></a>Using TrackBack</h2>
<p>TrackBack can be used in two general ways: to communicate between entries on
different sites, or to communicate between categories on different sites.
In addition, in each of these scenarios you can act as the content
producer--where you are posting the entry--or you can act as the content
gatherer--where you are gathering a list of entries posted regarding your
TrackBack item (whether that be an entry or a category).</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_Entry%2Dto%2DEntry_communication"></a>Entry-to-Entry communication</strong><br>
<strong>As a content gatherer:</strong> When you post a new entry that you'd like to allow
other users to ping, check the <i>Allow Pings</i> checkbox. The TrackBack URL
will then be listed in the ``TrackBack'' popup window, as well as placed on
your individual archive page in a <link> tag so that it can be
automatically picked up by the Movable Type bookmarklet.
<p><strong>As a content producer:</strong> When you post a new entry and would like to ping an
entry on a remote web site, you can either post using the Movable Type
bookmarklet you set up above in Step 5 in <i>Setting up TrackBack</i>, or you
can manually add the TrackBack ping URL of the remote site into the <i>URLs
to Ping</i> box on the new/edit entry screen.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Category%2Dto%2DCategory_communication"></a>Category-to-Category communication</strong><br>
<strong>As a content gatherer:</strong> You can designate a category to ``allow pings''.
This sets up a TrackBack item for this category so that remote sites will
be able to send pings to your site, notifying you of new entries that fit
within the category. These pings can then be displayed on your site, allowing
you to build a repository of links relating to a particular subject.
<p><strong>As a content producer:</strong> You can associate a list of TrackBack URLs with a
category. When you post a new entry into this category on your own site, each
of the URLs you have listed will be pinged with information about this new
entry.</p>
<p></p></ul>
<p>When a ping is sent to a TrackBack item on your site, in addition to saving
the ping in the Movable Type database, the system updates an RSS feed for
the TrackBack item. The XML output is saved in a file in your Local Site
Path named <i>ID.xml</i>, where <i>ID</i> is the numeric ID of the TrackBack item.</p>
<p>
<h2><a name="trackback ping format"></a>TrackBack Ping Format</h2>
<p>TrackBack uses a REST model for its pings in order to ensure that each
TrackBack item has a unique URL (by the numeric ID of the TrackBack item).</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_Sending_a_ping"></a>Sending a ping</strong><br>
A request is made through HTTP GET to the ping URL, which generally looks
like this:
<pre>http://foo.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi?tb_id=ID
</pre><p>where <code>ID</code> is the numeric ID of the TrackBack item. The request parameters
are added on to the end of that URL, like this:</p>
<pre>http://foo.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi?tb_id=ID&title=TITLE&url=URL
</pre><p>etc. The possible query parameters are: <i>title</i> (title of the entry);
<i>excerpt</i> (an excerpt of the entry, which, if longer than 255 characters,
will be cropped to 252 characters and <code>...</code> added at the end); <i>url</i>
(the permalink for the entry); and <i>blog_name</i> (the name of the blog in
which the entry is posted).</p>
<p>A response is in a simple XML format to enable application-level error
detection (HTTP-level errors will be returned as such--for example, if the
TrackBack URL points to a non-existent location on the server, a <code>404</code>
error will be returned from the ping).</p>
<p>A successful ping will return the following response:</p>
<pre><?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<response>
<error>0</error>
</response>
</pre><p>A failed ping will return the following response:</p>
<pre><?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<response>
<error>1</error>
<message>The error message</message>
</response>
</pre><p>Applications should, of course, allow for the future addition of fields, if
necessary. But the XML structure of the response will remain the same.</p>
<p></p>
<li><strong><a name="item_Retrieving_Pings"></a>Retrieving Pings</strong><br>
To retrieve a list of pings made on a particular TrackBack item, use a
URL in this format:
<pre>http://foo.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi?tb_id=ID&__mode=rss
</pre><p>where <code>ID</code> is the numeric ID of the TrackBack item.</p>
<p>The response to this request will either be an error in the same format as
returned from the above request, or the list of TrackBack pings for that
item in RSS markup, wrapped in <code><response></code> tags.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<pre><?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<response>
<error>0</error>
<rss version="0.91"><channel>
<title>TrackBack Test</title>
<link>http://this.is/the/trackback/item/link/</link>
<description>Description of the TrackBack item</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<item>
<title>TrackBack Demo</title>
<link>http://this.is/the/permalink/</link>
<description>Excerpt</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss></response>
</pre><p></p></ul>
<p>
<h2><a name="reference documentation"></a>Reference Documentation</h2>
<p>Documentation on TrackBack-related elements are available here:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_TrackBack_tags"></a>TrackBack tags</strong><br>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_%3CMTPings%3E_and_related_tags%7Cmtmanual_tags%2F%"></a><a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#trackback tags"><MTPings> and related tags</a></strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_%3C%24MTEntryTrackbackCount%24%3E%7Cmtmanual_tags%"></a><a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtentrytrackbackcount"><$MTEntryTrackbackCount$></a></strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_%3C%24MTEntryTrackbackData%24%3E%7Cmtmanual_tags%2"></a><a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtentrytrackbackdata"><$MTEntryTrackbackData$></a></strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_%3CMTEntryIfAllowPings%3E%7Cmtmanual_tags%2Fitem_m"></a><a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtentryifallowpings"><MTEntryIfAllowPings></a></strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_%3C%24MTEntryTrackbackLink%24%3E%7Cmtmanual_tags%2"></a><a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtentrytrackbacklink"><$MTEntryTrackbackLink$></a></strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_%3C%24MTCategoryTrackbackLink%24%3E%7Cmtmanual_tag"></a><a href="./mtmanual_tags.html#item_mtcategorytrackbacklink"><$MTCategoryTrackbackLink$></a></strong><br>
</ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_TrackBack_fields_on_the_new%2Fedit_entry_screen"></a>TrackBack fields on the new/edit entry screen</strong><br>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_Allow_Pings%7Cmtmanual_entries%2Fitem_allow_pings"></a><a href="./mtmanual_entries.html#item_allow_pings">Allow Pings</a></strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_URL"></a><a href="./mtmanual_entries.html#item_urls_to_ping">URL(s) to ping</a></strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_Previous_pings_sent%7Cmtmanual_entries%2Fitem_prev"></a><a href="./mtmanual_entries.html#item_previous_pings_sent">Previous pings sent</a></strong><br>
</ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_TrackBack_fields_on_the_edit_category_screen"></a>TrackBack fields on the edit category screen</strong><br>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_TrackBack_URLs_to_ping%7Cmtmanual_categories%2Fite"></a><a href="./mtmanual_categories.html#item_trackback_urls_to_ping">TrackBack URLs to ping</a></strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_Accept_incoming_TrackBack_pings%7Cmtmanual_categor"></a><a href="./mtmanual_categories.html#item_accept_incoming_trackback_pings">Accept incoming TrackBack pings</a></strong><br>
</ul>
<li><strong><a name="item_IP_Banning%7Cmtmanual_blog_config%2F%22IP_Banning%"></a><a href="./mtmanual_blog_config.html#ip banning">IP Banning</a>: Ban users from sending TrackBack pings to your site</strong><br>
<li><strong><a name="item_XML%2DRPC_interface%7Cmtmanual_programmatic%3A_mt%"></a><a href="./mtmanual_programmatic.html">XML-RPC interface</a>: mt.getTrackbackPings</strong><br>
</ul>
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<span class="copyright">Copyright © 2001, 2002 Ben Trott and Mena Trott. All Rights Reserved.</span>
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