Linked Entry Custom Fields
This plugin converts custom fields created by the RightFields plugin to Movable Type's native custom fields. It also provides an additional custom field type that RightFields provided: the linked entry.
Installation
Backup your Movable Type database.
Unpack the LinkEntryCustomField's zip file on your system.
Copy the entire
LinkedEntryCustomFielddirectory, found in thepluginsdirectory created when you unpacked the plugin archive, into your Movable Type installation'spluginsdirectory.
And you are finished.
Note however that if you are running Movable Type under FastCGI, you will have to restart your web server in order for the plugin to be recognized.
Using this Plugin
The Right Fields to Custom Fields migration process will begin automatically after you have installed the plugin. Please be sure to make a backup of your system, prior to installation.
How the Migration Process Works
When you install the Linked Entry Custom Fields plugin, Movable Type will prompt you to upgrade. If you have any Right Fields data in your database, regardless of whether it is stored in a custom SQL table, or via Movable Type's native Plugin Data interface, the plugin will attempt to:
- create a custom field for each Right Fields field
- migrate the data into the newly created custom field
To prevent unnecessary custom field proliferation, this plugin will attempt to map what it deems to be (roughly) identical fields into a single global custom field. This is how it determines if two fields are "identical:"
- LECF scans all of your fields in Right Fields.
- If it finds more than one field with the same ID, then it compares them more closely.
- If the two or more fields are the same type and share the same settings, then it deems them to be identical and will create a global custom field to store their data.
The only caveat is that this does not apply to fields of type "File" as there is no equivalent at a system level in Movable Type.
All other fields in Right Fields will be converted to a blog level custom field.
Known Issues
There are no known issues with this release of the plugin.
Harrods
October 31, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply
Great plugin!
After I install and upgrade with the plugin, can I delete "Linked Entry Custom Fields" plugin from the plugin directory?
Byrne Reese
replied to comment from Harrods
October 31, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply
Its best to leave it installed. It won't upgrade again, which is of course a good thing.
The only reason why one could safely remove/disable it, would be because they make no use of the LinkedEntry Custom Field type.
metisinternet
November 14, 2008 8:30 AM | Reply
Thanks this worked perfectly.
Is there any chance that in future version Custom Fields will handle image uploads more like RightFields? That is, with the ability to preselect upload locations and overwrite filenames?
It is really handy for running Movable Type as a CMS.
Thanks for a great plugin
David
November 14, 2008 3:08 PM | Reply
I think that I've found a bug in Linked Entry Custom Fields. I installed the LECF plugin on my new MT 4.2 blog. Creating a linked entry custom field worked without any problems.
But when I tried to create a drop-down menu type custom field, I experienced a problem because MT replaced the options that I had typed with the number 0. Here's what happened:
Is there any way to fix this problem? Thanks for the help!
metisinternet
December 4, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply
I have the same problem as David.
Any solutions?
Blim
January 24, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply
I'm getting the following error:
"Error during upgrade: Can't call method "load" on an undefined value at /var/www/blahblahblah/mt/plugins/LinkedEntryCustomFields/lib/LinkedEntryCustomFields/Convert.pm line 75."
Any help with this is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Steve Rhodes
replied to comment from Blim
March 31, 2009 5:41 PM | Reply
Blim, we are having the same issue. Did you find a solution? Thanks.
Anil Dash
April 16, 2009 11:13 AM | Reply
Blim, Steve Rhodes, it turns out that issue only comes up if you are missing the Custom Fields functionality in MT. This can happen if you don't have MT Pro 4.2 or higher -- note you have to have MT Pro for the custom fields to be built-in.
Good news is you can get it right from movabletype.com.
Gautam Patel
July 25, 2009 10:13 PM | Reply
LinkedEntryCustomFields does not play nicely with CustomFields (using MT Pro 4.2+). LECF affects the display format of several CustomFields, including the Date/Time (which always only shows as 'Date & Time' and can't be set to 'Date Only' or 'Time Only'), Radio Buttons, etc.
This is reported in the Fogbugz. AFAIK, it's never been resolved.
Mike Bee
November 2, 2009 11:36 AM | Reply
LECF seemed to transfer all of my data from old MT 3.2 CustomFields plugin to MT 4 ... EXCEPT one set of data is no longer linked. The data is in the MySQL database (in old and new locations), but the data variables are not showing up in the blog's Custom Fields, nor does it show a default value in the dropdown menu.
Little help, please? :)
raul
February 18, 2010 1:53 PM | Reply
Are there any usage examples of this anywhere? I have several MT3 installations that use lots of right field linking between entries. I'd like to see some usage examples before plunging into the upgrade. Specifically I'd like to see how custom fields from one blog can be referenced from one blog to another using a custom field link (as in rightfields)... It's not clear that this is even possible...
Mihai Bocsaru
March 21, 2010 6:29 PM | Reply
According to some threads from the forum it looks like this plugin is not compatible with movable type v5.x.
While you are still running movable type v4.x (before considering to upgrade to v5.x), I would recommend that you convert your custom fields into "native movable type custom fields" using this plugin.