I have been installing the beta releases of Movable Type 4.x, and recently installed the final release of this great update to the Movable Type platform. The new interface is very clean, and easy to use once you have worked in it a little. The updated templates seem to be very usable and modularized, making customization easier than in previous versions. And there certainly are a lot of great features.

Today I finally took some time today to work in the system and see what I could learn. I got the Media Manager plugin working (in beta from Byrne), which was a nice accomplishment. (On a side note, this is a great foundation for some powerful integration with external systems, but seems to be lacking in “integratability,” probably because of the limitations mentioned next.) In the process of this I got to play a bit with the new Asset Manager. I added and removed Amazon and Flickr content, looked at the code, read a bit, edited some code, and really tried to bang on it for a little while.

I am still very much a newbie at it all, but I came away wondering what is the point of this super-special, sparky-new Asset Manager? Yeah, it does allow you to “Create a Flickr” asset, but for what purpose? It is a very handy file manager, but nothing more. You can’t add that asset to a post after creation (can you?). You can’t edit it. You can’t move it. You can’t to anything with it except view it.

I am hoping I am just missing some very basic information, and once I get that info, it will all snap into place in my head. I anxiously await insight from Jesse, since he is certainly the foremost non-Six Apart Movable Type guru on the planet. Well, maybe second, behind Arvind.