Movalog Blog

With dynamic publishing all you need to do to pull content from other blogs is to change the blog context of the page. Every tag is parsed within a context which affects the content it outputs. For example, with the MTEntries tag the correct entries are outputted because Movable Type checks the blog context to ensure that only entries from the corresponding blog are displayed. Changing the blog context allows you to pull content from other blogs! Changing the blog context is quite easy; all you need to do is add the following code in your dynamic templates just before the areas where you wish to show content from different blogs:

<?php 
$blog_id = X;
$this->stash('blog_id',$blog_id); 
$blog = $this->mt->db->fetch_blog($blog_id);
$this->stash('blog',$blog);
?>

Make sure you replace X with the id of the blog you wish to change the context to include. One this code is in place, the tags that follow this block of code will pull content from the blog's id that has been specified in the $blog_id variable. For example, if I had the following in one of my dynamic templates:

<?php 
$blog_id = 5;
$this->stash('blog_id',$blog_id); 
$blog = $this->mt->db->fetch_blog($blog_id);
$this->stash('blog',$blog);
?>
<MTEntries lastn="5">
<MTEntryTitle><br />
</MTEntries>

I would get a listing of the 5 most recent entry titles from the blog with an ID of 5. As you're changing the context of the blog, unlike the MultiBlog plugin, you aren't limited to entries or comments, you can in fact include any content from the blog, i.e. entries, comments, trackbacks, category listings etc.

At the end of the area with content from another blog, you will want to switch the context back to the current blog so that the rest of your content is properly parsed. To do so, simply copy the context changing block of code and change the value of $blog_id.

So typically, when you want to display content from a different blog, your code will look something like this:

<?php 
$blog_id = X;
$this->stash('blog_id',$blog_id); 
$blog = $this->mt->db->fetch_blog($blog_id);
$this->stash('blog',$blog);
?>

[content e.g. MTEntries, MTComments]

<?php 
$blog_id = Y;
$this->stash('blog_id',$blog_id); 
$blog = $this->mt->db->fetch_blog($blog_id);
$this->stash('blog',$blog);
?>