Tweet Crunch

Tumblr the micro blogging platform will be announcing some “big updates” in the coming weeks with a complete overhall of the template engine being first on the list.

We’ve tried to make Tumblr themes as open and customizable as possible, and the things you’ve created have blown our minds.  But there are still things we’ve wanted to do that haven’t been easy enough.

Starting from next Monday they will be scrapping the old code for a completely overhauled template engine.

The most noticeable improvements:

• The new engine is scoped, so you’ll be able to nest and repeat blocks and variables.
• The engine uses a new token parser that will support special syntax for API hooks. This will let your theme call back for content, like:

  {​block:Posts type="photo" tagged="spotlight" count="5"}
      " />
  {/block:Posts}

They have been testing the new engine to make sure it’s backwards compatible.  You can test it yourself by adding ?beta=1 to any tumblelog URL (ie. http://www.davidslog.com/?beta=1).  If it’s working correctly, you shouldn’t see a difference.