Google Spreadsheet integration for page themes
What is it?
You know how the Tumblr Customizer gives you neat little fields to fill in for styles and content? It’s kind of like that but for custom pages (for the content). Pages with custom layout only take raw code. So we’re essentially creating a makeshift back-end and have the page pull data from the spreadsheet to automatically generate the content based on an HTML template.
Should you do this for every page? No. Definitely not. It’s only useful for pages that have a lot of content data within the same repeatable HTML structures. Like multi character pages or similar.
Benefits?
- Easy to edit especially for those without much HTML knowledge.
- Reduces code clutter and therefore the risk of breaking the page by pasting things in the wrong place.
- Saves time digging through code & copy/pasting the same templates over and over.
- If you know what you’re doing: spreadsheets become portable to any page theme and you never have to re-enter the content into the page again.
Downsides?
- Slightly slower load times??? (unsure of the details)
- Harder initial set up.
- Tumblr customize preview breaks (don’t worry, just the preview.)
- Potential security risk if you have open write access and use template variables that allow the use of code. (so be careful with who you give write access!!)
Page theme examples using spreadsheets: mirror images, deja vu, succulent
Succulent page theme uses a different method that works too but is worse/harder to implement and less flexible. You can read about it here.
If you find bugs, please let me know!!