How to customize your blogs with simple “Variables” and “Tags”

For bloggers, a few thinsg about customizing blog templates. namely “variables” and “Tags.”

They are almost magical if you arn’t used to them but they wil let you make your blog template all yours with a look and a feel that is unique.

Variables begin with . They can be used to output various bits of content on your weblog. For example, placing in your template will output the title of your weblog. Tags begin with <> and end with . Any content between them is modified in some way, or looped over and outputted multiple times. For example, placing in your template will display the title of each of your entries.

Today we will look at common variables. If you are using some that are not on the list please post them so that others may play around with them.

Variables List
- Weblog title and current page title.
- Weblog title.
- Weblog description.
- Weblog owner’s avatar URL.
- Weblog owner’s email address.
- The blog’s calendar.
- Weblog’s main page URL.
- Weblog owner’s profile URL.
- Weblog’s archive page URL.
- Weblog’s friends page URL.
- Weblog’s RSS feed URL.
- Photo Album URL
- Podcast Feed URL
- Contents only display on the main page.
- Contents only display on the view entry page.
- Contents will only display on the archive page.
- Weblog’s archive list.
- Contents will only display on the friends page.
- Displays your weblog’s custom links.
- Link title.
- Link URL.
- Displays your list of friends.
- Friend’s username.
- Friend’s weblog URL.
- Displays the list of members for this weblog.
- Member’s username.
- Member’s profile URL.
- Displays this weblog’s entry categories.
- Category name.
- Category URL.
- Displays a list of your recent entries.
- Recent Entry’s title.
- Recent Entry’s date.
- Recent Entry’s time.
- Displays this weblog’s entries.
- Entry title.
- Author’s username.
- Author’s avatar URL.
- Author’s profile URL.
- Entry date.
- Entry time.
- Entry main content.
- Entry permanent URL.
- Entry “Send This Link” URL.
- Contents will only display if the administrator has enabled entry categories.
- Entry category.
- Contents will only display if comments are allowed on this entry.
- Contents will only display if the viewer is allowed to post comments on this entry.
- “Post Comment” URL.
- Number of comments on this entry.
- Displays the comments on this entry.
- Edit Comment link.
- Delete Comment link.
- Comment title.
- Comment’s author username/nickname.
- Comment’s author avatar.
- Comment’s author IP address.
- Comment date.
- Comment time.
- Comment’s main content.
- Comment’s permanent URL.
- Contents will only display if trackbacks are allowed on this entry.
- Entry’s trackback URL.
- Total number of trackbacks on this entry.
- The RDF trackback metadata for this entry.
- Displays the trackbacks on this entry.
- Delete Trackback link.
- The sender’s weblog name for this trackback.
- The sender’s weblog URL for this trackback.
- Trackback title.
- Trackback content.
- Trackback date.
- Trackback time.
- Contents will only display if the weblog has more than one page.
- Links the contents to the previous page URL.
- Links the contents to the next page URL.
- The current page number.
- The total number of pages.