Custom Orchard Tumblr Theme

I created a new theme for Orchard that allows me to blog text, photos, quotes, links, audio, and videos like Tumblr. I have always been a fan of Tumblr, but as a web developer I like the idea of creating my own blog and website. And as an Orchard CMS Developer, I couldn't resist customizing Orchard such that it would provide me the Tumblr-like experience using an Orchard Blog.

Tumblr-Style Orchard Blog

I didn't really need a new blog, but I thought it would be fun to customize Orchard such that the blog was more like Tumblr. If you're familiar with Orchard, it has a pretty ordinary blog that let's you post "text." If you want to add any multimedia, like pictures and video, you need to embed the HTML in with the text. It is certainly possible to do that, but it is not the best user experience. However, Ochard is incredibly extensible so you can make the blogging experience anything you want!

So that's what I did. I customized Orchard to easily blog 6 types of posts: Text, Photo, Quote, Link, Audio, and Video. Now honestly I will probably never create all these types of posts, and if I do, it is really just to show that I can do it. In my 12 years of blogging I have never had the urge to post an audio or quote, and I think I have posted a video from YouTube once. Tumblr also supports a chat-type of post, but I skipped it because I know I won't be posting chats :)

As I started creating the Tumblr-style blog I ended up giving it all kinds of flexibility, which isn't the Tumblr way. First, posts can be "small", "medium", and "large" to give the lists a rather unique look. I also really like the Masonry Effect, so as you resize the browser the lists of posts will re-position themselves to give you the optimal viewing experience ( similar to Sarasota.me ).

All post types can include optional images and text. This is just a personal preference as I tend to like photos and other visuals, even if just for decoration :) Therefore even quote and link-style posts can have the optional image, which I believe is different than Tumblr. I will vary the use of images, however, or all posts will look the same.

My two other Orchard Blogs, Sarasota.me and DavidHayden.me, tend to focus a lot on Orchard Development, and I will be using the link-style posts to link to those more interesting posts. However, I plan to make this blog have a bit more variety in the off-chance that someone visits :)

We'll see how it goes. Mostly I like doing Orchard Development right now, so this gives me yet another playground to play!