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Chyrp

• blogging, cms

Chyrp is a relatively new blogging engine designed to be extremely lightweight while retaining a lot of power and functionality. Chyrp, like most blogging applications, is driven by PHP, MySQL, and AJAX, and has a full-fledged theme and plugin engine.

What sets Chyrp apart from other content management systems like Wordpress is what makes Chryp so much fun. Chyrp was inspired by and modelled after Tumblr, the popular hosted tumblelog service, and Chyrp’s functionality is strikingly similar. Whereas Tumblr is a hosted service, Chyrp is not. Wordpress.com is to Wordpress.org as Tumblr is to Chyrp, with the exception that Chyrp is not programmed by the very people responsible for Tumblr. If you are looking to host your own tumblelog then Chyrp is most definitely the easiest and most powerful solution available. As an aside, Gelato CMS is another self-hosted tumblelog solution.

As I said, Chyrp functions like Tumblr, so it too has a number of different types of post types. There is a distinct difference between text, link, photo, audio and video posts. The difference is not only in entering the data for that particular post type, but also in the capability to stylize each post type completely distinct from the other. A text post looks distinct from a link post, which looks different than a photo post, etc… This is not to say that all posts types can not look identical, because they can, but to point out the power and the simplicity this power offers.

Chyrp’s feather system is what makes the various post types possible. Chyrp’s feather system is completely extensible, so anyone can add new feathers and functionality to the application. A few folks have already added third-party feathers, such as the Event and Review feathers. The feather system is what makes it dead simple to stylize different post types, and is part of the allure of tumblelogs.

I need to stress Chyrp’s feather system is not solely about the presentation of the data to the users reading the blog, but also about the manner in which Chyrp collects content. What this means to you as a potential Chyrp user is this: feathers are all about collecting and presenting the data needed for the post to be understood in the manner you desire.

Feathers make it easy to collect just the data needed to be presented to the user rather than filling the database with useless and unnecessary 1’s and 0’s. The feather system is the single-most powerful feature of Chyrp, and as the cliche says, the possibilities are indeed endless.

If Chyrp is to be considered a Tumblr competitor, which I suspect many people will believe, there is one rather important area Chyrp lacks. Currently Chyrp does not have the capability of automatically posting content based on new items added to RSS feeds. This is the one “killer” feature Tumblr offers, and probably its most widely used feature. That one specific function allows the user to focus on adding content elsewhere and have that automatically added to the blog, negating the need to act redundantly. I do not expect many folks to make the complete transition from Tumblr to Chyrp simply because of the lack of this one feature.

However, do not despair! Since Chyrp has a plug-in system, called modules, I fully expect such functionality to be added at some point. WP-o-Matic is a Wordpress plug-in which performs similar functions so adding such functionality to a blog is not unheard of. I imagine it is only a matter of time before an enterprising individual codes a Chyrp module to add this type of capability, especially if auto-post generation is never added to Chyrp’s core.

Overall, Chyrp is a powerful application which is definitely worth looking in to, especially if you like tumblelogs. I migrated my old tumblr account to a Chyrp install. Although my content is continually added to Tumblr automagically, I feel much more in control of Chyrp and what it can, and can not, ultimately do. It might appear to be a step back, so to speak, but ultimately I believe Chyrp will prevail.

If you prefer being in control rather than using hosted services then Chyrp is all for you. If you absolutely need automagical post creation then you might consider looking at Chyrp but not fully migrating your tumblelog until a solution becomes available. If nothing else, just give Chyrp a look to get an idea about how it works. You might be pleasantly surprised.

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