What is a template and a template tag?

A template is a file that is processed by Movable Type to produce a text file suitable for web publishing, such an HTML file (which is most common), a PHP file, a JavaScript file, a CSS file, etc.

Designers utilize template tags within a template to easily parameterize the output of the template itself.

In many respects, Movable Type’s templating language, the collection of all of Movable Type’s template tags, is a programming language unto itself. It is as functional as PHP and JavaScript, but has more in common with HTML as it utilizes a more semantic, tag or markup oriented approach to templating.

Let’s compare Movable Type’s templating language side-by-side with PHP:

PHP

<html>
  <head>
    <title><?php echo $BLOG_NAME; ?></title>
  </head>
  <body>...</body>
</html>

Movable Type Template Tag Syntax

<html>
  <head>
    <title><mt:BlogName></title>
  </head>
  <body>...</body>
</html>

As you can see they are virtually identical. We will leave the debate of language aesthetics to the uber-geeky.

What is a template and a template tag?

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