tumblr-upload

Upload your Tumblr theme via node or CLI

Until now the only way to upload your custom theme to Tumblr was through their website, manually, by copying and pasting it into a form.

tumblr-upload lets you upload your theme via command line or in a node application (like gulp) using your Tumblr cookies as credentials.

Table of Contents

• Install
• Setup
  • Getting your credentials
  • Using your credentials
    • Sample tumblr-upload.ini
• Usage
  • With tumblr-upload.ini project file
  • With credentials passed as an argument
• API
  • tumblrUpload(htmlTemplate, callback)
  • new tumblrUpload.Blog(credentials)
• CLI
  • CLI examples
  • Options
• Legal

Install

$ npm install --save tumblr-upload

Setup

tumblr-upload simulates the press of the Save button in their backend, so it needs your own valid and current cookies. The cookie recovery process only takes a minute and it has to be done just once (per blog).

Getting your credentials

Cookies will be invalidated on logout, so it's suggested to do the following in an incognito window and to close it afterwards without logging out. Chrome was used for these steps:

1. Go to edit your Tumblr theme
   1. Log into Tumblr
   2. Select your blog
   3. Open Customize
   4. Open Edit HTML >
2. Save your theme with your developer tools open
   1. Type anything to enable the Update preview button
   2. Press the Update preview button
   3. Open your browser developer tools
   4. Open the Network tab and enable it if necessary
   5. Press the Save button on the site
3. You should see a POST request in the Network tab, select it
4. Scroll to the bottom and copy the values of id and user_form_key
5. Visit the Cookies tab
6. Copy the values of the cookies anon_id, pfe, pfp, pfs, and pfu

Using your credentials

You can specify these values in node, via command line, or in the tumblr-upload.ini file in your project root.

Sample tumblr-upload.ini

[my-special-tumblr]
    user_form_key: cqDwBjBTmy2oQHmyCFI574NNJQk
    anon_id: HTWJBOYOABHOFGDSLQIXNISORNJCVXSZ
    pfe: 1433542234
    pfp: ihx7GPOIpOm1YoVN1Np7awxBmbXdsz4rHDFPn6z4
    pfs: SpfJuvtJ5jxoDqCQ7qF1wA5mVdw
    pfu: 5252888
[my-other-tumblr]
    user_form_key: myCFI574NNJQkcqDwBjBTmy2oQH
    anon_id: DSLQIXNISORNJCVXSZHTWJBOYOABHOFG
    pfe: 4223414335
    pfp: p7awxBmbXdsz4rHDFPn6z4ihx7GPOIpOm1YoVN1N
    pfs: xoDqCQ7qF1wA5mVdwSpfJuvtJ5j
    pfu: 8885252

Usage

With tumblr-upload.ini project file

var tumblrUpload = require('tumblr-upload');
var fs = require('fs');
var template = fs.readFileSync('index.tumblr.html', 'utf8');
 
tumblrUpload(template, 'my-special-tumblr', function (err) {
    if (err) {
        console.error(err);
        return;
    }
    console.log('Uploaded!');
});

With credentials passed as an argument

var tumblrUpload = require('tumblr-upload');
var fs = require('fs');
var template = fs.readFileSync('index.tumblr.html', 'utf8');
 
var production = new tumblrUpload.Blog({
    tumblr_id: 'my-special-tumblr',
    user_form_key: 'cqDwBjBTmy2oQHmyCFI574NNJQk',
    anon_id: 'HTWJBOYOBBHOFGDSQQIXNISORNJCVXSZ',
    pfe: '1423532234',
    pfp: 'ihx7GPOIpOm1YoVN1Rq7awxBfbXdsz4rHDFPe6z4',
    pfs: 'SffJuvtJ5jxorRqCQ7qF1wT5mVdw',
    pfu: '5258845',
});
 
production.upload(template, function (err) {
    if (err) {
        console.error(err);
        return;
    }
    console.log('Uploaded!');
});

API

tumblrUpload(htmlTemplate, tumblr_id, callback)

This will upload the template using the credentials in tumblr-upload.ini in your project's root (or cwd).

Returns an http.ClientRequest object that can be .abort()'ed if necessary.

• htmlTemplate - Tumblr template to upload (the actual theme text, not the filename)
• tumblr_id - Your Tumblr ID (i.e. something in something.tumblr.com)
• callback(err) - Function to call after the upload. Err will contain the error message, or it will be undefined if successful.

new tumblrUpload.Blog(credentials)

Type: constructor

• credentials - Object or array previously-saved credentials. If array, follow this order: tumblr_id, user_form_key, anon_id, pfe, pfp, pfs, pfu

Returns an object with:

• upload(htmlTemplate, callback) (function)
  • htmlTemplate - Tumblr template to upload (the actual theme text, not the filename)
  • callback(err) - Function to call after the upload. Err will contain the error message, or it will be undefined if successful.

CLI

$ npm install --global tumblr-upload

CLI examples

# Basic usage, will use tumblr-upload.ini 
tumblr-upload my-special-tumblr index.tumblr.html
 
# Provide credentials on the fly, without relying on separate files 
# Must be in the following order: tumblr_id,user_form_key,anon_id,pfe,pfp,pfs,pfu 
tumblr-upload my-special-tumblr index.tumblr.html --credentials cqDwBjBTmy2oQHmyCFI574NNJQk,HTWJBOYOBBHOFGDSQQIXNISORNJCVXSZ,1423532234,ihx7GPOIpOm1YoVN1Rq7awxBfbXdsz4rHDFPe6z4,SffJuvtJ5jxorRqCQ7qF1wT5mVdw,5258845 

Options

--credentials

Specify comma-separed credentials, without spaces, in this order: tumblr_id,user_form_key,anon_id,pfe,pfp,pfs,pfu

--help

Show help screen

Legal

License: MIT © Federico Brigante

Tumblr trademarks belong to Tumblr, Inc

tumblr-upload is NOT affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by Tumblr.