Blog Entry
- MSM Member Group Switcher ($, for EE2) by Yuri Salimovskiy (IntoEEtive)
Switch member’s group depending on what MSM site is he at.
- Text Captcha (for EE2) by codeTrio
Replace ExpressionEngine default graphic captcha by logic-based textual questions by taking advantage of the textCAPTCHA.com service.
- Meetup ($, for EE2) by mithra62 (Eric Lamb)
Meetup allows you to pull meetup.com data into your ExpressionEngine site. Meetup comes with a plethora of template tags that makes it possible to display groups, events, member info, and more.
- VZ Range (for EE2) by Eli Van Zoeren
A numeric range fieldtype for Expression Engine 2. Output just the minimum and maximum, or every step in between.
Blog Entry
Over at Meta Q front-end developer Terris Kremer wrote up a tutorial on using the Stash add-on to create entry previews.
Wait, what’s Stash?
Stash allows you to stash text and snippets of code for reuse throughout your templates. Variables can be set dynamically from the $_GET or $_POST superglobals and can optionally be cached in the database for persistence across pages.
Stash variables that you create are available to templates embedded below the level at which you are using the tag, or later in the parse order of the current template.
The premise of the tutorial is that existing methods for creating entry previews are too complicated.
There are a few add-ons and methods out there that let site admins preview their ExpressionEngine entries and they all stink.
I disagree with the premise (the solution with Stash ended up being more complicated) but the tutorial is a great demonstration of what you can do with the Stash add-on by Mark Croxton.
Blog Entry
Github maintains a list of .gitignore file templates for different frameworks, CMSes, languages and applications. Wes Baker added his own for ExpressionEngine.
.DS_Store
# Images
images/avatars/
images/captchas/
images/smileys/
images/member_photos/
images/signature_attachments/
images/pm_attachments/
# Caches
sized/
thumbs/
_thumbs/
*/expressionengine/cache/*`
There’s also a template for CodeIgniter.
Blog Entry
This is a on-going series of entries where I highlight EE experiences.
Kaboom.
Instructional Video
Part of the EllisLab how-to video library
A 2-minute demonstration on how to remove the index.php file from your ExpressionEngine site.
Get the Video
How-to Article
Creating and managing website forms is tricky at best and downright painful at worst. Several years ago when I jumped into ExpressionEngine development, I had become spoiled from years of using Wufoo, but in this particular project, Wufoo was no longer an option.
At the time, I found only one add-on for EE forms management, but it didn’t have Wufoo’s familiar drag-and-drop interface and ease-of use I sought.
Several years later, enter DevDemon’s Forms 2.0 touting:
- A drag-and-drop interface for creating forms,
- Strong email notification features,
- Managing form entries within the EE control panel, and
- Ease of integrating those custom-made forms into EE templates.
My curiosity was piqued, but I needed to get under the hood and give it a solid test. So here we go.
Of the 20 claimed product features on DevDemon’s website, I’ll be testing 16.
Read the Article
Blog Entry
I missed this somehow when it was released in late March, but Viget redesigned their site and it is, of course, running ExpressionEngine. Front-end developer Trevor Davis wrote up a comprehensive article on how the site used EE to manage the blogs.
A couple of snippets from the article that I found interesting:
Well, we went from EE 1.6.2 to 2.4, and it was 100% seemless. Not once did we encounter an error. Pretty impressive if you ask me.
That makes me a bit more confident about a planned upgrade I have on my to-do list.
I can’t even count the number of EE sites I’ve built, but to me, the best way to define your channel structure is to use a whiteboard.
The best way to do anything is with a whiteboard!
They used a lot of the add-on you’d expect: Freeform, Wygwam, Low Reorder , Matrix, Playa, Template Variables, CE Image, Smartdown and more. The entire list is in the article.
Viget Design Director Tom Osborne also has an article from mid-March on the new Viget design.
A belated congratulations to the Viget team on the launch!
Blog Entry
You’d be hard pressed to find a website without some sort of image gallery these days. This week, we go through the various ways you can manage images with EE, briefly talk about EE1 to EE2 gallery issues, contemplate whether EE should be the primary manager versus pulling from a third-party service, native gallery creation, as well as the various add-ons that are available to make galleries and image management possible.
Blog Entry
- Pages AutoSave URI (for EE2) by Johan Strömqvist
“Pages AutoSave URI” automatically saves your entry url_title field to your page URI field. Never again does your client need to manually type the “Page URI” value.
Blog Entry
A big, awkward, extra long hug to the following companies for supporting EE Insider through their ads on the site:
- Expresso and Store 1.5 - One of the newest and most promising e-commerce add-ons for ExpressionEngine. I’m really excited about what they’re doing and you should be, too. They just released a new version and a new website. Check it out.
- Pixel & Tonic - The longest running advertiser on the site and well-known for the add-ons Assets, Playa, Matrix and Wygwam. They make some of the hottest add-ons for ExpressionEngine.
- Solspace - By far, Solspace has the largest catalog of EE add-ons and is one of the original add-on developers. When an add-on comes from Solspace, you can trust that it’s going to work and that you’ll get the support you need. Their Rating module allows you to easily add rating functionality to your website.
- Vector Media Group - Based in New York City, they are not only experts (and leaders) on ExpressionEngine, they are also experts in SEO. Matt and Lee at Vector Media Group are a valuable part of our community.
- Structure - Travis and Jack have built and supported the easiest way to allow your clients to manage pages (with hierarchy) in ExpressionEngine. I love Structure and use it on Mijingo.com.
EE Insider is into its fourth year online and it wouldn’t be possible without the help of our advertisers. Would you like to share your product or service with the community? Get in touch.
Blog Entry
This one is personal to me because I worked on the project that first brought paidContent to ExpressionEngine. Today WordPress announced that paidContent re-launched on WordPress and their WordPress VIP service.
It’s definitely strange to see them move off of the ExpressionEngine platform after almost 6 years. I only worked on the initial launch and I know they had a lot of custom development work done in the years after.
So, why the move? paidContent is now part of the GigaOm network and GigaOm sites run WordPress and use the WordPress VIP hosting service. WordPress VIP is a service that host some big, big name blogs.
Blog Entry
EllisLab CCO James Mathias presented at the Made by Few Web Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. The theme of his talk was “respect.” James shared his personal experience and lessons learned as a web designer over the last 12 years. He also shared a little bit about his experience working online and for EllisLab.
Only 22 minutes long and definitely worth the watch and listen. And now I know how to pronounce his last name. Oops.
Blog Entry
This is a on-going series of entries where I highlight EE experiences.
Probably why no one has done a news site for the community either.
Update: In the comments, Adam points out the this was probably meany literally, not as a snark. We regret the jump to conclusions.
Blog Entry
Originally announced for a March release, EllisLab yesterday announced that they had to delay the release of EE 2.5 so they can deal with the EU cookie legislation and bringing ExpressionEngine in compliance with those new laws.
Robin Sowell of EllisLab writes:
2.5.0 is being pushed out to allow the inclusion of a new Cookie Consent module. The module will require consent before allowing any cookies to be set using ExpressionEngine’s native functions. Login and registration will also be restricted to those who have granted consent for cookies. Consent can be granted through the use of a link or through the inclusion of a form field on login and registration pages. The module will include conditionals for user consent, providing maximum flexibility for designers, who are free to create a ‘cookie consent’ interface that complements their site.
EllisLab is taking the module approach (using hooks in the core code) so that developers have the flexibility to “take their own approach to the new regulations.”
Also included in EE 2.5 is the new ExpressionEngine rich text editor that EllisLab previewed back in February.
Blog Entry
This year’s Engine Summit, the online conference for ExpressionEngine, takes place on May 29th. The conference was announced in the latest EllisLab email newsletter.
Environments for Humans brings together some of the Web’s most notable experts in and for an all-new, one day online conference, the Engine Summit 2012! Bring the experts to your desktop on May 29, 2012 from 9AM to 4PM (CT).
This year Engine Summit includes sessions with ExpressionEngine experts Emily Lewis, Lea Alcantara, Mark Huot, Joel Bradbury, an EE Reactor member Erik Reagan. There will also be a Round Table discussion lead by EllisLab CEO Leslie Camacho.
Tickets for May’s online conference are on sale now.
Blog Entry
- Matrix Cat Col (for EE2) by koivi
Adds a cell type to the Matrix plugin that allows you to set the categories for each row. When categories are set for a row, the same categories are also selected for the entry.
- Directory Contents (for EE2) by koivi
This plugin recurses a directory on the file system and displays the contents as a link tree.
- http_auth (for EE2) by koivi
This plugin utilizes HTTP basic authenitcation as a basis to provide or deny access to a web page.
- Republic Analytics (for EE2) by Republic
Tap into your Google Analytics account and display the charts and the stats right in the Control Panel.
- Single Logon (for EE2) by EpicVoyage
Replacement for ExpressionEngine’s “Allow multiple log-ins from a single account?” option.
- Encaf Double Date (for EE2) by Chad Crowell (Encaffeinated)
Return a well-formatted date/time for event durations.
- Cache (for EE2) by Joshua Baker
A module for ExpressionEngine 2 that creates static HTML files from parsed templates.
- Page tracker ($, for EE2) by Percipio
Logs page views made by registered members and displays them in CP
- CHP - CustomHookPoints (for EE2) by AutumnDev
CHP - CustomHookPoints allows you to add custom hook points to the start of any function, in any file in the /system/expressionengine/ directory.
- Rackspace Cloudfiles ($, for EE2) by Taecho Group
This is an Expression Engine 2 fieldtype add-on that will allow you to create a custom field to automatically upload to Rackspace Cloud Files servers. This also works with Pixel & Tonic’s Matrix Fieldtypes.
- Title Master - Developer License ($, for EE2) by Marc Tanis (BlendIMC)
Title Master puts you in control of your Channel Entry’s Titles and URL Titles. Stop working against your titles, and start letting your titles work for you.
- Zipcode Search (for EE2) by Anthony W. Rainer
A quick and simple way to add zipcode searching to your EE. (U.S. Only)
Blog Entry
EECI updated everyone via Twitter today that tickets for the event in Leiden go on sale tomorrow (March 27th) 10 AM (GMT +1).
There are only 40 early bird tickets available at €275 + tax.
Blog Entry
Over the weekend a group of designers and developers particpated in the Overnight Web Challenge, which is organized by The Nerdery. At this year’s event there were 18 different teams who all took on the task of redesigning and rebuilding a non-profit website…overnight.
One of the groups was Twin Cities EE, a “collective of local developers specializing in ExpressionEngine development.” The group included EE developer Brian Litzinger and Sarah Hicks, who wrote up a report of the event on her blog.
The Twin Cities EE group was assigned the non-profit Franconia Sculpture Park (old site).
The developers on our team gave them the moon using the Expression Engine CMS. Not only can the public book a tour online or view an interactive sculpture map, they can view BIG photos of the park. Everything at the park is BIG. There current site doesn’t give them enough credit nor come close to offering a BIG presence as so many of their beautiful sculptures do.
Read Sarah’s entire write-up to learn about the event, including photos and the finished product.
Nice work, everyone!
Blog Entry
Late last week, Jamie Pittock and Lodewijk Schutte (you probably know him as “Low”) announced a new classroom training service based in Europe.
Gee Up brings hands-on ExpressionEngine classroom training to Europe. Starting off with a four-day beginners to intermediate class and advanced development masterclasses in the future, Gee Up hopes to encourage people new and familiar with EE to broaden and enhance their knowledge in this increasingly popular content management system.
The first class takes place in June (18-21) of this year in Manchester UK and is focused on begginers and intermediates. Jamie and Low also plan to offer more advanced courses (like add-on development) later and they hope to offer a similar beginner course on mainland Europe, too. If you’re interested in either of those, you should get in touch with them and let them know.
Blog Entry
We have very busy lives, so anything that makes work go by more efficiently will help your bottom line and customer experience.
This week’s EE Podcast focuses on time-saving practices to incorporate in your EE workflow: from upgrade and install, to pre-development planning and documentation. We also share some of our listener’s advice for making EE development a lot faster. Tune in now!
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