Ben Croker, during the development track at EECI, showed a demo of a new ExpressionEngine add-on he has been working on.
“Continuum” allows for real time logging of how users interact with your ExpressionEngine sites. This add-on logs actions of users, be it visiting certain pages, filling out certain forms, and more. Continuum keeps track of it all.
Ben’s talk, geared towards add-on developers,highlights why you as an add-on developer need to be responsible in developing your add-ons.
Be it how you write your privacy policies, to how you follow the developer guidelines, the power is in your hands.
You need to think of ExpressionEngine as a platform, and your add-ons as a means to extend ExpressionEngine for the better. Adding hooks into your own add-ons for other developers to extend is a great point that has gained a lot of steam lately.
We make the assumption of how people will use our add-ons. And I don’t think we should.
The logic behind Continuum is built around a “progressive development”thinking pattern.
Continuum will be released at no charge in the near future.
So, Christopher Imrie just blew our minds, to say the least.
The typical project setup for Moresoda is something along the following:
Default EE Install
Git Version Controlled
Customized Config
Beanstalk with 3 Environments
Chris mentions that in development, features are created from the dev server, pushed to the staging server, and then to production. But, in terms of content, the flow is reversed.
Chris highlighted 5 typical ways to keep databases in sync:
Duplicate the DB on each environment
Migrate entire DB after each environment file updates
Migrate relevant DB tables
Staging and production server share the same DB
Update the production server first, then migrate the DB downwards
Well, today Chris introduced a sixth way to handle content across environments.
Site Manager solves many of our problems.
Site Manager gives you the ability to see all your sites, view configuration information, and best of all, sync content structure between sites.
It’s literally a one click process for taking fields from your local dev install, and transferring them to production.
EECI 2012 is underway! And it’s off to a great start.
Ryan Irelan started the day off and talked about the circus that is the ExpressionEngine community.
The point of this talk was to promote the awesome that is the ExpressionEngine community.
Ryan makes an important point that I completely agree with:
As a community, be it through client services, add-ons, training, conferences, or whatever we do, we create great things and charge money that support the economy surrounded by ExpressionEngine.
There is an economy surrounded around ExpressionEngine, and it’s affected by each and everyone of us. So keep making awesome!
Our community’s goal is focused on creating a great and flexible CMS.
Ryan showcased great members of the community including:
Kurt Deutscher - Sustainable business model built around Non-profit organizations.
Ryan Masuga - Devot:ee.
Eric Lamb - add-on developer.
Mark Croxton - the black magic that is Stash (and SwitchEE).
GroupDocs Viewer by GroupDocs GroupDocs Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF Viewer Embedder lets you embed several types of files into your pages using the GroupDocs High Fidelity Viewer - allowing inline viewing (and optional downloading) of the following file types, with no Flash or PDF browser plug-ins required.
Multi Language Country List($) by outline4 Multi Language Country List is a plugin that lets you output a list of countries in the language you choose. It comes with 7 predefined languages (default, english, french, german, italian, russian, spanish) and you can easily add your own. You can use it as a select drop-down, unordered list, just display one country or anything else you’d like.
Weather Forecast by Marcel Villerius ExpressionEngine plugin that parses weather information from Wunderground (city, current temperature, wind condition, etc).
This plugin requires an API key form Wunderground (free in most cases).
Infinite Scroll($, also for EE1) by Laisvunas Allows you to implement infinite scroll functionality in ExpressionEngine. Any ExpressionEngine tag outputting pagination links is supported!
Parscale Media, who is also behind DevDemon, is hosting an “EllisLab Meet n’ Greet” Monday night, October 15, at 6:30 pm.
Leslie Camacho gives us an idea what the night is about:
Monday evening is reserved specifically for you to talk to us about what you love, what’s not working for you, what you’d like to see next, and most importantly to give us the chance to connect person to person. Keynote speaker Brad Parscale will also be on hand to talk ExpressionEngine and growing your business.
The Meet N’ Greet takes place at the Horeshoe Bay Yacht Club, and includes a trip around the lake.
There are two trips planned, and to attend, all you have to do is email Les expressing interest.
Every web person I’ve come in contact with enjoys some Mumford & Sons. Perhaps that’s a stereotype of being a web worker, but regardless, I enjoy them.
Here’s some of the key points mentioned in the post:
There were 120 active participants in the program.
Affiliate programs serve a single purpose: to drive new business. They are not lotteries for existing customers to randomly reward other existing customers for purchases.
This was apparently what the current affiliate program was doing, which led to the statement:
Affiliate programs aren’t bad, ours was just flawed.
So, why is EllisLab now just closing this program?
We launched it, then didn’t give it much thought afterward.
They say “it’s been in automated operation for six years.”
What made them reexamine it now?
Something that has continually comes up is talk of a “new shopping experience”. And in light of this new experience, the affiliate program was examined and deemed unsuccessful in driving new business.
In light of this, we asked ourselves whether paying commissions under these conditions is a better choice than, say, hiring another developer (look for this very soon)?
It would seem, they’re about to hire another developer, which can only mean good things for ExpressionEngine and the other software EllisLab builds.
Derek concludes by saying that sites such as EE Insider and Devot:ee “don’t need financing from EllisLab to be viable” but rather
…a sustainable ecosystem is not built by a provider paying for participation. It’s our earnest hope that redirecting resources will improve the product, draw in new users, and ultimately increase the quality and quantity of the traffic these sites see, supporting whatever monetization or business model they have.
And there you have it, the logic behind the suspension of the affiliate program.
Happy October, everyone! The baseball regular season has ended and hopefully your favorite team is in the playoffs. Mine is.
It’s been a busy week around the ExpressionEngine world, for various reasons. One thing that hasn’t changed is what the community is doing day in and day out. We post about all sorts of stuff throughout the week but let’s catch up on some other things that happened this week.
Lots of add-on updates available, so let’s roll with those and other news.
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Preparse Update Available
Solspace made a bug fix update to Preparse available this week. It fixes a bug “where PHP was not parsing Preparse templates.”
Forms 3.2 by DevDemon
Another DevDemon update this week. This time it includes a long list of additions and a couple of bug fixes. The biggest addition is the ability to create a cart with Forms.
LH Phillips Site Launched
LH Phillips & Co has a new site powered by ExpressionEngine thanks to Richard Meredith and Frequency Is.
Polls Update by EE Harbor
Version 1.4 of Polls includes support for a custom return URL after poll submission, ability to remove a poll from an entry, ability to choose different polls from the Polls fieldtype (or you can create an additional one).
Editor New Features
Editor has been bumped up a version and includes the ability to browser uploaded images, a paste as plain text button, and syncing with the EE File Manager.
Imperial Manufacturing by 420 Creative
This week 420 Creative launched a new site for Imperial Manufacturing], which makes walk-in coolers. A big shout-out to Imperial for keeping the beer cold and to 420 Creative for building the site.
FreeForm Bug Fixes
Version 4.0.7 of FreeForm includes a couple of additions and set of bug fixes. I love this add-on. If you have it, be sure to update.
Forms JS Validation 1.3
Forms JS Validation, a plugin that makes it really simple to add validation to existing forms, was just updated for version 1.3. Added in this version was credit card validation, future validation, past validation and more.
Oh, and it’s a free add-on.
Sitemap Module and FireMail Updates
Ben Croker released updates to two of his modules: Sitemap and FireMail. Ben does really nice work, so use this opportunity to check out his add-ons.
We’ve got a big add-on update coming out soon, and we need your help! Before we can launch, we need lots and lots of pictures of adult beverages.
In preparation for their big add-on update, they need you to send pictures of your favorite cocktail/vino/beer to ontherocks@pixelandtonic.com. The cool part is, if they use your photo, you receive a free add-on license!
One lonely add-on submission this week. That’s OK, because EECI is right around the corner and we’re looking forward to our Texas trip to meet old freinds and make new ones in the ExpressionEngine community.
Trans-Struct by EpicVoyage If you ever create a multilingual site with Structure and Transcribe, this little plugin should be very useful.
In his weekly update, Ryan Masuga addressed a problem with add-on prices sometimes being higher on Devot:ee:
We don’t set prices. We let developers have free real estate on our site, day in and day out. We let them have free use of our support forums (if they choose). Any developer can pretty much say whatever they want in their add-on descriptions. They can share as much or as little information as they want. At this time, we don’t put any restrictions on how they price their add-ons.
For those who couldn’t make it to EECI this year (which is fast approaching), or for those who did, and want to talk more ExpressionEngine goodness, you should come out to the Baltimore EE Meetup.
Tuesday, October 23, at 7pm, Vim Interactive is hosting the “Post-EECI Conference Meet n’ Greet.”
Come join them for pizza, drinks, ping pong, and all things EECI.
Continuing on our template partials series, we have the creator of Stash, Mark Croxton, on today’s show! We chat about how the add-on came to be, how his other add-ons can integrate, lesser known features, and more! Mark also talks about his add-on development process, opinion on development best practices, and even why his add-ons are free.
As I stated on Twitter, I am disappointed that the affiliate program is ending. I always saw it more as a loyalty program that rightfully rewarded people who worked hard to help promote and support ExpressionEngine.
To be fair, however, this isn’t exactly how EllisLab touts the program on their website:
Do you love ExpressionEngine? Are you often referring friends, family, and coworkers to ExpressionEngine for their online projects? Now you can earn money for every new person you refer to us who makes a purchase in the store.
They are very plainly looking for people to help them refer new people to ExpressionEngine. I think I did that (just out of the sheer existence of my training materials and people finding this site through Google searches) but obviously not as much as needed. They said exactly that:
After careful evaluation we’ve determined that the affiliate program has not been as effective at bringing new ExpressionEngine users into the fold as we had hoped.
What are they going to do with the extra money?
Making this change will enable us to look at more effective forms of advertising as ways to reach new ExpressionEngine users and grow the community.
I sincerely hope they use the funds they would’ve paid out to affiliate program participants to help grow the community. Historically, there has been no push from EllisLab to advertise or promote EE, so I’m not particularly hopeful that they’ll start now.
In an email to members of EllisLab’s affiliate program, it was made known that this program will be ending, and final payments for the program will be made on November 1st.
The email makes mention of “a new, simplified and
improved shopping and user experience” that is on the way. I look forward to seeing what they have in store (pun intended).
The entirety of the message is as follows:
Hello,
In just a few weeks we will be launching a new, simplified and
improved shopping and user experience. At that time, we will be
suspending our affiliate referral program.
After careful evaluation we’ve determined that the affiliate program
has not been as effective at bringing new ExpressionEngine users into
the fold as we had hoped. Mostly the program has provided long-time
users and agencies with a commission on additional purchases. Making
this change will enable us to look at more effective forms of
advertising as ways to reach new ExpressionEngine users and grow the
community.
Final payments to your PayPal account will be made on November 1st,
2012 for any remaining balance. We appreciate everyone who has
participated over the years.
Thank you,
The EllisLab Team
What are your thoughts on this move? Let us know in the comments!
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Happy October, everyone! The baseball regular season has ended and hopefully your favorite team is in the playoffs. 
