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We are two weeks away from the 4 year anniversary of the EE Help Chat. Since September 17, 2008, the chat has taken place almost every week—a real testament to our community and how we can organize ourselves to share knowledge, ideas, and help each other.
This week’s EE Help Chat is tonight at 9 PM Eastern. Join us in the chatroom (it’s free!) for an hour or more of questions, answers and conversation about ExpressionEngine.
The chat is sponsored by EngineHosting, a reliable and affordable place to host your ExpressionEngine sites, and Mijingo, the best way to learn ExpressionEngine (and more).
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EECI 2012 US is quickly approaching. It takes place October 15th and 16th at Horseshoe Bay Resort just outside of Austin, TX. In the beautiful Texas hill country you’ll be able to meet other members of the community, hear great talks, learn about ExpressionEngine and experience the resort.
The hotel rooms are inexpensive (only $169) and Austin is easy to fly to from almost anywhere in the USA. If you have family, bring them! They can enjoy the activities and amenities at the resort while you attend the conference.
The conference schedule is still being finalized (including a topic from this guy), but you can see that it’s shaping up to be a conference packed with informative, helpful talks.
I’ll be there and you should be, too. Tickets are available now for only $250.
What are you waiting for?
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The Outfit worked on the recently re-launched Evernote Trunk and, you guessed it, it is powered by ExpressionEngine.
We redesigned and rebuilt Evernote’s app library, The Trunk, in just over two months — complete with beautiful custom graphics, cutting-edge front-end development techniques, and a content management system that makes a complex set of data easy to update and maintain.
Read their case study on the project Looks amazing!
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Via CodeIgnitee is this ExpressionEngine sales FAQ posted in late July. In case you thought you’d hear ahead of time about new features or even a new major version of ExpressionEngine.
Is there an ExpressionEngine Roadmap?
Short answer, no, at least not a public one. This doesn’t feel like a change from how things have been going in the last year or two. In my own business I try to not talk about anything until it’s ready, so I think this is a good approach. Ship it when you’re ready, otherwise keep your mouth wide shut.
Good advice:
Always, without exception, make decisions regarding EE based on what’s currently available.
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It’s a late wrap this week but we’re wrapping no matter the time. I’ve been busy with some last minute work before taking a week off. Don’t worry, EE Insider will continue to be updated.
The week was filled with great add-on releases, and some announcements to the community. All in all, not a dull week, right?
Grab your scissors and tape, it’s time to wrap. Let’s get started!
Zoo Triggers 1.1.8 Released
Zoo Triggers “fills the gap between Structure and ‘categories and archives’.” This week they released version 1.1.8 and it includes fixes for some PHP bugs.
Red Carrot Article on Uploading EE2
A helpful article by Red Carrot on uploading a zip file and installing ExpressionEngine on the server.
Assets 1.2.2 Released
This update to Pixel & Tonic’s Assets includes additional tags, support for PowerPoint files, cleaner file names and some bug fixes.
Tyssen Design Redesigns
A freshly redesigned site by John Faulds of Tyssen Design. Ooooh responsive, too!
Low Events 1.0.4 Released
This is a new favorite add-on of mine. Cleverly simple but powerful, Low Events is another choice you have when needing to implement an events calendar in ExpressionEngine. The update includes new parameters and bug fixes.
Encaffeinated Launches University of Colorado Site
Chad Crowell of Encaffeinated announced a site launch: University of Colorado Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.
Jobs on EE
There are a couple of places online where you can go to find jobs related to ExpressionEngine:
New job postings on both sites, so take a look if you’re in the market for a new gig!
Tweet of the Week
Chosen by me, shared with you.
On the EE Insider Blog
Have a great weekend wherever you are!
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Today is the last day of the 2-day End of Summer sale at Mijingo. The sale gives you 35% off anything we sell in the store when you use the coupon code FALL2012.
Save on the popular 4-hour video series Learning ExpressionEngine. Over the last four years, thousands of people have learned ExpressionEngine the right way using the Mijingo video series.
You can also learn about using MySQL queries in your EE templates or how to create relationships between entries. And, of course, Mark Huot’s concise ebook on setting up a secure and organized ExpressionEngine installation is available, too.
There’s more than that to learn. Check out the entire Mijingo catalog.
The sale ends after today, so don’t procrastinate!
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Yesterday, DevDemon announced Editor, a WYSIWYG editor for ExpressionEngine.
DevDemon’s Editor for ExpressionEngine uses Redactor to deliver a clean, light and overall amazing experience to all of your text fields. Editor works as a WYSIWYG for default fields, matrix fields, Low Variables and category descriptions. Upload Images and Files to your content with jQuery ease.
Editor costs $15 per site license or $150 for an unlimited developer license.
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Solspace announced their new affiliate program today.
The affiliate program offers 5% kickback on any software purchase made by referral. There are some limitations and rules, so be sure to read everything before signing up. And when you do, enjoy making a few bucks while recommending your favorite Solspace add-ons.
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The gentlepeople at Made By Hippo shared how they approach extending add-ons that don’t do exactly what they need:
[W]e have started adding custom hooks into existing addons and points in the code that we need to inject our functionality. Not only does this abstract the custom logic away from the core add-on, but it means you’re looking at 2-3 lines of code when it comes to upgrading the add-on for future releases.
Rather than hacking at the code, they just give themselves a place to inject their own code. Still a hack but cleaner because it’s easier to update.
Great write-up. Read the entire article for all the information, including code samples to get you started.
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- Editor ($) by DevDemon
Welcome to the world’s most Beautiful and easy-to-use WYSIWYG html editor. DevDemon’s Editor for ExpressionEngine uses Redactor to deliver a clean, light and overall amazing experience to all of your text fields. Editor works as a WYSIWYG for default fields, Matrix fields, Low Variables and category descriptions. Upload Images and Files to your content with jQuery ease.
- Cookie Decline by Damien Majer
Opt-out alternative to the Cookie Consent module.
- Number Formatter by Douglas Green
Sends a value through the PHP number_format() function, and returns a formatted number.
- Linktracker by Damien Majer
This is an EE2 port of Oliver Heine’s EE1 AJAX Linktracker. This module allows you to track clicks on arbitrary links that have an ID attribute. You can use it to track file downloads, outgoing links or internal navigation links.
- Flag Master ($) by mithra62 (Eric Lamb)
Flag Master makes it easy to hand content moderation of an ExpressionEngine site off to the users. With Flag Master you can create unlimited Profiles with custom options to allow site users the ability to mark, or “Flag”, certain content based on your specific needs and custom criteria.
- GET Variable to Segment URL Redirect by Laurence Cope
This plugin will look at the GET URL variables and redirect the user to the segment version of the URL.
- Store: In_Cart Conditionals by Michael Rog
This extension adds certain “in_cart” conditionals within Exp:resso Store Cart and Checkout tags.
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Yesterday EllisLab posted an official social media policy, which included the consolidation of their Twitter accounts (only @EllisLab will be used for now). They also shared how you can reach out to them:
We love hearing from you and we enjoy having real, direct, one-on-one conversations with our users. You are welcome at any time to contact us directly with questions, requests, concerns, or just to say hi by emailing team@ellislab.com, or any individual on the team with first.last@ellislab.com.
Please take advantage of contacting them directly via email. If you have praise, frustrations, concerns, suggestions or ideas the best way to voice those are directly to them. I’ve discussed several things with them over email and they’ve always been thoughtful and helpful with their responses.
EllisLab also clarified how they intend to use Twitter. First, with their take on the social media:
Social networking is great for notification, for broadcasting small bites of information to a group of followers, and for pointing to permanent content that exists elsewhere.
That’s one of the things that Twitter is good at. But it’s not all, if you use it properly. I see some great companies and brands use Twitter very, very effectively. On a smaller scale, Twitter engagement and discussions have been crucial to my ExpressionEngine training business.
EllisLab is free, however, to use Twitter as they see fit. If they don’t think it’s a good medium for them then they are right to not use it to engage with the community. I hope this means they’ll have a big presence at EECI, meetups and other gatherings, so the community can interact with many of the EllisLab team one-on-one.
It is bad at working with others to solve specific complex problems, troubleshoot issues, or having in-depth conversations that result in understanding how to build better software. In short, real conversations with you help us make and improve things in a meaningful way, and 140 character bursts into the void do not.
It is definitely not good at any of that but I don’t think that is what the community wanted.
The ExpressionEngine community on Twitter (#eecms) has thrived and grown stronger and closer because it has used the medium to communicate, converse, share and learn. There are definitely times where the negativity bubbles up and gains more attention than I think it should. But the net result is good. We are a perfect example of why Twitter isn’t just a broadcast medium.
The EE community doesn’t need EllisLab engaging in social media to thrive. We have built our own tools and will continue to do it on our own; here on EE Insider, over at Devot:ee, on Twitter using the #eecms hashtag, in the weekly EE Help Chat, in person at EECI, and at the meetups around the world.
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Eric Lamb has been a source of some very useful add-ons in the last year or so. His latest release is Flag Master, an add-on that lets you implement content moderation on your site.
From Eric’s announcement blog post:
Flag Master works off of a profile system to create unlimited, well, profiles based on your specific content moderation needs. For example, a site administrators can create a Profile for their blog, another for blog comments, another for documentation, and another for whatever they want. Using Devot:ee as a model when I was building it, I figured they could have one for News Article Comments, Add-ons, Add-on Reviews, and even go so granular as to have Profiles for Modules, Extensions, etc. Flag Master allows for that level of granularity.
Flag Master is available now at Devot:ee and costs $40.
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Hello from sunny Chicago! From the 18th floor of a downtown hotel, this is another edition of the Weekly Wrap. I’m in Chicago for some meetings through the weekend and then An Event Apart on Monday and Tuesday. Any EE people going to AEA Chicago, too?
We have a couple of news items that didn’t make it into last week’s Weekly Wrap. If you want to get your news in, please email me or use the #eenews hashtag on Twitter. The cut-off is Friday morning.
Enough talk, let’s get to the news!
Pic Puller Update
John Morton updated his Pic Puller add-on, which makes it simple to pull Instagram photos into ExpressionEngine. From John:
The update exposed more data from Instagram to ExpressionEninge. You can now retrieve the number of like and the number of comments a photo has received. The add-on also received a new alternative method for oAuth validation with Instagram since some servers were having problems with the preferred authorization method. There are a few verbiage updates and an update for a URL updated to the Instagram management pages as well.
Get the full list of updates.
Low Search 2.0.4 Released
The man on a houseboat, Low Schutte, released an update to his Search add-on. Version 2.0.4 features keyword highlighting, search collections, smarter excerpts and more.
If you’re into that kind of thing (and I am) read the entire changelog here.
Better Workflow 1.3 Released
Electric Putty pushed out an update to Better Workflow. An add-on that lets you have more control over content creation workflow (and Devot:ee 2011 Extension of the Year), Better Workflow features inline preview, entry approval, draft version and a bunch more features. Their site has a bunch of videos that you can watch to get an idea of what it does.
Securit:ee Now Available with Developer License
This past week Eric Lamb started offering his Securit:ee add-on with a developer license. For $250 you can get Securit:ee with unlimited site usage. That’s right. As many as you want.
Entry Notifier Add-on
A new add-on that makes it easy to receive notifications when new entries are created.
Each channel has its own receiver (e-mail address) and you even have the ability to select which fields should be showed in the notifications!
It costs $10 is available on Devot:ee.
Low Seg2Cat 2.6.3 Released
An update to the add-on that makes it easy “information about categories present in the URI, in the form of early parsed global variables”. Here’s the single line changelog:
Improved compatibility with URI-changing add-ons like Freebie
Entry API Updated
The Entry API module was recently updated to version 2.0.1. Haven’t heard of this one before? Me neither. Here’s the description:
Entry API is a module that creates a REST/XMLRPC/SOAP server under the hood of the ExpressionEngine CMS. With this module you are capable to CRUD entries and categories with a REST, SOAP or XMLRPC call. It support the default fields as well custom fields. So you can for example insert entries from within another application like an Iphone app or another web app.
EE Seattle Meetup Coming Up
Tuesday September 13th is the day. Speakers will be Seamus Holman and Matt Perry. The meetup takes place at WINTR on Ballard Ave NW. Free pizza and beer and lots of EE fun. If you’re in the Seattle area mark you calendar!
EE IRC Channel
Some people have been gathering in the EE IRC channel (channel name #expressionengine). If IRC is your thing, than you should have out there. I created a page where you can easily access the channel over at Mijingo. (Thanks to David Dexter for restarting that channel.)
Free EE Themes Soon
Thomas Boelskifte is converting some WordPress themes to ExpressionEngine. Read all about it.
Jobs on EE
Always keep an eye on Authentic Jobs to learn about the latest ExpressionEngine jobs.
Tweet of the Week
No idea what the first one was but it wasn’t as good as this question, I’m sure.
On the EE Insider Blog
That’s a wrap for this week! Have a great weekend and, hey, get some rest.
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The EE Podcast is kicking off a new series that aims to provide a closer look at those active in the community with the #eecms Twitter hashtag!
For the first instalment, we have Anna Brown aka @mediagirl – some of you recognize her as an active part of our community, but how much do we know about her? We delve into her business practices, how she works with agencies, her must-have add-ons and what she’s learned over the years. All in just over thirty minutes! Stay tuned ‘til the end for a little rapid-fire surprise. Tune in now!
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- Updater ($) by DevDemon
Updater makes updating ExpressionEngine and compatibile Add-Ons easier then ever. Sick of uploading all your files, backing things up, moving files around and wasting hours of your life away? Updater is here to give you hours of your life back. Simply install Updater into ExpressionEngine modules and with a few simple clicks you will have ExpressionEngine up to date.
- Filter By Author by Rob Sanchez (Barrett Newton)
An ExpressionEngine extension that adds an author filter to the edit entries screen.
- Timespan by Michael Leigeber
Returns the relative time between a provided time and the current time.
- Securit:ee Developer ($) by mithra62 (Eric Lamb)
Securit:ee is a security suite for ExpressionEngine 2. Securit:ee adds a number of security enhancements to ExpressionEngine including an Encryption Fieldtype, improved Forgot Password, Change Password, Expiring Password, Member Group Expire, File Monitor, CP login alert, CP and Client Side IP locker, CP Quick Deny and security scanner. Plus, completely tested on Windows with Apache and IIS!
- Entry Notifier ($) by a&m impact
Entry Notifier enables you to receive notifications for new entries in all your channels. Each channel has its own receiver (e-mail address) and you even have the ability to select which fields should be showed in the notifications!
- CC Time Difference ($) by Jeremy Worboys
Compare the difference between two times and conditionally display content based on years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes or even seconds.
- Thumber by Electric Putty
Thumber generates image thumbnails from your PDFs. You can call it using a single tag in your template.
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I like it when add-on developers take the time to explain what their add-on does and gives examples of why you should use it. Low has always been good about showing how to use his add-ons. Context is king.
Eric Lamb’s Securit:ee add-on help you keep you aware of what is happening with your installation of ExpressionEngine. After you securely set up your EE install you want to make sure you’re also protected from other issues.
Eric wrote up Why You Should Care About Securit:ee, which details the things you should look out for.
I’d like to drill this into every web developers brain; there is NO SUCH THING AS A SECURE SITE. A “secure” site is a myth. They don’t exist. The closest you can get would be if you had a completely static HTML site that didn’t use a web server, JavaScript, any database, or programming language that wasn’t connected to the Internet and only accessed from a dumb terminal with no external media ports.
Read Eric’s entire article to find out what Securit:ee does and how it can help you.
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We are just 4 months away from the 4-year anniversary of EE Insider. In that time I have only taken ads that I personally approve and whose products or services I like. This means helping you find out about cool stuff in the community.
I’d like to thank the following companies for supporting EE Insider this month:
- HelpSpot - HelpSpot is the newest friend of EE Insider and they’ve signed on to sponsor the Weekly Wrap. HelpSpot is a great help desk application that is available both hosted and as a download and host yourself option.
- 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.
- 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 new Freeform Pro module makes it simple to create forms for 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.
EngineHosting provides EE Insider with their fast and reliable hosting services. For a long time I ran this site on a virtual server I built and managed. That was a pain. I’m so happy to have the nice people at EngineHosting take care of this for me now. Check out their new Virtual Server Cluster plans, which start at $45/month and SSH access for basic tasks.
Do you have a product or service that you want to share with the smart, savvy, good looking, and moderately athletic EE Insider readership? In September, EE Insider has 2 ad spaces open and ready for you to get the word out. Interested? Get in touch.
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I handed off the EE Podcast to Lea and Emily and they took it and have made it better. Simple as that. A regular schedule, great guests, episode transcripts and a great site.
But they need your help to keep the podcast going. Running a regular podcast takes time and resources. If you have a product or service you want to promote in 2013 on the EE Podcast, now is the time to make it happen. They are lining up sponsors for all of next year and have put together a PDF that covers everything you need to know.
What are you waiting for?
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