Blog Entry
DevDemon recently released their Subscription add-on for ExpressionEngine, which makes it easy to sell subscriptions through your ExpressionEngine-powered website.
I’ve been using this in beta over the Summer for some testing on a project of mine. It’s very flexible and, out of the box, it should do everything you’d need from a subscription add-on, including customizing through actions.
Subscriptions also delivers a very powerful Trigger and Action system. Utilizing almost 20 different triggers you can customize actions through an easy to use control panel. These triggers allow your administrator to modify and create new subscriptions without modifying template tags.
Visit the DevDemon site for all the details but here are my favorite features:
- Vouchers
- Trials
- Coupons
- Multiple plan levels
- Expiring card notifications
A nice addition to our selection of add-ons for EE and ecommerce!
Blog Entry
If anyone would take a stab at a CLI for ExpressionEngine, it would be Rob Sanchez.
And he did.
The CLI right now is limited in functionality (empty cache, install add-ons) but Rob is asking for pull requests with additional commands.
Have something you want to see added? Code it and then submit a pull request to the Github project.
Thank you, Rob. This is a great addition.
Blog Entry
We are less than 2 months away from the 2014 ExpressionEngine Conference in Alexandria, VA. It takes place October 5-7.
I attended An Event Apart in Alexandria a few years ago and it’s a great place to have a conference. Old Town Alexandria is filled with places to eat and drink. Looks like the hotel has some nice views of the Potomac, too!
The conference will feature more than 20 speakers covering topics from building add-ons to building a business.
Registration is open for both individuals and agencies. $495 gets you in the door for the event plus all of the recorded sessions.
Blog Entry
This is a on-going series of entries where I highlight EE experiences.
Blog Entry
Over at Mijingo I started a limited run podcast covering web content management systems and the people that use them. It’s called CMS Chronicles.
I recently released an episode on ExpressionEngine. I had two separate conversations with two veterans of the EE community: Matt Weinberg of Vector Media Group, and Anna Brown of Media Girl, Inc.
During the conversations we covered some basics about ExpressionEngine and how they each use it and have used it to do client work and grow their businesses.
Give it a listen and subscribe to get all future episodes.
Blog Entry
Using technology to promote a business or a service isn’t that much different than using it to advance a social cause. Success in both is about choosing the right tools, crafting effective messaging, finding your audience and constant measurement.
For the latest CTRL+CLICK, digital strategist Aisha Satterwhite joins the show to discuss the role of technology in social advocacy. Drawing from her career working in advocacy, including her current role as a Vice President of Project Management at Blue State Digital, Aisha discusses how technology for social advocacy has evolved as tech has become more accessible, and how it complements on-the-ground advocacy. We also discuss the personal and professional challenges of engaging on social media about “controversial” issues. Tune in now!
Thanks to Visual Chefs for sponsoring this episode.
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Client services vs. Software as a Service: what are the pros and cons? This week, Ryan Masuga, founder of Devot:ee and Masuga Design, stops by the show to discuss the nitty gritty of designing, developing, and launching his own web app, Lamplighter. We discuss its beginnings as Devot:ee Monitor and reasons behind the transition to Lamplighter, as well as the details on the app’s creation, pricing, customer service, marketing and future.
We also discuss what’s on the horizon for Devot:ee!
Tune in now!
Blog Entry
Marcus Neto of Blue Fish Design Studio has a YouTube Channel with demos of websites built on ExpressionEngine.
There’s also a demo of ExpressionEngine 2.9 (the latest version as of this post) and one of how they built a business directory in EE.
Idea: a community channel of video walk-thrus of websites/features you built on ExpressionEngine.
Blog Entry
Patrick Pohler penned an article on Medium on how to easily add an API to your ExpressionEngine add-on.
Adding an API can help you add-on be more useful and flexible because it can connect to other systems, and allow developer to extend it without hacking the add-on code.
So how are external apps going to communicate to our ExpressionEngine add-on? We’ll need to make sure we can expose API methods that respond correctly to GET and POST requests.
Patrick continues with API code samples for his “Mission Tracker” A-team sample add-on, including a detailed code walk-thru. Very helpful!
Read the entire how-to article
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One thing every web developer has in common is a text editor of some kind or another. But how every web developer uses their text editor of choice couldn’t be more different. For this week’s episode, special guest Sean Smith joins the show to discuss making your text editor work harder for you, so you can work better and more efficiently.
We talk about the text editors we each have used throughout our careers and what our current favorites are (and why). Sean discusses some of the common features and customization for text editors that can make coding easier, including syntax highlighting, custom fonts, code collapsing and text expanders. He also details his collection of ExpressionEngine snippets for Emmet, which can be added to a variety of text editors including Sublime and Coda. Tune in now!
Thanks to Visual Chefs for sponsoring this episode!
Blog Entry
A couple of relevant updates for you on the changes with how ExpressionEngine 2.9+ handles conditionals.
Yesterday, I wrote:
Conditionals are parsed better, simple vs. advanced conditional is now a thing of the past, and there are some nice new operators; you can do simple math and more robust comparisons.
I was, admittedly, glossing over a big change in EE and one that impacts some third party developers. Fortunately, because of the Developer Preview Program all developers who participate had plenty of warning on this change. But it doesn’t mean that this will be a simple transition.
(A month ago, EllisLab wrote a good explanation of the changes to conditionals that is required reading for anyone working with EE.)
Already developers are posting updates for their add-ons to support the new conditional handling and they are trying to get the word out about how their add-ons are affected.
Low Schutte pondered:
As I wrote in last week’s Content Mgmt Outlook email:
The forever problem of moving forward versus not leaving people behind.
Low also wrote up some instructions on how to use his Low Search add-on going forward:
And Mark Croxton, the wizard behind Stash, tweeted:
Stash in 2.9 still works the same but Mark highlights an important workaround.
Mark also has an excellent explanation of the conditional parsing:
In 2.9 EE attempts to parse if/else conditionals before each pass and after the very last pass (or you can think of it as after each pass and before the very first pass), and will do so only if they are “ready” - the variables being evaluated actually exist. Previously, simple conditionals were parsed just before the first pass only, and advanced conditionals were parsed at the end of the very last pass only.
Some add-on updates may be backward incompatible (i.e. not support EE prior to 2.9), so always check the release notes before upgrading an add-on and not EE.
Blog Entry
The changes were enough that EllisLab bumped the version a full point release. ExpressionEngine 2.9, available today, includes an overhaul of the conditionals parser.
Conditionals are parsed better, simple vs. advanced conditional is now a thing of the past, and there are some nice new operators; you can do simple math and more robust comparisons.
A few other nuggets:
- The hidden template indicator is now an underscore instead of a period.
- A software license page in the control panel
- Better Markdown support using Markdown Extra (yay Markdown!)
- EE requires PHP 5.3.10 now
Read their blog post for all of the changes and, if you’re into that kind of thing, I’d also recommend perusing the changelog.
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There’s a reason they call it work: it’s not play. And sometimes the work we have to do sucks. For this week’s episode, Chris Harrison joins the show to encourage “embracing the suck,” AKA doing what you don’t want to do in order to grow and move forward. A WordPress developer, Chris shares his own experience embracing the suck when he started a new job and had to work with Drupal and Joomla. He discusses how he shifted his mindset and saw benefits (for both himself and his employer) from “sucking it up.” Chris also offers suggestions for anyone stuck in the suck, including side projects, creative outlets and helping others. Tune in now!
Thanks to CodePen for sponsoring this episode!
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John D. Wells posted the slides from his GeeUp talk called “Partials: A DRY template pattern. Now part of EE core.”
That about says it all. John gives an informative walk-thru of how partials will help you. Even without seeing John give the talk, the slides are very helpful.
The addition of real layout support in EE is a huge step forward. No more hack arounds needed. And, layouts even support dynamic variables that you can set similar to embed variables. But better because it’s not embeds.
The update to my ExpressionEngine training course (coming out tomorrow) covers layouts and it was a joy to be able to teach that instead of the old embed way, which was easily abused at the expense of the performance of your website.
Page through John’s slides to learn more about layouts
Blog Entry
Or is it Binh on Boyink?
Either way, earlier in June Mike Boyink and his family were featured on the Tom Binh blog about their traveling RV lifestyle.
The Boyinks downsized and began a year-long odyssey traveling the country, towing a fifth wheel. Within that first year, they decided to sell their house and make the road their home for the foreseeable future. The family has chronicled their path to full-time travel on their blog, which they author collaboratively.
This is a great read for the lessons learned and how a shift in perspective (and environment) can help you realize what you really need.
It’s a huge paradigm shift. We are so ingrained in a consumer culture that when you try to remove that goal of stuff ownership people don’t know what to do.
Mike maintains his EE consulting work and training business while on the road.
Bookmark or read the entire interview with Mike.
Blog Entry
There weren't any new add-ons this week, but we'll take this opportunity to remind you that if you're thinking of going to ExpressionEngine Conference, you should register early. The conference takes place October 5 through October 7 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Room nights at the Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria start as low as $169/night. You'll want to book a room early so you can take advantage of conference rates and to be as close as you can to all the action.
The speaker lineup looks great, and the Schedule is really shaping up. If you haven't been before, this is the year to go!
If you're in the U.S., have a safe and happy holiday weekend!
Blog Entry
This is a on-going series of entries where I highlight EE experiences.
Build a sample site during the 7-part course, which covers the latest additions to ExpressionEngine, including using template layouts, layout variables, dynamic layout variables, and the relationships field. It has everything you need to know to start using ExpressionEngine.
Get ready for a summer of CMSes.
Blog Entry
Indulge me, if you will, for a little personal/business news.
EE Insider has been around for 5+ years. Since beginning it’s been a publication that is part of Mijingo, my business for creating quality learning materials for designers and developers.
For Mijingo’s entire existence it has been a side project, a thing I do during my downtime (with the exception of last year when I partnered with Happy Cog).
Until now.
I was diligent in balancing everything; I worked every evening and weekend for a few years so I could continue to publish learning materials while maintaining a full-time job.
But I was pulled in two directions and saw the time I had for something I was passionate about diminish. I’m sure you’ve noticed the lack of posting here.
So I made a change.
Starting on Monday, June 30th, I will be working full-time on Mijingo, following my passion to build training materials that help people, and growing a business that means a tremendous amount to me.
I’m on day 3 of doing this thing full-time and I think you’ll like what I’m working on.
Blog Entry
Matt Weinberg (Vector Media Group), who gave a great talk a few years ago on e-commerce and PCI compliance at EECI in San Francisco, chimes in on the EE StackExchange about variable SSL and cookies.
The full set of cookies for matching domains is transmitted by the browser with each page request to that domain, even if the original cookies were set using HTTPS/SSL and the current page is HTTP.
One way around this is by setting the “secure” flag on cookies you set. Any cookies set with the “secure” flag will only get transmitted by browsers when connecting to HTTPS pages.
Read the entire thread on StackExchange
Blog Entry
Whether you are a company looking to automate your content management or you are a front-end developer building a CMS for your client or employer, choosing a CMS isn’t just a decision. Finding the “right” CMS is (and should be) a process of research and evaluation. For the latest CTRL+CLICK, Stephanie Sullivan Rewis joins the show to share her process of choosing a CMS for her employer, Contatta.
She talks about requirements, from what she needs as a front-end developer to what her creative team needs to maintain content. And she discusses how her requirements evolved as she did more research. Stef also shares what she looked for beyond core functionality to get to her CMS shortlist: documentation, support and community. Tune in now!
Thanks to Visual Chefs for sponsoring this episode!
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