Blog Entry
Last Friday, August 26th, was the first EEUK, which took place in Manchester. The one-day conference, organized by Ian Ebden, featured seven speakers:
- Carl Crawley
- Joel Bradbury
- John Henry Donovan
- Leslie Flinger
- Stephen Lewis
- Lodewijk Schutte
- Garrett Winder
and almost 75 attendees. Check out the photostream of Flickr for photos of the event.
I’m trying to track down speaker slides and conferences write-ups, so if you’ve seen one or written one, let me knokw so I can share it with everyone.
Conference Notes by Simon Cox
Simox Cox took excellent, detailed notes of the talks and shared them on his blog. Simon also posted his own photos of the event (they’re at the bottom of his post).
Thanks, Simon!
Conference Notes by Rob Allen
Rob also wrote up his experience at the conference and included some photos (the empty cookie trays were a big tell). Thanks, Rob!
101 Ways to Skin a Cat
by Joel Bradbury
Joel spoke on design patterns in ExpressionEngine and posted his slides from his talk. Joel also shared a graph from an informal survey on the add-ons people use in their default builds. Unsurprisingly, the two top spots are occupied by Pixel & Tonic’s Matrix and Playa, respectively.
Structuring Your #eecms Build
by Carl Crawley
Carl talked about “structuring and creating a default ExpressionEngine build.” Ah, yes, an excellent topic. A lot of us already do this but it’s always good to see how someone else handles their default builds. There is always something to learn. A nice tip from Carl’s slides was to move the config files (config.php and database.php) out of the system/config directory and into an assets folder.
Forthcoming are slides on the part of his talk where he covered upgrade scripts.
Going Mobile
by Garrett Winder
Garrett is a font-end developer at Erskine Design. Wait, he’s also a Texan? Come back, Garrett! Okay, I digress.
Garrett gave his talk on “tips, techniques and tactics” for implementing mobile sites with ExpressionEngine. He covered the current state of mobile (the numbers, they don’t lie), what this means and then, finally, how you can use EE to help you, including some nice code tips for configuring your EE install to support a mobile site.
Garrett did a short recap and posted his slides on his website.
I’ll update this post as more slides and talks are posted.
Update: See Ian’s wrap-up on the conference he planned.
Blog Entry
A Triple Edition Special
This is a on-going series of entries where I highlight EE experiences.
ExpressionEngine should be easier to update…at least to the latest build.
hungrysquirrel via Twitter
Not only that but EE should fix my morning Americano, too!
Okay, seriously, I do agree. Automatic build updates would be spectacular. For now, however, I’ll take a delta updates.
It’s getting harder and harder for me to hold my tongue over some of the “whine” that gets posted to #eecms. I’m holding it though! #winning
Anna Brown via Twitter.
Last week I had an internal debate about what’s better: the whining or the spam in the #eecms tag stream. The answer is: neither. The worst is the use of the #eecms tag to tear down and rant against other people’s work. That, I think, is the biggest threat. No one wants to play in a sandbox full of cat turds.
Okay, now let’s swing it back around to something positive.
Just gave a 1 1/2 hour ExpressionEngine content admin training session to a client. “This is incredible… way beyond what we were expecting.”
Ryan James via Twitter
If you build a site with care using ExpressionEngine, this is the reaction you’ll get. My mantra is: Easy for the client, not for me. Nice work, Ryan!
Blog Entry
I thought I’d take a moment to welcome a new member to our community. I heard about her grand entrance into the world the other day while chatting with Matt Weinberg.
It’s a new plant at the Vector office.
I begged Matt (okay, I actually just scoffed at the name) not to use the name “LeafEE” but he did. He actually did it. Next up, it’ll sell its little seedlings at Devot:ee.
On the bright side, if we can contain the -ee naming convention to just plants, we might just save the world. Think of the children.
I thank thEE.
Blog Entry
Looks like someone has been busy this week. All three submissions are from Bjorn Borresen. Keep it up, @bjornbjorn!
- AB Pagination ($, for EE2) by Bjorn Borresen
AB Pagination is ExpressionEngine Pagination on Steroids. The most powerful pagination addon to date?
- Amfie ($, for EE2) by Bjorn Borresen
Amfie is ActionScript Remoting for EE.
- AB Member Categories ($, for EE2) by Bjorn Borresen
AB Member Categories lets you link custom member fields to category groups.
How-to Article
One of the greatest strengths of ExpressionEngine is its flexibility, so it’s no surprise that there are usually multiple ways of accomplishing the same task. But as you continue to work more and more with EE, you sometimes find better ways of doing things, whether it’s getting something done more efficiently or with less code (or hey, maybe both!).
A good place to start when you’re new has always been with the optional Agile Records site that can be set up with a new installation. EllisLab put together the channels, custom fields and templates in there to help beginners understand how EE works and allow them to become familiar with the template language. But like anything else, you need to be able to run before you can walk, so while the Agile Records site is great for starters and allows you to build a quite capable EE site, there’s certainly room for optimization.
Read the Article
Blog Entry
Themes have never caught on in our community (even WooThemes ditched selling them) and that’s most likely because most people use EE in a different way than they would use WordPress. I don’t think there are a lot of website flippers (kind of like house flippers before the housing bust in the US) using ExpressionEngine.
But I am still intrigued by themes in ExpressionEngine. I wish more people were exploring building them and how it might help us improve how we develop sites with ExpressionEngine.
Doug Green announced in the EE Forums that he created a new ExpressionEngine theme called Magnetic. It’s a magazine theme with a simple design.
You can read more about Doug’s theme in his blog post or in the announcement forum thread.
Blog Entry
This isn’t exactly related to ExpressionEngine, but I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve been making a brief appearance again in the podcasting world.
Since last week, I’ve been filling in at 5by5 (this is where the EE Podcast was hosted before Lea and Emily took over) for Dan Benjamin while he’s out on paternity leave. My stint continues through the end of this week.
Here are the shows I’m co-hosting:
If you’re not familiar with the shows at 5by5, please browse the listings. I’m certainly biased but it is a network full of some great content and people.
Blog Entry
In the latest episode of the EE Podcast, Lea and Emily talk to Erik Reagan about documenting your ExpressionEngine development project.
In the 36 minute podcast Erik shares his experience and thoughts on what it takes to properly document your project work. Don’t miss the episode links at the bottom of the episode page for some additional reading to go along with the show.
Blog Entry
- VWM Surveys (for EE2) by Victor Michnowicz
VWM Surveys is a survey module for ExpressionEngine 2. It allows you to create surveys with multiple question types across many different pages.
- Cookie Favourites ($, for EE2) by Bjorn Borresen
Cookie Favourites enables you to let your visitors store their favourite entries.
Blog Entry
In yesterday’s installment of What They’re Saying About EE, I linked to Erik Regan’s tweet about the possible SEO disadvantages of ExpressionEngine using underscores for URL Titles as a default instead of dashes. A few of us commented that we just switch it first thing or have it as part of our standard config.php file for new projects.
Commenter GDMac chimed in with a good point of his/her own:
IMO this isn’t a single “use dashes or underscore” question. It depends on the particular url-title at hand. i do like dashes as default, but educate your editors and users when a underscore might be handy.
For instance, try a google search for java_script and java-script and see the differences.
Meanwhile, Erik posted a comment noting that Wes from EllisLab posted on Twitter that he would bring this to the dev team and see if the default could be changed.
Blog Entry
Stephen Lewis made two announcements yesterday (optimized into one, single blog post. Clever.): his EE1 add-ons have reached the end of life (no longer supported or updated) and–related to that–his killer add-on BucketList is now free.
We all owe Stephen a beer at his earliest convenience for putting BucketList out there for free. If you’re not near his favorite pub, maybe just pick up one of his add-ons as a way of saying thanks?
Blog Entry
In another move to simplify how upgrades (paid and free) of ExpressionEngine work, EllisLab took the generous step of making the new upgrade policy retroactive for EE1 license holders with expired accounts.
If the Download Account was expired when the new policy went into effect, the upgrade price will still be the same as before ($50 + old renewal fee). Likewise, if the Download Account was active when the new policy went into effect, the price to upgrade to EE2 is still just $50.
That’s the meat (and potatoes) of it. Straight-forward and simple. Read Leslie’s blog post for all of the details.
Blog Entry
This is a on-going series of entries where I highlight EE experiences.
Should #eecms default to a dash rather than an underscore. Thoughts, @EllisLab? http://t.co/mmMiE73
Erik Reagan via Twitter
I always switch to dashes first thing, so I definitely think it should be the default. The above-linked video from Google only reinforces that.
Blog Entry
A couple of months ago EllisLab started putting together a Private Support service so members of the Pro Net could have access to a more personal level of support (i.e. not in the forums). Marcus Neto described the experience thus far:
The response thus far has been fantastic. The main thing we’ve heard from people in the beta are that they love the login-first approach which allows the EllisLab support team instant access to get in and start helping (once it is set up).
I haven’t been part of the small beta test but I do like the idea of the “login-first” approach. This eliminates some of the initial back and forth that a lot of people get frustrated with from any support service.
EllisLab is opening up 10 more slots, so if you fit the description (please read Marcus’ entire post for the details), get in touch with EllisLab to apply for a spot.
Blog Entry
John Faulds wrote up the seven steps of his ExpressionEngine development workflow. It centers around using Git and localhosting, which is the smart way to develop (as opposed to directly on the server).
John also makes it easier to start new EE projects by creating a base install Git repository and just cloning it when starting a new project.
After using EE for a while, I’d also developed my own fairly streamlined system of doing things that had eliminated a lot of the repetition that is involved in setting up and installing EE from scratch every time you start a new project.
John uses similar tools that I do: Git, Tower and Beanstalk. In fact, all three help me manage and deploy this site and the site at Mijingo.com.
Definitely read the entire write-up (which is just part 1), as John as succinctly described a good workflow that should be easy for most people to replicate.
Blog Entry
The Addon Bakery released a new add-on this morning for managing favorite entries. Its’ called Cookie Favourites and it doesn’t require a login or use database storage of favorites. Instead, it uses browser cookies:
Cookie Favourites is an ExpressionEngine addon which enables you to let your visitors store their favourite entries. The list of favourites is stored in a browser cookie, which means that the user does not have to be logged in to store favourites.
Favourites can be displayed, counted, added and removed using either native EE tags or jQuery. The addon comes with an example implementation which uses both - most projects will probably use a combination of the two.
The add-on costs $29 US and is available now.
Blog Entry
Lodewijk Schutte (known to everyone as “Low”), who lives on a houseboat (known to everyone as “we’re so jealous!”), broke out his add-on development and sales business into its own website, which launched today: Go to Low.
Besides being known for his clever teaching of the ExpressionEngine Parse Order (grab the PDF), Low also makes some great add-ons like the über-powerful Low Variables and the popular Low Seg2Cat.
From his announcement blog post:
Turns out I enjoy working on add-ons more and more, while regular client work feels less satisfying than it used to. That’s why I decided to try and put more emphasis on add-on development, which inevitably meant setting up this site. From now on, if you need an EE add-on, you’ll know where to go.
If you previously bought an add-on from Low, you can create an account and get access to those purchases.
Congrats, Low and good luck!
Blog Entry
Sorry for missing last week, but we were in the midst of upgrading devot:ee to EE2, which is still a bit of an ongoing process, as we discover small things here and there that still need to be fixed. That said, we’re pretty much back on track and here is our list of items for this week:
- Grid Lite (for EE2) by Max Lazar
Grid allows you to dynamically add / delete and sort rows of data similar to a spreadsheet. Each data row can have one or more cells which are assigned to different custom fields (right now is only next fields available: Text input, Textarea, Select box, Checkbox, Dates, File. More fields coming soon!)
- Restrictee ($, for EE2) by Sean Delaney
Restrictee is an interface that allows EE admins to restrict access to their web site based on IP addresses through the CP. Use Restrictee to block all access to your web site, only allowing those in your “allowed list”.
- CacheCracker ($, for EE2) by Isaac Raway (Airways)
CacheCracker is an extension to give you complete control over caching in your ExpressionEngine system. It is designed to be installed at any time, including when first starting development on a new project, giving development and your production site a potentially massive speed boost.
- Perssonal (for EE2) by Wouter Vervloet (Baseworks)
The main aim for Perssonal (or peRSSonal) is to ease the creation of on-the-fly RSS feeds. Creating a single RSS feed is nothing special, but when you have multiple, you need something more flexible. Perssonal tries to fill this need.
- Securit:ee ($, for EE2) by mithra62 (Eric Lamb)
Securit:ee is a security suite for ExpressionEngine 2. Securit:ee adds a number of security enhancements to ExpressionEngine including a file monitor, CP login alert, CP and Client Side IP locker and security scanner.
- Shorteen (for EE2) by Yuri Salimovskiy (IntoEEtive)
Shorteen is an URL shortening module for ExpressionEngine. Is does shorten the URLs by itself, but is letting you use wide range of shortening services. Currently supported are goo.gl, is.gd, bit.ly and YOURLS script.
- Usher (for EE2) by Stephen Lewis (Experience Internet)
Usher automatically redirects your site admins to any page within the Control Panel when they log in, based on their Member Group.
Blog Entry
Over in the EE Forums, add-on developer Low proposed a new and better way to handle upload file paths when moving between server environments.
For us devs, working on local, staging and live environments of the same site is quite common. We can use the config.php file to set config items like Theme path or Template path based on the environment. This gets harder for file paths stored in the database, like File Upload Destinations. Making these relative like ../images/uploads/ kind of works, but only if you’re uploading from the CP.
Low proposes a solution that uses a base_path config variable that you can set to the actual path based on server environment.
Do you have a different idea? Want to add your support to Low’s proposal? Be sure to chime in on the forum thread.
Blog Entry
Back in March I posted about my beginners ExpressionEngine article in the May print issue of Net Magazine. The article is a guide to building a simple portfolio website with ExpressionEngine. My description of the article:
The article is definitely aimed at people newer to EE, who are looking for a real-world application of this ExpressionEngine CMS they’ve heard so much about. It includes all of the template code and assets you need to build the simple site on your own. But there’s certainly something there for everyone, even if you wanted to reaffirm how you approach building EE sites.
Up until now you could only get the article by buying a print copy or their digital version of the magazine, which is only available through Zinio. Today Net Magazine graciously published the article on their website for everyone to enjoy.
As web workers, we need to have a portfolio that puts on display our website designs and development projects. One of the best CMSes for handling this type of content is ExpressionEngine 2. Its flexible data containers (‘channels’) and customisable input fields enable you to use it to power just about any data-driven website.
For old hands at ExpressionEngine, this article won’t do much for you, but if you’re new to EE you might find it helpful. The project includes all of the templates and assets you need to follow along as you build the portfolio site in ExpressionEngine.
Read the entire article: Build a portfolio with ExpressionEngine
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