Carl Crawley - Bootstrapping ExpressionEngine

Want to get a new ExpressionEngine project up and running in 26 seconds? Carl Crawley of Made By Hippo walked us through how to do just that.

Why is a bootstrap needed?

Carl listed three reasons:

• Born from frustration of clients wanting quick turnaround times
• Ability to setup environments for add-on development and testing
• Maximize profits

Some main points from his presentation:

• Only install what you need. ExpressionEngine comes with a few default modules you’ll most likely never use. So uninstall it.
• Remove unnecessary themes, such as wiki themes, Corporate CP theme, etc.
• Extract your config and database files to your “assets” folder for ease of access.
• Disable tracking, change member trigger word, security preferences ,etc.

Now for the fun part. Carl has quite the setup for getting your new project up and running in no time.

He has a bash script that pulls your base install from the repo, sets up the database, handles renaming of system folders. sets permissions, and cleans up unnecessary files.

The best part, Carl has posted his bash script and standard config and database file. So, go check it out now! It’s certainly useful.