New in 2.0: Agile Records
When you install ExpressionEngine 2.0, you’re given the option of also installing a default site: Agile Records.
This site includes designed templates, basic content and setup. It’s a great way for newbies and oldies alike to see how someone else builds a website in ExpressionEngine. The site was designed by Erskine Design and built by the crew at EllisLab.
Agile Records is a fictitious record label whose site highlights some of the major components of using ExpressionEngine. If you’re new to EE 2.0, consider installing Agile Records as the default templates. The option is available when you run the installation wizard.
Read more about the Agile Records design in an interview with Erksine Design at the EE Blog.
Posted on Dec 22, 2009 by Ryan Irelan
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Simon Collison — 03:11 on 12.22.2009
Cheers Ryan. I played with the Agile site myself recently. Really pleased it’s in there, and we had fun scoping it out.
However, I just wanted to clarify that it’s a smaller version of the site we designed - we scoped it out, and then provided PSDs, HTML and CSS only.
The fine folks at EllisLab produced the EE structure underneath, and that this has affected some of the underlying HTML/CSS. It’s still rock solid and a brilliant learning tool, but consider that some of the decisions in the build are not very Erskine-like in approach. Some of our type treatments and choices haven’t made it either.
I say this purely because we’re getting a lot of emails asking why we did x or y, but some of it was outside our control.
So, there are more sections that might make it into the release at some point, and we also produced a lot of extra resources for the site, so maybe we or EllisLab will release those soon.
Marcel — 02:44 on 12.23.2009
After EECI 2009 i visited Erkine’s portfolio, and I was pleased to see the Agile demo website.
It was a bit disapointing to see the implementation after installing 2.0, and I hope EllisLab will do the full version in a next release!
Derek Jones — 09:37 on 12.23.2009
Some of the changes to markup and structure were made because our foremost goal with the example site is to represent an EllisLab-like approach, and not specifically to teach users how Erskine builds a site. These are minor differences that vary from one person to the next, really; put 5 designers in a room and you’ll get 5 different ways to markup and create the same thing. But ultimately, the markup and architecture needed to match our style and be comfortable for us and our staff to work with.
With respect with some of the type/fonts, one consideration was with what we could legally distribute along with our application, and still allow users to easily change the names of elements of the site without requiring font ownership and/or image editing. Many new and casual users will likely use this theme as a starting point for their own site, afterall. Cooper Black was just about the hardest thing to let go of, though thankfully most Macs have this font installed.
Another consideration was speed and efficiency, and our whiz kid Greg Aker streamlined much of the CSS and images, creating sprites, and so on.
The other elements and areas of the site will not be missing forever, though, so no fear, the rest of Erskine’s fine work will be added as they are gradually introduced in the learning resources at the hands of our very capable Director of Community Services, Lisa Wess.