All entries filed under “Blogging”
Josh Lockhart at HiFi posted a great article about their optimal ExpressionEngine installation. He talks about why they chose ExpressionEngine for certain types of sites, how they set it up, and what add-ons they use. He even gets into security, optimizing performance and deployment. It’s a really nice well-rounded article that covers a lot of ground.
It’s pretty neat to see a post like this from a company that built its own hosted CMS:
When our clients need a self-hosted content management solution, we rely on ExpressionEngine. As people who obviously have strong opinions on content management, we respect the way EE works and the ideas behind it.
Very cool! It’s a great read, I highly recommend checking it out. What do you think? Does this article teach you anything or fly in the face of your surefire best practices? Let us know in the comments.
I feel like this is something I should have known about by now. Either that, or I knew about it all along and just forgot. Did you know that ExpressionEngine 2 has the handy ability to create a bookmarklet for you to quickly and easily get an entry started? Well Wouter Vervloet did, and he blogged about it in his post Rapid content entry in ExpressionEngine 2.
You can create the bookmark based on which channel you want to post to and which custom field you want it to use. This makes a handy companion to Andy Johnson’s How to Build a Simple Tumblr Blog with ExpressionEngine.
Read Wouter’s post on this nice little gem, complete with screenshots and instructions for setting it up.
Jamie Rumbelow wrote a nice little article this week on Think Vitamin about Why You Need to Embrace ExpressionEngine. I know I don’t need to tell you, dear reader, why you need to embrace ExpressionEngine, but this article is definitely worth a read. It’s a great primer on the strengths of not only ExpressionEngine itself but the community around it as well. I don’t think this article will convince the most die hard (with a vengeance) Wordpress fan, but it might be handy for someone searching for a new CMS.
I’ll warn you, this article does have a lot of comments. You will find plenty of people going back and forth on whether EE is a nightmare or the best thing since sliced bread, and whether or not Wordpress is a silly little blog platform with loads of security issues. It’s up to you if you want to dig into that, but at least you have been warned.
Think Vitamin: Why You Need to Embrace ExpressionEngine
Are you or your clients itching to use a desktop blog editor with ExpressionEngine 2? Well MarsEdit 3 (Mac only) is a great solution, and the folks at Antidote Creative wrote up a great step-by-step post on how to get everything set up.
Because ExpressionEngine is so customizable (with all its custom fields, channels, etc), it’s not as simple to set up as it would be if you were using a lesser CMS, but not to worry, it’s absolutely doable. If you’re wanting to try a desktop editor, I recommend giving this tutorial a go.
Andy Johnson from Shaping the Page did a great writeup on how to make a tumblr-style site with EE:
Part of the appeal of a Tumblr-style blog are the variety of dedicated post types for entries, making it quick and easy to post a snippet of information or a link, vs. committing to a full blog post. For our Journal we decided we’d be using five different post types: a full entry, a link, a photo, a quote, and a video post type. Like with most things in ExpressionEngine, there are multiple ways to accomplish this.
Andy’s writeup includes step-by-step instructions and even some template code to get you started. I’ve long considered doing something just like this, but Andy’s post saved me all the hard work. Nicely done! Check out his post to see how Andy did it:
Shaping the Page: How to Build a Simple Tumblr Blog with ExpressionEngine
Last week, if you missed it, 2.0.1 of the ExpressionEngine public beta was released. In a follow-up to this release, el jeffe Leslie Camacho has blogged about it on the ExpressionEngine blog. The post is mostly about the distinction between a version and a build.
A Version, also called a Point release, is considered a substantial update and can be identified by a change in the Version number.
ExpressionEngine 2.0.0—> ExpressionEngine 2.0.1
Version updates typically contain fixes, updates, and possibly new features. The bigger the change in Version number, the more substantial the changes.
A Build is an update to ExpressionEngine within the same Version/point number. For example, ExpressionEngine 2.0.0 has Build 20091207 and Build 20091211
Mr. Camacho also goes on to point out the excellent Build Forums whose RSS feed you can subscribe to by clicking here
El presidente, Leslie Camacho, has been interviewed for the excellent site First & 20. The interview, which goes into what Leslie has on his iPhone, shows how Leslie keeps it real. Workplace real.
The one thing I don’t do with my iPhone is game. I’m an avid gamer but the iPhone is strictly a work, communication, and thinking device. I do my best to keep my app collection focused on things that will engage me with people, not provide isolation. That’s what the Macbook Pro is for!
Oh, Mr. Camacho… if only you knew what you were missing.
Esteemed colleagues Dan Benjamin and Ryan Irelan have released their second in a weekly podcast. What’s in store?
In episode two, Ryan and Dan discuss feedback on the first episode, the EE Roadshow conference, which took place last Friday in Seattle and some useful developer tools. Also, don’t miss Ryan quizzing Dan on EE trivia.
Enjoy!
On the ExpressionEngine blog today, Kevin Shoesmith talks about the ExpressionEngine Roadshow. Kevin makes an appeal to your imagination:
Imagine a bright, loft style studio filled with people who love ExpressionEngine. Really love it. They love it so much that they’ve built award-winning websites, incredible software, and highly recognized Web development businesses around it. Also in that room, are the creators of ExpressionEngine, the keepers of its incredible community, passionate enthusiasts themselves.
Our very own Ryan Irelan will be in attendance, as well as many respected and inventive ExpressionEngine developers. It comes highly recommended as the ExpressionEngine event to attend (in the states… or “colonies”).
Emily Lewis has written an extensive piece on customizing the RSS template for ExpressionEngine. The in-depth article covers adding the following to EE’s template:
- Links and markup to display properly formatted
- Display blog name
- Display author name
- Link to the category in which the article is published
- Links to the tags with which the article is tagged
- Tracking for links to support analytics
- Two feeds; one for full articles and one for teasers
- A “Continue Reading” link for the teaser feed
It’s been a long time coming, but the Repartee podcast has finally released its second episode. The episode, which includes an interview with Jack McDade of Smooth Function, an up and coming development house, offers the following:
- Design Hope - We Have A Winner!
- Custom Category URL Structures
- New Plugin: SL MailChimp Subscribe
- EE2.0 hits beta
- EE 1.6.8
- EEcommerce Pro
- Structure 1.3.0s
- Jack McDade
- Kenny Meyers Joins EEInsider
- Redirect301 Plugin
- The EE Roadshow
Head on over to the Repartee site to listen.
EllisLab has posted their bi-weekly blog post and like all EE blog posts it is revealing without the full monty. They focus on a process called SCRUM, an agile development method, which is actually a fantastic way to handle development (yours truly has been on a SCRUM team and found it to be excellent). It’s a good post, with a great SCRUM video, and one which Mr. Camacho slyly slips in this little tidbit:
I am happy to report that the Simple Commerce Module and the Discussion Forum will be ready for Beta2 as planned.
So for those of you in the ExpressionEngine Professionals Network, you’ve got a nice little treat coming soon. For the rest, there is still no public beta release date.
The fine folks at Erskine Design will be leading a half-day session at the Future of Web Design conference in London next Spring. Learn more about it over at the Erskine Design blog.
Earlier this Fall, Nathan Pitman began documenting his experience and steps of migrating his personal site from TextPattern to ExpressionEngine. I’m not sure if he’s finished the series yet, but the first five steps he posted should be helpful to anyone in the same situation.
With a tired economy and a long weekend in the U.S., it’s the perfect time to learn some new skills and expand your knowledge of building stuff for the web.
The publisher I work with for the EE Screencasts is offering a special Black Friday discount on almost everything in their inventory, including the screencasts!
Use the discount code TURKEY to get 25% off your order. If you buy the entire EE Screencasts series that means you save more than $15 USD. A deal you shouldn’t pass up!
Happy Thanksgiving!
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