All entries filed under “EE Add-ons”
Coverage of interesting new EE Add-ons that are released.
The Germans. They get stuff done.
Today on the EE blog Pascal Kriete posted that the first party Twitter Timeline plugin now supports OAuth. This is great news because tomorrow numerous EE sites around the web using basic authentication Twitter EE add-ons are going break.
If you use Twitter Timeline, download and install this new version.
If you don’t but need to fix a site that uses another add-on, consider pulling in the RSS feed of the user’s Twitter stream and displaying using the Magpie plugin. It’s not the same and it’s not perfect, but it’s a decent stop gap measure. In fact, with a little PHP you can make it do stuff like link URLs, remove the username the prefixes every tweet and more.
On Twitter, Barrett Newton (the team behind Cartthrob) announced that their new EE add-on SafeCracker will be available Monday. Oh, and the first 20 people to use a special coupon will get $20 off.
SafeCracker is an EE 2 add-on for creating SAEFs:
SafeCracker is a replacement and enhancement of the ExpressionEngine’s Stand-Alone Entry Form. SafeCracker makes it possible to add & edit data to your site without accessing the backend. This will allow you to push the boundaries of ExpressionEngine design and development, create rich web applications, and simplify your development process.
To learn more about it check out the documentation on their site.
Biber Ltd. released a new fieldtype for EE 2: Currency Field. This field enables you to easily have a currency fieldtype in your publish form. It supports dozens of currencies (pretty much everything except Monopoly money) and you can choose whether the currency is user selectable or not.
Using the template tags, you can leverage the Google Calculator to do currency conversions while also showing the original price (see the fieldtype docs for more explanation).
Currency Field costs $4.99 US and is available now for EE 2.
Fans of Solspace’s Super Search module will be happy to know that the module now supports ExpressionEngine 2. This is great news for me because I have a project coming up where Super Search is needed.
A bit about Super Search:
The architecture of the module borrows from Google’s model of constructing search queries. Anything that you might want to query for, keywords, weblogs, categories, statuses, custom fields, date ranges, custom field numeric ranges, etc. can be loaded into a single URI segment by using the Super Search syntax
In order to run Super Search on EE 2 you also have to install the Solspace Bridge Expansion (which is included with the module).
Related: EE Insider review of the Super Search module.
Good things are worth waiting for. And that’s certainly true with the newest installation of Stephen Lewis’ series of articles on building an add-on for ExpressionEngine 2.
This time he covers designing the user interface and walks you through the process of decisions and ends with a working wireframe/prototype.
I don’t want to waste your time reading what I have to say about it, so please click over to Stephen’s site: ExpressionEngine 2 Add-on Development
The people that brought you Cartthrob have another trick up their sleeve and they need your help. Barrett Newton built a new EE 2.1 add-on called SafeCracker. No, it doesn’t allow you to rob banks or find the secret treasure hidden in grandma’s attic; SafeCracker is a new way to create Stand Alone Entry Forms (SAEFs).
From Chris at Barrett Newton:
We’ve made it so that you can create an entry / edit form with the simplicity of a standard channel entry loop. In the past, people found it easier to use FreeForm to capture data than the built in SAEFs. FreeForm is great, but unlike FreeForm, all the SafeCracker data is stored as weblog entries, not as part of a module’s settings. Since that’s the case, entry notifications, statuses, and other standard EE systems work with SafeCracker, making it dead easy to build a contact form, or a sign up form, or job application form. The new custom field also makes it so that you can use 1 weblog to store lots of completely different types of data without having to pre-plan or pre-create new custom fields.
According to Chris, SafeCracker also allows non-logged-in users to submit content via SAEF, which isn’t possible with the standard EE SAEF. It also adds edit ability and outputs errors as JSON, so you can use it with AJAX.
I’m learning all of this from information from Barrett Newton. I haven’t yet tried the software but the description is definitely appealing.
Help Beta Test
Barrett Newton is in need of 10 beta testers with experience building EE sites and time to work with the add-on. They want you use to use it real world situations, not just running on a local sandbox site. You will be able to help shape the add-on; in addition to vigorous testing, they are looking for input on features, documentation and pricing.
If you fit this description, please email them and sign up.
Disclosure: Barrett Newton is an advertiser on EE Insider.
Some of you may have noticed by his inquiries on Twitter over the last week that Brandon Kelly was up to something. That something was a past, present and future write-up about custom fields in ExpressionEngine.
In my book, Custom Fields are ExpressionEngine’s strongest feature. They’re right at the core of what defines EE. And they’ve been bustling with innovation lately, from the add-on community as well as EllisLab.
But I don’t think we’ve seen their full potential yet, and I think Field Groups are partly to blame.
Brandon then launches into a history of custom fields (including some great quotes from Mike Boyink, Rick Ellis and Ryan Masuga) and how we go to where we are now: custom fields, organized by groups, which are assigned to a single channel.
The future of custom fields, according to Brandon, is that custom field groups “lose relevance” and the emphasis is put on allowing you to collect different fields into a publish layout. You could pull from any of the fields in the system, freeing you from having to re-create the same fields in different custom field groups.
I’ve been chatting with Brandon about this for several days and I couldn’t agree more. While I do like to organize fields into groups because different channels may need slightly different field settings and instructions (and I reject chaos and embrace order), we shouldn’t tie all fields down into this convention. In fact, there’s almost nothing stopping someone from implementing an idea like this right now. The fields and field groups aren’t bound in the database; you can create any associations you’d like.
Read the whole article (it’s worth it, believe me): Custom Fields and the Death of the Field Group
Brian Litzinger recently launched a new site for his ExpressionEngine add-ons: Bold Minded.
I decided to put this site together after making the decision to take WYMEditor for ExpressionEngine, and my latest release Blueprints, commercial. WYMEditor started off as a donation only add-on. This was because I wanted to keep costs down and provide a competitive alternative to the other WYSIWYG editors for EE. Then I realized how much time I had actually put into it’s development and support, and rethought my plan. I believe going commercial will actually make it more competitive because I will be obligated to provide better and quicker support as well as spend time on new features to make it the best WYSIWYG editor for ExpressionEngine.
As noted above, Brian is going to start selling add-ons and is moving his WYMEditor from donationware to commercial. This includes his Blueprints add-on, which is “designed to bring a visual representation of Structure templates to the Publish Page, and easily show the user what fields are available in each template.”
And for those of you looking for a Gypsy replacement in ExpressionEngine 2, check out Brian’s Drifter add-on.
Brian was nice enough to send over copies of his add-ons for EE Insider to try out and I hope to have a post about them in the very near future.
Dreebbble is a brand new plugin for EE 2 that takes advantage of the recently released Dribbble API (what’s Dribbble?).
Using a simple tag pair, you can get the latest shots from any player, everyone, popular or players first shots. For example:
<ul>
{exp:dreebbble:get_latest player="ryanirelan" limit="5"}
<li><a href="{image_url}">{title}</a></li>
{/exp:dreebbble:get_latest}
</ul>
The plugin is a free download and a nice way to include your own shots from Dribbble on your EE website.
Download Dreebbble for EE 2.
Booyant (they make NavEE) released a new plugin to help make dynamically generating class names easier. It’s called :nth.
:nth allows you to dynamically generate a class name at specified intervals on Expression Engine elements. Perhaps you have a list that is being dynamically populated from an EE weblog and you’d like to create a grid layout, but the last column items need to behave differently than the rest of the items. Simply wrap the whole mess in a pair of nth tags and set the class and interval parameters to your desired class name and interval.
I’ve always used some PHP in the template for situations like that (and these situations happen frequently) but this seems like a nice way for non-PHP coders to achieve the same functionality in a straight-forward way or even for PHP coders who want to limit the amount of PHP they have to write in their templates.
:nth looks to only be available for EE 1.6 at this time and it’s a free download.
Last week RED When Excited launched a new iPhone app that allows you to publish to your EE-powered website right from your phone: iExpression. This is a native iPhone app, which you need to purchase and download through the Apple App Store (store link).
RWE sent me a promo copy of the app to test out. I would best describe it as a EE-focused version of MarsEdit (which I use to publish this blog) for the iPhone. Like MarsEdit, it also works using the Metaweblog API (there’s a module that ships with EE 1 & 2) and inherits all of its limitations. While you can use custom fields (you match them to basic Metaweblog API-supported fields), you cannot use specialized fields like Relationships, Playa, Matrix, checkboxes etc. This limitation is in the Metaweblog API implementation; even MarsEdit doesn’t support this functionality.
The app itself mostly uses the standard interface of an iPhone app. It supports multiple sites and multiple channels; you just have to set each one individually through the interface. I tested EE Insider on the app and it just took a few minutes to set up (I already had the Metaweblog API module in EE configured for MarsEdit).
Features and Function
iExpression lets choose images from your Photo Library or take a new photo to include with a new entry. The image uploads when you post the new entry and uses the upload destination you specify in the Metaweblog API configuration. It worked flawlessly for me but the iExpression did include some junk markup with the post, wrapping my image in a div and a br tag with a clear in it.
Whenever you post new entries from your iPhone app, you can have iExpression automatically tweet an announcement on your Twitter feed. This functionality doesn’t yet use OAuth, so I’m suspecting it’ll break within the next month when Twitter switches off their basic API authentication. I haven’t tested this part but the app claims to also track “tweet-backs” and click-throughs.
Additionally, iExpression will let you create offline drafts (on an airplane, for example) and then post those entries when you have a data connection again.
Requirements and Cost
The app works with both EE 1 and 2 (because the Metaweblog API module is included in both) and will run on any current iOS device (3.1.3 or later). Their website includes a photo of the iPad version of the app but that is not yet released as it is waiting on approval from Apple. It will be a free upgrade for existing customers.
As noted above, the app is only available through the Apple App Store and currently costs $9.99.
Final Thoughts
If you run a blog without the need for a lot of custom fields and like to publish on the go, this seems like a nice choice. EE Mobile Admin (a mobile web interface for your control panel) has better support for EE 1.6 fieldtypes (it doesn’t support EE 2) and, I think, a nicer interface. It may be because of the screen size but I found iExpression hard to use at times, especially when trying to switch between fields while posting an entry. I had one or two other UI niggles but nothing that made the app unusable.
I don’t think I would use the iPhone version of iExpression very much simply because it’s too uncomfortable to write on the phone in portrait mode (iExpression doesn’t currently support landscape mode). If I did need to post something in a pinch, the EE 1.6 control panel works fine on Mobile Safari.
However, I am looking forward to trying out iExpression on the iPad. I spend a lot of time on my iPad reading and writing and it would be nice to have a dedicated app for drafting posts and articles for this website.
Learn more about iExpression from the RWE website.
It’s Friday and we all need to unwind after a long week of phone calls, coding and designing. Pixel & Tonic is hoping you’ll blow off the steam at their new Dive Bar. It’s a collection of small pieces of software for EE and the first batch is all stuff you can download for free.
Ever since we opened our doors – exactly 5 months ago today! – the site has been missing a key ingredient: a place to release lightweight add-ons. Add-ons that are simple enough that I couldn’t write a whole Overview page for if I tried, and have no need for public changelogs, documentation, or support links.
In the first set of goodies, you get:
- P&T Field Pack - “Enhanced replacements for the Checkboxes, Select Dropdown, Multi Select, and Radio Buttons fieldtypes bundled with EE2”
- P&T Switch - “Sliding switch fieldtype with customizable labels and values.”
- P&T Pill - “Pill select fieldtype with customizable option labels and values.”
- P&T List = “List-making fieldtype with sortable, editable, and deletable rows.”
Get your IDs out and don’t stay too late!
Launched today is a new EE 2 module for remotely accessing Rackspace Cloud Files, FTP and even Amazon S3 right inside your EE 2 control panel: Remote File Browser by Christopher Imrie.
This fieldtype allows you to have a Rackspace Cloud Files, FTP and Amazon S3 file browser inside of your EE publish page. Flexible settings allow you to only show one, two or all three file browsers in a single field as well as customize your settings to have each field connect to different Cloud Files, FTP, or Amazon S3 accounts. The file browser also includes Caching to ensure your keep you Cloud Files and Amazon S3 requests to a minimum.
Christopher sent me a copy of the add-on and I plan to do a write-up about it soon. Stay tuned for that.
Remote File Browser costs $45, works only with EE 2 and is available now through the devot:ee add-on shop.
(If you’re looking for an EE 1.6 add-on for S3 integration in the EE control panel, check out the gorgeous BucketList by Stephen Lewis.)
In a blog post today Derek Jones announced that EllisLab would no longer allow third party developers to use the official EE forums to host and support their add-ons. Instead they are encourage to self host the add-ons or use the best platform out there for add-ons: devot:ee.
I’m sure some will find this move harsh. After all, a lot of people visit the forums and developers have been posting add-ons to the forums for years. In fact, it’s how a lot of our professional add-on developers got their start.
But if you’ve ever visited the thread for a popular add-on you know that it can go on for pages and pages—maybe even hundreds of posts. This is makes it nearly impossible for add-on developers to provide real support which then makes it a frustrating experience for the add-on users. Additionally, a single thread could have multiple versions of the same add-on posted (although a lot of developers are great about updating the original top-of-the-thread file) leading to confusion.
So, a slight adjustment for the community? Definitely. But I think it’s a great move; it’s better for both the developers and the users.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t promote or announce your new add-on in the forums. You can use the new Community News forum:
We encourage you to tell people about your add-on on the Community News Forum, and answer questions people may have about its purpose, but you must provide your own hosting and support for your add-on. We are confident that this is a win for you and the community.
Don’t forget that devot:ee offers free hosting of your add-ons. And if you want to sell your add-on, devot:ee is about as a close to a turnkey EE add-on software storefront as you’ll likely get.
Read Derek’s entire blog post: Third Party Add-on Policies for the New Forums
Last month, Stephen Lewis at Experience Internet (and purveyor of fine EE add-ons) posted a survey asking what you wanted to know about add-on development. Stephen, you see, was planning a series of articles covering this nebulous topic.
The second post in his series is up and it covers the principles of UI design when doing add-on development. And just in case you were looking for a copy-and-paste article down the easy road to the EE Add-on Hall of Fame, you’ll be disappointed. Stephen has a higher goal:
The goal of this series is to give you the tools necessary to create shimmering add-on edifices of your own imagining, not simply to walk you through the creation of some ropey Twitter module. With that in mind, it makes sense to cover a few basic principles of good UI design, prior to doggy-paddling through the murky waters of my hoary-old design mind.
He walks through the principals of simplify, disambiguate, differentiate, prioritize, embrace conventions and be alert. It’s a nice read with information from people who have had success designing UIs for add-ons.
Give it a read: ExpressionEngine 2 Add-on Development : UI Design Principles
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