Every week we bring you the latest additions to the Devot:ee add-on database. Here’s a long list of goodies that should keep you busy through the weekend.
We can make the meeting as loose or structured as you’d like; I have no ideas set in stone. For those people that are interested, I’m also looking for potential locations. If it’s a small group, we could informally meet at a cafe or restaurant. Larger groups would obviously require a bit more planning.
Interested in joining us? Drop me an email and let me know: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) I’ll compile a list of names and we’ll proceed from there!
This post has been a long time coming. Whether on Twitter or in the blogosphere, the question often arises, and I have been asked numerous times for my opinion on the ExpressionEngine vs. WordPress debate, and why one would choose one content management system (CMS) over the other.
My usual answer is that they cannot be compared. While WordPress had made huge strides in usability, for anything other than a blog it is an apple.
ExpressionEngine, with the release of version 2.0, makes for a lovely platform that is, as we will see, an orange.
His main point was (and I agree) that it’s an apples and oranges comparison. I do disagree, however, that WordPress is for tinkerers and EE is for designers or non-programmers. It’s a generalization that is true sometimes but hardly true all of the time.
Planet-EE released their first module for EE 2, Search Results, which makes it easier to get your search results organized how you would like.
This straight forward, easy-to-use module gives you greater control over your search results without having to add PHP scripts to your templates, modify the EE core files, or use the SQL query tags.
Some of what this module does: group results by any field, sort by any field, and manage excerpt sizes. EE Insider has not yet tested this module.
Ford Fiesta Movement launched last week and, you guessed it, the site is powered by ExpressionEngine. Designed by Odopod and developed by Media Girl, Inc, the website promotes 2011 Ford Fiesta.
Over the next few months we’ll be rolling out new content and features on EE Insider. The first part of this is our new “Ask the Pro” monthly column.
In this column EE Pro Fred Boyle (of nGen Works) will answer as many of your questions as possible. But before we can start we need your help by submitting questions about how to do something on ExpressionEngine.
Want to go to EECI 2010 in San Francisco? Do you want to get your conference pass completely free? I thought that’s what you’d say.
EllisLab is giving away one full conference pass (gets you in to all conference activities) to one lucky member of the EE community. Entering is as easy as a simple tweet:
To enter to win the full conference ticket to EECI2010, just Tweet your favorite thing about either ExpressionEngine or CodeIgniter, including the full name of the product, the #eecifree hash, and the bit.ly link to this blog post (http://bit.ly/cEAhqM).
Even if you’ve already paid for a conference pass, you can still win! EllisLab will simply reimburse you for the cost. So, what are you waiting for?
Recently I’ve been thinking that the EE control panel could use more robust logging. This is especially important for me during the late development stage of a project when the number of people with access to the control panel increases. It’s not really to expose and assign blame if something goes wrong, but at least have a complete record of what happened.
There are three different times available on Saturday March 13th and Sunday 14th.
Saturday, March 13, 10 - 11am Distributed development: how do you guys do it?!
Saturday, March 13, 4 - 5pm Module building from experts, the EllisLab team
Sunday, March 14, 2 - 3pm CodeIgniter Web Apps with ExpressionEngine 2.0
Do any of these sound interesting to you? Sign up in the special forum threads they’ve set. There will be a limit on how many people can attend in order to keep the conversation manageable and to fit in informal gathering spaces.
It’s Wednesday and that means it is time for the weekly EE Help Chat, which takes place at 9PM EST and runs about an hour.
People of all experience levels are welcome and both beginner and advanced questions are encouraged. If you’d like to get an idea of how the chat works and what the guidelines are, check out the EE Help Chat page for more information. On that page you’ll also find the link to enter chat at 9PM.
On March 23rd at the New England Research & Development Center in Cambridge MA, a bunch of EE users will be getting together to talk shop and trade tips.
We’ll be talking about how to get started with ExpressionEngine. For those who have used other content management systems before and/or aren’t quite sure how to dive in to EE, bring your questions! For those who work with EE every day, bring your best practices so we can all learn from you!
Say what? New in BucketList 1.1 is the ability to choose which s3 buckets are available. From the changelog (short and sweet):
Implemented the option to specify which buckets are available for each field or FF Matrix cell.
This was one of my wishes from the beginning, so I’m really glad to see it implemented. Now I can create a “article_images” bucket and make it only available to the Articles section of the site. Very nice!
If you’re an existing license holder, like I am, you just need to enter your license key to get the update.
WooThemes released two new themes for ExpressionEngine: Delegate and The Station. These themes were previously available on other platforms but have been moved to EE.
I’m not sure what to make of the idea of using themes on EE. I’m sure they’re helpful to some people but I choose to work with EE because of its flexibility and extensibility—not because I can drop in a theme and have a blog in 22.5 seconds. Maybe it’s just me. What’s your take?
Chad posted to the EE forums with a quick overview:
Some seriously fresh and tasty sauces here people. Order yourself a 6 pack - you will not be disappointed. This is an EE 1.6.8 site with Structure, Wygwam and Playa, as well as a nice customized version of Foxycart and FoxEE.
Check out the site and, if you’re hungry, pick up a case of sauce!
First Timer allows you to point users to a specific URL upon their first login and the a different URL on subsequent logins. I plan to add more features (it still doesn’t support MSM) in the near future, as time allows.
It’s common knowledge that a lot of people take EE and push it beyond just typical CMS functionality. I’ve heard of it being used as a bug tracker, intranet tool, social networking site and more.
So, I want to see what you’re doing with EE. Are you using it mostly as a CMS or as a framework on which you build something bigger?
In the next few months there are a couple of opportunities to gather with your fellow EE users, talk shop, learn some cool stuff and drink copious amounts of {your_favorite_beverage}.
SXSW Interactive - March 12-16
The annual gathering of internet nerds from around the world, SXSW is a broad technology conference. It takes place in hopefully warm and pleasant Austin, TX. This year they have agreed to host panel discussion on ExpressionEngine. Led by Kenny Meyers, with myself, Mark Huot, Brian Warren and Jenn Lukas, the ExpressionEngine 2.0: Total Domination! panel will cover, well, EE domination! Actually, we’ll be discussing cool things you can do with EE and share some of our experiences.
The panel takes place on Monday March 15th at 12:30 PM in Ballroom B.
ExpressionEngine Summit - March 30
An online-only conference that will feature a full day of speakers talk about ExpressionEngine. I’ll be speaking at this virtual event about advanced templating techniques.
EECI 2010 - May 31-June 2
The follow-up to last year’s inaugural event in Leiden, Netherlands takes place in San Francisco at the end of May. In short, EECI is the event for our community. If you have budget to attend any event, this is your baby.
The speaker list is features Rick Ellis, Leslie Camacho, Derek Allard and Derek Jones of EllisLab, Structure module creator Travis Schmeisser, Brandon Kelly, Leevi Graham and a lot more.