Flexible web publishing with Expression Engine

WELCOMEFlexible web publishing with Expression Engine

Presentation by BooyantLamont Library, Harvard, Wednesday April 14th

ABOUT BOOYANTBooyant build beautiful, functional, accessible web sites, web apps, blogs and more; all from our office in Beverly, MA.


Key ingredients:


Key ingredients:

• Standards based design & development


Key ingredients:


• Creative technicians solving client problems with technology


Key ingredients:


• Creative technicians solving client problems with technology

• Content strategy & management

ABOUT BOOYANT - DIGITShttp://booyant.com/

Johannes BooyCreative Director

@drj

Jeff AusuraSenior Developer

@thtp

Michael WitwickiCTO

@michaelwitwicki

978.OKAY.BOB@booyant

http://booyant.com/

http://booyant.com/

EE - OVERVIEWBy Johannes Booy, Creative Director

EE - INTRODUCTIONYes. It’s another content management system

EE is a powerful CMS that can be used to manage your website, application or blog.

EE - THE BASICSNothing too unique here

• Written in PHP and runs on MySQL

• Self hosted on your server - see http://expressionengine.com/overview/requirements/ for exact hosting requirements.

• Web based administrative control panel

http://expressionengine.com/overview/requirements/




EE - IS IT “OPEN SOURCE”Yes. Well, erm, sort of.


• Built on a open source PHP framework, CodeIgniter.



• However, EE is a commercial product built by Ellis Labs.




• Costs $300 for a commercial license, and $150 for a non-commercial license.




• Costs $300 for a commercial license, and $150 for a non-commercial license.

I know what you are saying........

EE - IS IT “OPEN SOURCE”Is the license model all bad?

...but sometimes it’s OK to pay for products, if the company invests in providing a better product and better support.

EE - SUPPORTDocumentation. Community. Forum.

• Because it’s commercial software, real resources are dedicated to writing quality documentation for ExpressionEngine.

• In addition, there’s a very active forum with a small staff of technical support staff employed by Ellis Lab and a wiki that contains useful ExpressionEngine tips and tricks.

• Many sites outside EllisLabs also run tutorials, podcasts and other information around EE. There is also a conference.

EE - SUPPORThttp://expressionengine.com/docs/

http://expressionengine.com/docs/

http://expressionengine.com/docs/

EE - SUPPORThttp://expressionengine.com/forums/

http://expressionengine.com/forums/

http://expressionengine.com/forums/

EE - SUPPORThttp://expressionengine.com/wiki/

Screenshot.

http://expressionengine.com/wiki/

http://expressionengine.com/wiki/

EE - IN USEThe community of EE users is growing quickly

• Created in 2007, Expression Engine has caught on, with good reason.

• The following are some excellent examples of Expression Engine in action.

EE - IN ACTIONhttp://my.barackobama.com

http://my.barackobama.com

http://my.barackobama.com

EE - IN ACTIONhttp://www.gop.com/

http://www.gop.com/

http://www.gop.com/

EE - IN ACTIONhttp://www.miami.edu/

http://www.miami.edu/

http://www.miami.edu/

EE - IN ACTIONhttp://www.bmi.com/

http://www.bmi.com/

http://www.bmi.com/

EE - IN ACTIONhttp://www.campaignmonitor.com/

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/

EE - IN ACTIONhttp://www.topgear.com/uk/

http://www.topgear.com/uk/

http://www.topgear.com/uk/

EE - IN ACTIONhttp://www.alistapart.com/

http://www.alistapart.com/

http://www.alistapart.com/

EE - REASONS FOR USINGDistinguishing attributes.


• Content out approach & workflow



• Template with your own valid HTML / CSS / Javascript




• Easy to learn, no PHP knowledge required.

EE - CONTENT OUTBuilding around your content

News Products Bio’s Whitepapers

EE - CONTENT OUTBasic Workflow


• Create a weblog / channel for each type of content your site has (News, Events, Bio’s, Products)



• Create a group of custom fields for each channel, for example the “News” channel might have: date, title, brief, link, article.




• Assign the custom field group to the channel




• Assign the custom field group to the channel

• Start entering content.

EE - TEMPLATESThe part us front-end guys love


• Template using your own valid, semantic, lean mean mark-up. No hatcheting. No lengthy CSS rules.



• Break the rules and standards of web design. EE can extend to manage ANY design, and is not constrained to header, columns and footers.




• You can save & edit templates with your favorite editor




• You can save & edit templates with your favorite editor

• URL structure is built around templates.

STATIC TO DYNAMICBy Jeff Ausura, Senior Developer

STATIC TO DYNAMICObjectives:


• Take a static HTML page and plug it into EE


• Take a static HTML page and plug it into EE

• Learn about the EE CMS model including Templates, Weblogs, and Field Groups

STATIC TO DYNAMICKey points about the EE process:


• Templating is not a nightmarish reconstruction or reinvention of the static site


• Templating is not a nightmarish reconstruction or reinvention of the static site

• We can and will simply copy and paste the static HTML into EE and then swap out static content with dynamic content

EE CONTROL PANELSite Admin roles vs Designer Developer roles:


• Designers/Developers will use Templates and Admin tabs to set up site


• Designers/Developers will use Templates and Admin tabs to set up site

• Site Admins will use Publish and Edit tabs to flow and manage content

MODULES & MOREBy Michael Witwicki, CTO

ADD-ONSModules, Extensions & Plugins...Oh my.

ExtensionsAugment EE’s existing interfaces using “hooks” created in the system by EllisLabs. Example: LG Better META

PluginsMinor run-time enhancements integrated into the template system.

ModulesLarger systems integrated into the EE Control Panel. Often made up of extensions & plugins. Anything you could build as a standalone application can be created and easily distributed as a Module. Example: Example: Booyant Me LikEE

FEATURESAs much a Framework as it is a CMS.


Tools

• Member Management• Versioning• Multi-Site Management• Date Driven Content• Pagination• Image Sizing / Manipulation• Commenting• Data Caching• Search• PHP in Templates• Query Module


Tools

• Member Management• Versioning• Multi-Site Management• Date Driven Content• Pagination• Image Sizing / Manipulation• Commenting• Data Caching• Search• PHP in Templates• Query Module

Security

• 160 Bit SHA-1 Encryption• Captcha• Throttling • Duplicate Data Denial• Password Lockout• Secure Password Mode• Banning ( IP / Email )• Comment Time Intervals• Comment Rank Denial

Flexible web publishing with Expression Engine

Design

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