CollyLogic | Simon Collison's Illogical Waffle

Friday’s Expression Engine snippet

10th November 2006

I’ll end this week with what I think is an utter gem. I’ve been banging on about how Expression Engine isn’t just a blogging tool, it’s a full-on content management / web publishing / whatever we’re supposed to call these things this week system. Problem is, it’s missing one key, critical feature - hierarchical pages. It’s certainly something you can fudge around, using nested categories for the structure, and one weblog entry per category for the pages. But this tends to get kind of awkward to explain to the people who are going to be using the system.

But now there’s a better way. It’s not a perfect way, but for me, it goes a long, long way towards plugging one of the few gaps in EE. Head over to the Aladdin’s Cave of Expression Engine pimping, download the Pages module, and pledge eternal gratitude to the author, Mark Huot. There’s plenty more information in the related forum thread.

And while you’re at it, try out the File extension too, which is pretty-much essential. In fact, probably best to just grab them all!

#663 | 10/11/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

Thursday’s Expression Engine snippet

9th November 2006

After a quick check of my days-of-the-week pants, I can tell it’s Thursday, so time for today’s episode. We’re going to be building a simple what’s on guide, so hang on to your hats.

#662 | 09/11/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

Wednesday’s Expression Engine snippet

8th November 2006

Where is this week going? Anyway, no time for such philosophical questions, it’s time to get dynamic with Expression Engine.

#661 | 08/11/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

Tuesday’s Expression Engine snippet

7th November 2006

Sometimes I need one of Expression Engine’s features to work for me in a slightly different way, and that’s when I reach for the Query Module. In a nutshell, this module lets you get data from EE’s databases using standard SQL, then make that data available.

#660 | 07/11/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

Monday’s Expression Engine snippet

6th November 2006

During my tenure as guest author, I’ve not got around to talking about anything other then Expression Engine. So, to continue the trend, here’s a quick snippet of hopefully-useful code for Monday. There’ll be another snippet each day this week.

#659 | 06/11/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

More, more, more links in Expression Engine

1st November 2006

The split between intro and body is pretty common across blogs and news sites. On the home or news page you show the introductions to a number of articles or news stories, then you link to the full piece on it’s own page. If this is the intro, I’ll see you in the body.

#655 | 01/11/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

Working smarter with Expression Engine

24th October 2006

Following on from my Expression Engine Top Ten Tips Part One and Part Two, here’s a quick run down of nitty-gritty ways I like to work smarter and smoother with Expression Engine. Your mileage may vary, but they do it for me. And it’d be great for you to share your neato tips too.

#654 | 24/10/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

Expression Engine Fresh Produce

19th October 2006

We all know that fresh content keeps the visitors coming back, so it’s important that what’s new is clearly highlighted. Of course, for many of the situations you’re going to be tackling with Expression Engine, the typical reverse chronological blog structure handles this perfectly: freshest is top of the pile. But what happens when you’re showing content in a non-chronological way (like in a portfolio, directory or store catalogue) and you want to visually flag entries added in the last couple of months? Read on for a simple solution that worked for me, and hopefully might work for you, too.

#650 | 19/10/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

Expression Engine Top Ten Tips - Part Two

17th October 2006

It’s me again. And as well as checking my Guest Author Instructions to see if there’s anything about not being allowed to enter competitions, I’ve been drafting some more Expression Engine tips (part one here). Read on to find out when to use weblogs, how to safely modify a live website and more.

#647 | 17/10/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >

Expression Engine Top Ten Tips - Part One

13th October 2006

Erm, hello… is this thing on? Right. It’s going to be a whirlwind first post, I’m afraid. I politely offered Mr Collison my services at 2.00pm, and less than an hour later I’m clutching login details in my sweaty hand, wondering what topic I should be putting pixel-to-screen about. So, how about the first part of a random rundown of top tips for my favourite web publishing system, Expression Engine? Suits you? Very good!

#646 | 13/10/06 | Agenzia EE Guest Author Web stuff | More >