Turbocharge your ExpressionEngine 2 Education

Turbocharge your ExpressionEngine 2 Education

on Oct 27th 2010 with 30 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Topic: EE
  • Difficulty: N/A

ExpressionEngine, as a platform and a community, has seen a lot of growth recently. While there are some nice roundups out there about EE resources I thought it was time for a more relevant and up-to-date article to hit the streets. If you’re getting started, this set of resources will get you moving in the right direction. After all, I’ve walked this path myself thus far.

My Perspective

Before diving into the resources I should provide a bit of context to my approach to learning EE. I first looked at the software a few years ago and totally didn’t get it. I was already using the PHP framework CodeIgniter, made by the same company, and I saw no need to use EE if I could just build a CMS to do exactly what I needed. Regardless, I wanted to download and test out the software.

Straight out of the gate, I didn’t get it.

I was used to either WordPress or writing my own logic. ExpressionEngine installed with a bunch of “modules” and a few “custom fields” in which I could insert my data. I took a look at the official documentation and didn’t really understand how or why it was a powerful tool. After about 5-10 days of kicking the tires I just put it aside.

Fast Forward

Jump ahead two months, and I find myself back to testing out ExpressionEngine. This time, it was due to finding a series of tutorials on building a church website in EE. After reading the articles, I started to learn how EE was setup “out of the box” and where I could take it. Since reading those tutorials I haven’t put EE down and would consider myself an EE evangelist these days.

During my EE journey, I’ve discovered quite a few excellent resources and taken note of a few community leaders. Let’s dive in and see how they can help you learn ExpressionEngine 2.

(Possibly) Changing Mindsets

When I first dove into EE, I, as mentioned above, simply didn’t “get it.” Coming from WordPress, I was accustomed to working with a Title, Body and some extremely basic Custom Fields. I’d worked a lot with WP’s Categories, Tags, and Widgets, and was used to 1-click installs of templates and auto-updating software. EE is quite different…but I love almost every difference.

I won’t venture into explaining how things work in EE, but there are some great articles to check out. Firstly, I’d suggest reading “Switching Mindsets: From WordPress to ExpressionEngine,” by Mindy Wagner at Viget Labs. Her story is similar to mine in particular. Next I’d say, check out WordPress vs. ExpressionEngine: Apples and Oranges? by Marcus Neto. He talks about how the two handle content differently and provides excellent examples.

Okay, now that you’re eager to debate why one piece of software is “better” than the other, let’s change the topic slightly.

Community Websites

This year EllisLab, makers of ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter, did something awesome. They welcomed some EE fan sites into the EllisLab family by making them “official community partners.” The sites collectively supply the EE community with the latest EE community news, short tips on using EE, a gallery of great EE-powered sites, articles on projects, the official repository of add-ons & more. Take a look at the community sites here:

And some great un-official community EE sites:

Official & Un-official Support

What I really love about the forums is the unofficial support.

EllisLab offers official support from their dedicated staff for any license holder of ExpressionEngine. If you’re having a problem with your site and can’t figure out what’s gone awry, they are good at helping figure things out. They provide this support, via their forums at ExpressionEngine.com. Official support is quite nice for software like this.

What I really love about the forums is the unofficial support. The community of EE users is awesome and I’ve learned a lot from other developers via the official EE Forums. I’ve been a fan of forums since my moderating days at Flashkit; so I naturally jumped into learning about EE there.

Train-ee

I can’t help but give Train-EE a section of its own here. If you’ll remember from this article’s introduction, I turned away from EE rather quickly, at first. It wasn’t until I read through a tutorial series on Building a Church Site that I really started to understand how to use EE.

Long time EE user Michael Boyink created Train-ee when he saw a void in the EE learning process. Since creating Train-ee, Mike has written two EE books, published numerous online text and video tutorials and created the only to-date classroom training course for EE. Mike is also working with EllisLab to make the process of learning EE more seamless and formalized.

In short, Train-ee is an excellent learning resource for ExpressionEngine. Start with some of the free stuff, but definitely purchase some of the commercial goods. The small amount you spend on training is probably nothing compared to the time you’ll save slaving through EE without it.

Other Free and Paid Learning

Train-ee, of course, isn’t the only place in town for learning EE. Here are a few more ways to learn EE both on and off the web.

Online Learning

I personally got a lot out of the EE Screencasts series by Ryan Irelan. He’s also working with other developers on premium tutorials that go beyond the basics. Keep your eyes on his site for additional videos down the road.

Speaking of Ryan, he has his hands in a lot of EE resources. He also runs official community partner site EE Insider where you can get all the latest EE news and quick tips. They do a great job of keeping the community informed. EE Insider also hosts a weekly ExpressionEngine chat most Wednesdays. It is an open chat where you can come and ask questions and give ideas.

Ryan also co-hosts the EE Podcast with Lea Alcantara. This is a weekly podcast where Ryan and Lea and the occasional guest dive deeper and discuss topics like “E-Commerce and ExpressionEngine” and “SEO, Search Engine Optimization, ExpressionEngine“. The EE Podcast is definitely a great way to stay informed on EE techniques.

If you’re looking to extend what EE can do out of the box, then the place to go is Devot:ee created by Ryan Masuga. They provide a catalog of nearly all public EE add-ons to date and even offer simple software support and commercial sales to developers who might not want to host that on their own. Devot:ee is the first place I go when looking to extend EE. If the add-on exists, they probably know about it.

Offline Learning

There are numerous opportunities to learn EE live and in person. For starters, there is the EECI conference, which just saw its 3rd occurrence (photo courtesy of Nate Croft, FortySeven Media). It’s the largest gathering of EE nerds that I’m aware of. The speakers are top notch, and it’s a big heap of fun. The next iteration is in New York in October of 2011.

Aside from the big EECI, there are other conference opportunities out there. Just last week, there was EE Camp in Denver, Colorado. This week, there is the online ExpressionEngine conference EngineSummit 2. Numerous cities also have meetups for ExpressionEngine, which are great ways to share and learn in a small, informal atmosphere.

A slightly different approach to in-person learning is hiring a professional consultant. It’s a service typically used by companies with in-house teams working with EE. For example my company, Focus Lab, LLC, often does private training and consulting on EE topics. If you find yourself in need of a private instructor, the ExpressionEngine community certainly has those resources available.

Buy a Book

The last place I want to touch on offline learning is published books. There are a few to choose from and it would be silly not to mention them. The aforementioned Michael Boyink and Ryan Irelan both have published books on ExpressionEngine 2. There is also a book by Leonard Murphey, which is published by Packt Publishing. Certainly consider checking them out if you’re a book reader.

Dive in to the Community

EllisLab, themselves, have said their favorite feature of EE is the community. I have to agree! They have two full time staff members dedicated to the community; so that should tell you a little about them. Getting involved in the EE community is easy. For me, it began on the official EE forums. From there, I started tweeting a lot about EE and then publishing some of my add-ons publically on GitHub. Here are a few places you can look out for EE’rs.

Who to Follow

Since you’re ready to dive into ExpressionEngine 2, I thought it’d be nice to share some developer names with you. You know, the guys who are consistently doing awesome work and sharing ideas with others. This is by no means meant to be a complete list, but here are a few developers to keep your eyes on:

Link Roundup

To preserve your precious mouse index finger’s strength today I’ve provided you with a roundup of the primary links here:

I’ve overloaded you with resources. Now go forth and learn ExpressionEngine!

Already a Seasoned EE Pro?

If you’re already a seasoned Expression Engine pro, did you know that Envato’s rapidly growing marketplace for code, CodeCanyon, very recently launched a new ExpressionEngine extensions category? We’ve launched with a handful of seed extensions, however, we’re actively seeking new authors and contributions.

There’s no better time to join, as we’ve recently increased our author rates, once again, to 50-70% of every sale. With countless authors making four+ figures in income every month, now is the perfect time to jump in. If you have any questions, leave a comment in this thread, and I (Jeffrey) will get back to you ASAP.

Premium EE Extensions on CodeCanyon

  • Mapper: Display Google Maps on your site with ease.
  • Widgets: Widgets is a ExpressionEngine 2.1 module that allows even your least experienced client or to manage chunks of intelligent content on there site without needing to learn loads of tags, HTML or call you in to help.
  • Multi-Language Support: This extension provides the foundation for multi-language support in your website.

 
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I'm a husband, father, web developer and musician working in Savannah, Georgia. My weapons of choice tend to include LAMP, ExpressionEngine, jQuery, and common sense.  

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  • Mamjed

    I really want to learn ee now!

  • http://heavymark.com Christopher Beckwith

    Completely agree. Expression Engine was always the CMS you heard the big guys using such as Zeldman. But compared to WordPress you wonder what the big hoopla is about.

    Treasures are never lightly covered with dirt, you have to dig deep for the good stuff.

    The interface and auto updating of the system and plugins is far superior in WordPress, but who know’s what EE3 may bring. The one other big difference is WordPress is free and EE is not. That is the CMS costs a good bundle, but where you will spend the majority of your money will be on all the plugins to add functionality such as tagging, better menu systems, WYSIWYG editors, and such.

    When WP will meet your needs I would still recommend WP, but when WP can’t cut it, or will require too much hacking, EE can work wonders.

  • http://notquiteblack.com TheDoc

    Perfect timing!

  • http://erikreagan.com Erik Reagan
    Author

    One additional note:

    Feel free to follow & ping me on twitter @erikreagan with any EE questions. I’m always happy to help! :)

  • http://twitter.com/jholyhead James

    I honestly couldn’t envisage a situation where I would be happy to pay for EE for a client. Between WordPress, Drupal, Alfresco, Joomla and Moodle you’ve got free solutions to every content management problem you are likely to encounter and each one of those systems have huge user communities. I don’t see where EE adds value, especially when you consider the effort required in becoming cognisant of yet another system.

    • eeean

      The problem with a lot of the free solutions, and I’ve been there and done that, is that they just don’t do the job in an elegant way. EE from my experience so far is so much more elegant. Granted there is a bit of a steep learning curve for a little while, but the architecture is far more intelligent and pragmatic than most of the free solutions. Worpdress for example is clunky and uncomfortable when you want to do anything other than make a blog.

  • http://bit.ly/cLZXGi Julian

    Timing couldn’t be more perfect as I’ve dedicated myself to mastering EE2! Thanks for the roundup. Bookmarking for future reference!

    • http://erikreagan.com Erik Reagan
      Author

      Sounds great Julian. Consider dropping in the weekly EE chat this evening at 9pm EST.

      http://eeinsider.com/blog/ee-help-chats-today4/

      • http://bit.ly/cLZXGi Julian

        Missed it yesterday. Didn’t see your comment until now but I added it to my Google calendar. Will be there next week.

        Thanks

  • Paul du Long

    If you buy a regular license of EE, is it possible to use it on multiple domains ?
    Or do you have to buy a new license for every domain ?

    • eeean

      One license per domain, or using the MSM license you can save a bit of cash and have multiple sites running from the same installation.

    • http://erikreagan.com Erik Reagan
      Author

      Hi Paul

      Technically one license is for one install. I have a few instances where I have 1 install of EE powering multiple domains without the paid expansion called MSM.

      That said, the most common approach to a multi-domain setup is using a single EE license in combination with an MSM license.

      They have a Sales FAQ available here: http://expressionengine.com/sales_faq/

      • eeean

        You’re right about the one license per install. Sounds like you then contradict this, by admitting usage outside the terms? Or did you mean something else?

      • http://erikreagan.com Erik Reagan
        Author

        @eeean

        No, my usage is within the terms.

        It is just a single install of EE being used on multiple domains by pointing to the same application system directory on the same server. It actually works the same way that MSM works from a technical perspective. You just don’t get the features that MSM brings.

        Thanks for asking. My initial comment was vague.

      • eeean

        Thanks for clarifying, I had no idea this fell under the terms. I didn’t understand what the MSM actually was. I thought it meant you had to buy the MSM to run multiple sites from one installation, when really the MSM is an extension to the control panel which allows integrated multiple site management. I’d call this misunderstanding a gaping hole in the EE website, which doesn’t explicitly or carefully distinguish this.

  • http://train-ee.com Boyink

    One license of EE is for one domain, with the slight exception of the Multiple Site Manager which is a first-party commercial add-on that lets you run multiple domains (or sub-domains, or subfolders) from one EE install.

  • http://www.jsxtech.com Jaspal Singh

    I’m already a fan of CodeIgniter and has used it in various projects.
    Nice Article on ExpressionEngine 2.
    Thanks for sharing.

  • http://www.svetainiu.kurimas.manualai.lt/ Svetainiu kurimas

    I learn now ee :)

  • http://blog.jesusyepes.com Jesus

    Pre 2.0 there was a community free edition. I can’t see it anymore… there’s no 2.0 free version for personal use/testing?

    • eeean

      No free ‘core’ version available anymore unfortunately. It’s a shame as many developers may not discover how awesome it is without a free learning pathway. I actually bought an 8 part video tutorial series to learn it before I purchased my first license, I was immediately impressed watching someone develop with it straight away.

    • http://erikreagan.com Erik Reagan
      Author

      The free version, or “Core” as it was called, was retired with the official launch of EE 2.1. I think the only alternative now is to purchase EE and give it a spin for 30 days to make your decision. They give full refunds if it doesn’t work out. I’d suggest checking with their Sales staff rather than taking my word. They’ll have the 100% correct answer :)

      EE Refund Policy
      Pre-Sales Forum

  • http://elliscreative.co.uk Matthew Ellis

    I’ve been rocking EE for about 2 years now after coming from a Joomla background (dark days).
    I must say, I absolutely love EE! 10 EE sites later, I still consider myself a noob, but the simplicity and logic of EE allows me (a non-PHPer) to develop complex sites almost straight out the box.

    Yes, the license fee is off putting (and I do think EE2 is too expensive, compared to EE1), but I can now develop sites pretty quickly in EE, so for me the cost easily offsets itself against paying someone else to build a custom CMS.

  • Leonard

    Great summary of learning resources. And thanks for the book mention! I appreciate it :)

    • http://erikreagan.com Erik Reagan
      Author

      Thanks, Leonard. Glad to mention your books. I was delighted to see the 2.0 book published recently :)

  • Jason

    Did you say ‘countless authors’?

    Here’s a tip:
    SELECT count(*) FROM AUTHORS

    You’re welcome ;)

    P.S. Nice article.

  • http://www.yellostudio.co.uk Andy

    I just started using EE2 for clients and its a very polished system from what i can see. It can save you hours of additional work with general tasks you do everyday adding value to you and your client.

    Ill definitely use it more and more.

  • http://www.tgcdesign.com Scott

    I’m at that “I still don’t get it” stage. Like you, I have better background in CI and have even mastered “Modular Extensions” in CI but I’m at an impasse. The one thing I really miss in EE are the real world code examples like you can find for CI, everybody wants “bucks”! I ended up purchasing a pre-made theme just to have a better working example to dissect than Agile Records. I looked at the Church project but that isn’t for EE v2.x (obviously, as it is the only one they offer for free).

    I may have to put it aside for a while and come back when my mind is clear, maybe even buy a book. I still hold out hope for EE though because I see the potential there, It truly is a “no-boundaries” framework, it just needs better documentation for license holders.

  • Branden

    I myself am to the point of despising a CMS altogether. In terms of saving time a CMS can come in handy, but they can also be quite restrictive. Joomla was an absolute pain in a butt to use. I threw it out the same day it came in. I have a low tolerance level. lol I use WordPress for my blog under a sub-domain. Making it work with the main site would take far too much effort. My server thankfully allows me run PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl… Being such a perfectionist that I am, it can be a nightmare trying to find a solid platform to build a website off of without feeling the need to rip apart and put it back together again. EE can be beneficial to some degree; however, there is a lot of unnecessary cost that could easily be avoided with numerous alternatives other than Drupal, Joomla and WordPress if you were hard up for a CMS. Building everything from scratch is very time consuming and there are those that feel it is a waste of precious time. (T_T) I myself feel like having a scream fest since nothing thus far cuts it. Anyone have some suggestions that have been in the same boat? (Õ<_Õ )`"

  • Elise

    I am researching alternatives to WordPress.org, with more functionality, and am personally happy to pay a little to avoid ripping my hair out. My clients are VERY poor, but my time is money, and even if I’m volunteering it, I am at the point in life where I can’t deal with “free!” software that wastes massive amounts of my time.

    Then again, I’m more an organizer than a hard-core programmer, although I like to code–it is not my main purpose.

    Thanks, Erik, for a GREAT, well-organized tutorial.

  • http://akwad.net Akwadnet

    Thanx for this article
    I use EE allot in my projects, and i think EllisLab is copying some APPLE Inc policies
    Like nothing complete you have to keep paying for every thing like
    menu Module , Why should I pay for NAVEE module 35$ or Structure Module 65$ every time i need flexible menu module ?
    some thing like this should be included in the system it self, Also there is no video tutorials for Module and addons development.
    I think EE3 should have major difference.