ExpressionEngine Reloaded
Neo: Why are you here?
The Oracle: Same reason. I love candy.
Have you been waiting for ExpressionEngine 2 to be released before jumping in? The wait is over - and Train-ee is pleased to announce its first ExpressionEngine 2 class. This class marks Train-ee’s two-year anniversary in providing high-quality ExpressionEngine classroom training. Come to Holland, Michigan in September and find out why EllisLab endorses Train-ee as an official Training Partner. Find out why companies like Garmin, organizations like the Federal Reserve, and schools like the University of Georgia have trusted Train-ee to teach their staff how to use ExpressionEngine. Find out why people like Holland so much with 4 days of hometown hospitality, great scenery and tasty food. And find out how much fun classroom training can be with an informal yet informative learning environment during the day followed by evenings out on the town or at the beach.
The Class Details
During the class we’ll cover the following:
- Brief history of EE
- Review of the “EEcosystem”
- Getting a conceptual understanding of EE
- EE Control Panel Overview
- What’s new in EE 2
- Basics of coding in EE - tags and loops
- EE linking variables
- Loading an existing design template into EE
- Chunking the visual design into parent templates, embedded templates, and snippets
- Passing variables to embedded templates
- Designing an ExpressionEngine architecture to power the visual design
- Implementing EE channels, custom fields and categories to hold content
- Building dynamic navigation menus
- Building page titles and setting navigation states dynamically
- Working with categories
- Working with relationships
- Using EE conditionals
- Using EE variables
- Troubleshooting tips
- Using plug-ins, modules and extensions
- Implementing different content types
- Setting up the site for client access and workflow
- Fighting SPAM
- Improving performance
- EE search engine - constraints and implementation
- Discussion forum module overview
- Wiki module overview
- Multiple Site Manager Overview
Included with Class
- Class Manual - 160 pages of printed and bound EE goodness covering everything discussed during the week, along with code samples and links.
- ExpressionEngine license - thanks to EllisLab, a Non-Commercial License of ExpressionEngine 2 ($149 value) is included with the class.
Class Prerequisites
- Working knowledge of (X)HTML and CSS
- A Laptop
- MAMP/WAMP installed
- ExpressionEngine installed
The Instructor
This class will be taught by Michael Boyink.
I’ve worked on dozens of ExpressionEngine-based websites, wrote the first ExpressionEngine book, produced the first commercial EE screencasts, have beend a speaker at ExpressionEngine conferences and offer the first (and currently the only) EE classroom training publicly available.
The Location
This class will be in Holland, Michigan USA.
While being best-known for the annual Tulip Time Festival, Holland is nicely situated on Lake Macatawa, which connects to Lake Michigan. Besides tulips Holland offers beautiful sunsets, clean sandy beaches, lighthouses, historic shopping districts, microbreweries, coffeehouses, bikepaths—and I’m going to do my best to get you out of the hotel and enjoy the area with some after-hours activities.
Getting here is easy— you can fly into the Gerald R. Ford International Airport (a free shuttle is available), grab one of the daily Amtrak trains from Chicago (the Holland terminal is 2 blocks from the hotel) or drive from either Chicago or Detroit in less than 3 hours.
The Venue
This class will take place at the CityFlats Hotel.
CityFlats is one of those fun, funky spaces that will really inspire your creative side - I’ve never stayed at a hotel quite like it. CityFlats is a “green hotel” - it plans on being one of the first hotels in the United States to attain LEED certification.
CityFlats is offering a great rate of $109/night, discounted from $189, for the training. Train-ee is partnering with IdeaFoundry for this class - so if you book at CityFlats you’ll need to mention “IdeaFoundry” to get the special rate.
There are other local options as well.
The Schedule
This class runs from Monday, September 13th, 2010, through Thursday, September 16th, 2010.
The daily schedule is:
- 8:00 - 9:00 AM: Breakfast (provided)
- 9:00 - 10:30 AM: Instruction Time
- 10:30 - 10:50 AM: Break
- 10:50 - 12:00 PM: Instruction Time
- 12:00 - 1:00 PM: Lunch (provided)
- 1:00 - 2:30 PM: Instruction Time
- 2:30 - 2:50 PM: Afternoon Break (snack provided)
- 2:50 - 4:00 PM: Instruction Time
- 4:00 - 5:00 PM: Q&A
- 6:00 - ??: Optional evening activities (TBD, dinner may be provided, bring your friends/family)
Note: If you have any special dietary or physical requirements please let us know when registering so that we can accommodate you.
To Signup
This class has already taken place - visit the Classroom Training page for information on current classes.
