Inaugural ExpressionEngine Class
The Location
This class will be in Holland, MI USA.
I’m really happy to be offering this class in my hometown. While being best-known for the annual Tulip Time Festival, Holland is nicely situated on Lake Macatawa, which connects to Lake Michigan.
Beautiful sunsets, clean sandy beaches, lighthouses, historic shopping districts, microbreweries, coffeehouses, bikepaths—there are tons of reasons to love Holland and I’m going to do my best to get you out of the hotel and enjoy it 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.
The class will be held at the new 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. Mention “Train-ee” when you make your reservation.
There are other local options as well.
The Instructor
This class will be taught by Michael Boyink.
The Class Details
We’ll have four days in the classroom - and the scheduled training will run from 9:00am to 4:00pm (breakfast and lunch will be provided). From 4-5pm you can ask questions, get feedback on your own EE project, or bail early to go catch up on email before heading out again.
Specifically we’ll cover the following:
- Installing ExpressionEngine
- System Overview
- Control Panel
- Loading an existing design template into EE
- Chunking the visual design into parent and embedded templates
- Passing variables to embedded templates
- Designing an ExpressionEngine architecture to power the visual design
- Implementing EE weblogs, custom fields and categories to hold content
- Building dynamic navigation menus
- Building page titles and setting navigation states dynamically
- Creating content relationships
- Using EE conditionals
- Using plug-ins
- Implementing a Contact Form
- Implementing the EE search engine
- Implementing an different content types (TBD)
- Setting up the site for client access
The Testimonials
It took me a while after the class to have my light bulb moment and for me to fully realize how great ExpressionEngine is and at the same time what an amazing teacher you are. Because of you I have an extra layer of job security and increased confidence in myself when it comes to making websites.
Keith Heustis, Clear River Advertising & Marketing
The Train-ee class greatly helped my web development business. The class used real-world examples to turn abstract concepts into concrete implementations. Mike’s analogies allowed us to grasp how EE works, explaining things in ways that we could all understand. The relationships formed during the session are a valuable asset, as we regularly keep in touch via email, growing together in our knowledge and use of EE.
Ryan Battles, Jovia Web Studio
The Train-ee session on ExpressionEngine was of enormous value to me. Mike Boyink has a a real command of the topic and his experience was invaluable. The training covered using the basic framework, potential pitfalls, and making the most of the software. As a small business owner the cost of training is a serious consideration but I left feeling that I got more than my moneys worth.
Mary Ellen Slater
The Train-ee class was phenomenal! It was both comprehensive and easy to understand. Held in a fun location, it made for a great week. I’m willing to bet that even those who think they know ExpressionEngine could learn a thing or two from Mr. Boyink!
John Knotts, S3VN2
Imagine a CMS like Drupal or Joomla as Lego Duplo, while ExpressionEngine is regular Lego. With Duplo, if you want an elephant, you grab the elephant shaped Duplo. With Lego you can build as many different kinds of elephants as you can imagine and figure out how to build. That’s EE. The Train-ee class provided clear, concise, hands-on training on how to look at all those bricks and figure out the best way to build an elephant with EE.
John Green
Class Prerequisites
- Working knowledge of (X)HTML and CSS
- A Laptop with MAMP/WAMP installed
To Signup
This class has already taken place - visit the Classroom Training page for information on current classes.
