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
Mike is one in a million. He genuinely cares for each individual in his class and wants them to succeed with their efforts to learn ExpressionEngine. Thanks Mike—EE is not a mystery to me anymore and I now have the tools needed to get the job done.
Bryan Juber, US Synthetic
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 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
Mike was an absolute Godsend! I went in to the training knowing nothing of ExpressionEngine, just HTML and CSS. A month later and I’m developing two university sites on EE which is allowing me to command a much higher project cost with a minimal impact on development. This course is an absolute must for anyone who is interested in getting started with the software!
Christopher Kennedy, OneBrightLight.com
Loved the training. The overview of concepts and work flow, hands-on group exercises and behind-the-scene peeks at existing sites really brought to life what you read in the forums and documentation. The resulting “a ha” moments made it all worthwhile. Combined with the
Paula McIntyre, Loracs Design LLC
thoughtfulness of Mike Boyink and our Idea Foundry hosts, the week was a real pleasure!
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.
