Southern Fried ExpressionEngine
Far away and long ago, On the trail to the Alamo
Met a gal I used to know, Ridin’ on a Cotton-eyed Joe
Come one, come all to Train-ee’s January 2009 “Southern Fried ExpressionEngine” training! Enjoy 4 days of southern hospitality, great scenery and tasty food while learning about EE elbow to elbow with other like-minded folks.
Days will be spent in an informal yet informative learning environment, and evenings we’ll get out on the town and see the sights!
The Location
This class will be in San Antonio, Texas USA.
Best known for The Alamo and the The Riverwalk, I visited San Antonio with my family for a day this past March while in Texas for the SXSW conference. While we were able to tour the Alamo and took a boat ride around the Riverwalk, we left feeling like we had barely tasted what this town had to offer. I was disappointed we weren’t able to catch the Jim Cullum Band playing, nor did we get into the Tower of the Americas so hope to fix that on this visit.
Getting into town should be a breeze —just look for flights into the San Antonio International Airport.
The Venue
This class will take place at the Inn on the Riverwalk B&B.
While researching some hotels around San Antonio and just not finding the right fit we ran across the Inn on the Riverwalk. We talked to the owners Scott and Johanna (pictured above) and knew we had found our spot—they just exuded “southern hospitality” in a way that the big hotels didn’t. In addition to running the Inn, Scott is a professional bullrider and Johanna is an artist.
The Inn is located on the river about 10 minutes walk from the busier commercial part of the Riverwalk. It has 14 rooms, free WiFi, free parking, free hot breakfast and a large dining/reception area that will become our class space during the day. You can view a slideshow of the Inn’s rooms, as well as the Inn’s exterior. Scott and Johanna are offering Train-ee students a 10% discount on room reservations - just mention Train-ee when you call.
The Inn is 9.6 miles from the San Antonio airport, and there are a number of ground transportation options for getting from one to the other.
There is a good chance that we’ll book out the Inn’s sleeping rooms but still have classroom space open. If that happens there are a large number of hotels within walking distance - the closest being the Hyatt Place which is directly across the river from the Inn. Other local options can be researched on the Visit San Antonio site.
The Instructor
This class will be taught by Michael Boyink.
I’ll also have AJ Penninga of Pretty Squares, an accomplished EE developer and active member of the EE community attending the class in a TA role. AJ is always up to date on the 3rd party code market for EE, and also does a great job of providing 1:1 help as needed during the class instruction time.
The Schedule
This class runs from Tuesday, January 20th, 2009, through Friday, January 23rd, 2009.
The daily schedule is:
- 8:30 - 9:30 AM: Breakfast (provided) and Open Q&A
- 9:30 - 10:00 AM: Break while room is changed over/setup
- 10:00 - 12:30 PM: Instruction Time (coffee, lemonade, tea and water etc. available throughout the day)
- 12:30 - 1:30 PM: Lunch (provided)
- 1:30 - 3:15 PM: Instruction Time
- 3:15 - 3:30 PM: Afternoon Break (snack provided)
- 3:45 - 5:00 PM: Instruction Time
- 5:00 - 6:00 PM: Unscheduled Time
- 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.
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 file system structure
- EE Control Panel Overview
- Basics of coding in EE - tags and loops
- EE linking variables
- 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
- 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
What If EE 2.0 Comes Out?
Ah yes - the $20K question: What if EE 2.0 comes out between now and the start of this class? What version of EE would be used in the class then?
Here’s the deal: If EE 2.0 is out in beta form, I’ll work a preview/tour into the class. If EE 2.0 is through beta and has been released, I will try to gear as much of the class towards 2.0 as is humanly possible. Realize, however, that in order for all of the class materials to be ready on time I need to wrap them up roughly 2 weeks before the class, so depending on the birthdate of EE 2.0 there may or may not be time to work it into the course materials.
However - while EE 2.0 will have a redesigned Control Panel, and be re-implemented on CodeIgniter, and probably have some new features, the fundamentals learned in this class will still apply and be valuable.
The Testimonials
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!
Thank you for such a great experience! I was amazed by Mike’s ability to break EE into digestible parts and, instead of a “seminar snooze-fest,” we were able to learn about EE as a platform and real world usage in a laidback and comfortable atmosphere. Mike (and his amazing wife) also made themselves available after-hours for a wonderful mix of socializing & ExpressionEngine Q&A. Train-EE Alumni Reunion ‘09!!!!
Nick Rivera, 2GO Media
Some say, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.” Mike proves them wrong, bringing his in-depth EE knowledge and real-world experience in to the classroom. Two thumbs-up for Boyink and his refreshing approach to education!
Bob Romanko, Alaska
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
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
- MAMP/WAMP installed
- ExpressionEngine installed
To Signup
This class has already taken place - visit the Classroom Training page for information on current classes.
