The sale will run until approximately 5:00PM Mountain Time.

Get it while it’s hot!

If you have an interest in Advanced ExpressionEngine Training could you leave a comment below and let us know what your expectations of an Advanced class would be?

Thanks Much!

It was just going to say how much fun I had doing the first-ever Campus Certified ExpressionEngine Training day with EllisLab last week.

It was going to just be another news item, posted to let you know the site was still alive, that I’m still here, planning to continue writing tutorials and help people learn ExpressionEngine. It was probably going to be just another bit of white noise in the ongoing, daily stream of sound that we all seem to be listening to these days.

And then I looked at the pictures posted by Derek Jones in the EllisLab Recap of the Training.

Specifically this one:

And I have to tell you - I got a bit verklempt, if a middle-aged white guy of Dutch descent can get verklempt.

To see that many people. Smart people. People who I expect have already done fantastically cooler things and will go on to do ever more cooler things than I ever will. To see them taking a day, and spending some pretty serious money, to sit and listen to me talk about ExpressionEngine.  To have EllisLab there, listening to someone else talk about and instruct people on the use of the product they’ve invested so much of themselves in.

I’m not sure I can communicate here the sense of humility, honor and responsibility I’m feeling while looking at that picture.

I use to think I’d make my mark in this field by the sites that I did. Or the clients I could list on my portfolio page. Or the clever coding constructs I came up. Or heck, even the articles or books that I wrote.  That stuff is all good, but I know now that when it’s time for me to power down the laptop and close the lid on this career, it’ll be these teaching times that I look back on and cherish the most.  And be able to use as evidence of any success in this world.

If you’ve read anything I’ve written, if you’ve purchased anything here on Train-ee, if you’ve come to one of our classes, if you are in that photo above….

Thank You.

We’ll look at more than just page-load times, though, taking a Holistic approach that looks at the site performance, your performance as a developer and your client’s performance managing their content.

We’re still putting the details of the class together, but there’s a very good chance some of the day will be led by EllisLab developers themselves!

The EllisLab announcement can be found on their blog - but just so you know we are getting the details (topic and cost, mainly) figured out.  Once those are solidified we’ll be sure to announce them about everywhere possible.

Hope to see you there!

This series will likely deviate a bit from the stricter native-only approach of past tutorial series.

Will it become a book?  Not sure yet.

But in the meantime enjoy some free content that’s current with the latest version of ExpressionEngine.

While I won’t be producing any stand-alone screencasts in the foreseeable future, the ones I did for EE1 are still on the site and are now free to download. 

With the screencasts made free I only have one downloadable product to sell - the EE2 book - which made using EE’s Simple Commerce Module a bit overkill with it’s requirement to register & login (which also opened the door to spam registrations to deal with). So (for the time being at least) I’ve ditched SCM so that you can now purchase the book without having to register and I don’t have to keep managing the memberships.

With this upgrade out of the way I can now feel better about starting some new tutorials around EE2 (it just didn’t feel right writing about EE2 on a site still running EE1).  Look for the beginning of a new Build a Site tutorial series soon.

This version of the book was mainly about re-working the Product section of the sample site to use EE 2.4’s more advanced Image Manipulations for dynamically creating resized versions of images as they are uploaded.  But the Control Panel of EE 2.4 is different enough from EE 2.1 that every single Control Panel screenshot also had to be updated.

I also fixed errata reported by readers, removed sections for features that were removed from EE, and added bits where features were added or enhanced. 

If you have purchased the EE2 PDF version in the past you can download the update from your Train-ee profile page. If you purchased the discontinued ePub version shoot me an email with your Train-ee screenname and I’ll make the updated PDF available to you (there are no plans for an updated ePub based on low sales volume).  If you purchased the EE1 version then you’ll need to re-up (a family has to eat..:)

I’ll be working on updating the print version via Amazon but do need some time to order and approve a review copy - I’m hoping that process will only take a week or so.

So here’s my thought: I find an actual restaurant that needs a new website.  They pay a significantly reduced rate for the work.  Together we create a custom design that serves both our purposes.  I build out the site on ExpressionEngine, using the build as a basis for new learning materials here on Train-ee.  When the site build reaches an agreed-upon point the restaurant takes it over and uses it as their primary marketing tool.

Restaurant Benefits

• A dramatically reduced price for a custom-designed killer mobile-friendly website delivered on ExpressionEngine
• Extra visibility and traffic from their site being featured in a series of learning resources

Restaurant Requirements

• A reasonable budget (more info forthcoming)
• Ability to wait longer for a completed site than a normal project
• Able to host the site on EngineHosting

Train-ee Benefits

• Custom design costs will be covered by a paying client
• The effort of building out the site will result in a website that actually gets used
• Train-ee will retain ownership of the design for use in forthcoming learning resources

EE Student Benefits

• Example site uses a fresh, current design
• Example build is real-world, not just created for the purposes of the training materials

Can You Help Me?
So, I’m looking for that restaurant client.  Maybe you turned one down because their budget wasn’t enough?  Or you didn’t have the bandwidth?  Or they are a family member so too close to you to be a good working relationship as a client? 

If you have any leads for me I’d appreciate hearing about it - contact me!