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Learn ExpressionEngine with the EE Screencast Series
May 27, 2008
Today Pragmatic Progammers (publishers of many fine books, including the first book on Ruby on Rails) launched the first round of their new screencast products. I’m fortunate to be a part of this and the launch includes my first three screencasts (of a longer series) on how to build a website using ExpressionEngine.
In the on-going series you follow along as I build a newspaper website, step-by-step, with EE and learn my tricks, how I approach a EE build-out and all of the basics of building dynamic websites with ExpressionEngine. The format is casual and focuses on learning EE. It’s not over-produced, scripted or flashy. Purely quality information on building websites with ExpressionEngine.
I invite you to check out two free videos, one on what we’re building and the other on installing ExpressionEngine. The rest of the series is only $5 per 20-30 minute screencast. You’re basically getting my experience of building more than two dozen EE sites for coffee money.
Many thanks go to Pragmatic Programmers, LLC and Mike Clark who coordinated the entire project and produced the final videos. I’m excited about building out the offering of quality tutorials and information on using the ExpressionEngine CMS.
While the only place to purchase the screencasts is at the Pragmatic store, I also launched a companion EE Screencasts mini-site and blog as another way for people to learn about EE.
Since this is a new project, I’m really looking forward to hearing what people think. Please get in touch with any feedback you have and be sure to follow eescreencasts on Twitter!
Learn more about the ExpressionEngine Screencasts
Looking forward to this project.
Thanks, Randy. They’re fun to produce and so far they seem to be helpful to everyone who’s purchased them.
I wantz ur knowledge
Downloaded the intro and installation videos this evening. Going to download the others tomorrow. Great screencasts!
RAWK. This is very cool stuff.
Thanks, guys! Glad you’re enjoying them and check back for more! ;)
Hey Ryan,
These screencasts are brilliant. You’re very clear and concise with the narration of what you are doing.
I did wonder if you had an idea of how many screencasts there will be and the frequency of the releases?
I purchased the first 3 already and particularly like the iPhone versions as well.
Thanks, Neil!
I did wonder if you had an idea of how many screencasts there will be and the frequency of the releases?
The honest truth here is that we don’t know how many we’re going to make. I have a rough outline of what will be covered over the next few screencasts and new ones will be released regularly.
My pleasure man.
Some time ago there was a website that started a project of building an EE website in 24 days - but it seemed to fall silent after day 6 or something. Most likely due to commitments on projects for clients.
So glad that you have come along with these screencasts. Look forward to the next installments. :)
nah, travis, i wantxz the knowledge.
The screencasts can has the knowledge! ;)
Hey Ryan,
I wondered where the css and img folders should sit for the first screencast? I uploaded them to /system/templates/site/ - this also contains the index.php
I noticed your code also makes reference to ‘/_share/css/’ but could not see the ‘/_share’ directory, so I just removed the reference to that in the template.
Gah, i’m a fool. Lol… I was confusing myself as I have the Multi Site Manager installed, so I was putting the css and img directories in the ‘hosting site’ rather than the actual site i’m testing. My bad.
Will you offer a transcript or CC for these videos? I’ve checked out the free samples, and they’re kind of hard to follow. I was all set to buy them all, since I like EE so much.
I’m still not all the way thru the first video yet, but video (in general) is kind of hard to follow. I like to scan a web page and pick out the headings to see what’s coming up. You can’t do that in a video, it’s just this linear block. I wonder if there’s something to do with javascript/flash to put chapter points in a video so you could mix text and video together on a page and read some of the background and thought behind concepts and save the video for just show and tell.
Including backstory about process makes the videos feel slow, but often that’s important backstory. Also speaking and writing are so different that writing about the process might be more detailed and refined, and that translates to cleaner and more easily understood communication.
I’m looking forward to finishing the videos today. I’ll come back with more comments after.
Nice work so far Ryan!
In another comment on this site I talked about the limitations of EE as far as admin panel customization. I just posted some screen shots of a backend I recently designed and I’d be curious if anyone has comments on how it might be done in EE or any other ideas/comments.
Custom php/mysql backend for managing photos:
home
edit
delete
And I realize that the design and functionality is super simple, that’s the whole point! This was just a basic photo site.
I certainly love the project, but as an absolute newb in terms of ExpressionEngine which I bought a year ago and just let sit (I’m a Microsoft guy and do my own development normally) I need a bit more, uh… er… hand-holding. Once I found the code I tried to follow the steps in the first screen cast (yes, I bought all three and am attempting to literally follow along) but things such as the locations for the css and img folders (you said you already uploaded them, but not where) and html files shown in the Finder that weren’t in the code downloads have made it difficult.
With minimal investigation I figured out the directories were set to the root, but from a programmer’s point of view this seemed odd, I figured each template would have its own resources which is why I initially uploaded them to the same site template directory where the modified index.php got placed. Looking at the html I know I could just change the include paths so my question is why, if you are compartmentalizing, do you place these as global resources?
I really enjoy the pace and the route you are taking us with these screencasts, but I’m just hoping maybe for the next batch of buyers you could give some more detailed information about the process. For example, I own Coda, which didn’t look like the site manager/editor you were using for the many edits to come as you explained in the benefits of local php code editing, so it would have been nice to know what tools you use (I’m guessing BBEdit?). Again, as a Microsoft guy my Mac guessing skills are underdeveloped!
Thanks again for the series, sorry to come whining only ten minutes into the first screencast, but hey, it’s six in the morning and it’s all I’ve got!
Hi Ryan,
First of all, I want to say I really appreciate that have taken the time to create these videos as EE is not the most intuitive software to install and setup and the documentation for doing so is lacking in that it is (it seems to me) created for “programmers” or “developers” and not “designers”.
That being said, I did find that your videos (I’ve bought all 3 and have gotten through the first (1 1/2) (as Chris Rowley somewhat states above) they are sometimes hard to follow as I think some things are left out, perhaps because of your obvious extensive experience, that are what some might consider “basic” concepts.
I’ve succeeded in pulling content from the DB and the embedded EE tags via your “News Article” explanation (although I’m only setting up a simple Blog) and I’ve succeeded in “chunking” particular parts of my HTML (ie, HTML header, footer and navigation) which is great for making things easier in the future with regard to updating or adding a new navigation button.
However, in my particular case, I’m having trouble with my navigation setup (which I don’t think was covered or explained very well at all) and perhaps it is because I have a “bad install” because I’ve tried everything I can think of and still cannot get the most basic navigation to work (clicking the “About” button on my own setup to go from my “Home” page to my “About” page.)
I also don’t think it helped (from a beginners standpoint) that you installed your setup on a local machine rather than a remote web server. I’ve been a Linux and Mac user for years now, so I’m no stranger to file systems and I would think that navigation would be one of the most basic parts of the installation, but it’s really giving me a fit. I’m going to blow away my install tonight and give it a fresh try.
Any tips at all with navigation setup would be much appreciated!!
But, again, great job on the videos and keep it up!
Chris,
Thanks for the feedback. It is very helpful to know where you found difficulty while building out the site in the screencasts. Do you think a text document along with the screencasts, explaining where things go would be helpful?
I consciously avoided it because everyone’s setup is so different it would be hard to give instructions that wouldn’t just end up creating more confusion.
Jason,
Thanks for the comment and sorry you’re having troubles!
What exactly isn’t working with the navigation? Can you give a couple of examples? Also, if you haven’t already, run the Server Wizard from the installation video (it’s free!) and make sure your server is 100% supported.
I might be an idiot :-/
I just saw two FREE screencasts on the website that I hadn’t noticed before when I bought the three for sale.
Perhaps I should give those a shot.
DOH!!
Howdy Ryan,
I understand not wanting to do a document when producing a video series, but you sorta already have one in the place where the files can be downloaded. My solution would be a Series 0 video that explained:
where to download the support files
what tools (site manager, ftp, image editing, whatever) you used while demonstrating techniques in the videos
directory locations used that are not part of ExpressionEngine’s normal structure (such as using the root to post the css and image examples)
Such an introduction could be incorporated here or the site where the files can be downloaded, but wherever such a document is hosted a link should be incorporated in the sales email, as I had to do minort digging to find where the file archives were.
Ultimately you’re right, these things could be figured out, but coming from my perspective, knowing next to nothing about the mechanics of EE, such basics would have helped.
When I’m done with the full course as it exists now I’d like to post some comments comparing this tutorial to the written one provided in the book from apress, “Blog Design Solutions”, there might be some other newb issues to consider. Unless this course is for l33ts only.
P.S. Sorry for the newb and l33t references, I loathe the terms as well but am a might punchy at the moment!
P.P.S. I just bought Part 4 but the linked zip is 1KB and corrupt!
Just something that I found to be a problem with removing index.php from your links… Ensure that site_index in your ‘path.php’ file does not contain a value.
Mine was originally set to site_index = “index.php”; and so I had to remove the index.php in addition to the steps that Ryan mentioned in the screencast.
Hey Ryan,
These screencasts are just what I needed - It is making things move faster on a very-large-bilingual-site I am developing.
I was just thinking it would be great if one of the future screencast talked about how to query other existing databases from within EE, format and display that information in a template. I have tons of other ideas but anyhow, great job, keep them coming!
Hi Kevin. Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad the ‘casts are helping out!
Feel free to drop me an email with any other feedback you have.
Hi Ryan,
I’ve used EE for years now but it’s always good to see how people work, and the way you’ve done menus and switched css made it worth the money.
Perhaps upcoming screencasts you can talk about using the various modules, like Simple Commerce, and Mailing List Managers, and especially the Galleries element. Perhaps a show on Users and Groups to introduce people to work-flow management in EE..
Keep it up. I don’t mind spending my daily beer money on this!
Actually, thinking more on this, I have a list:
* Building many-to-many relationships in the Field editor
* Making custom forms using the mail module
* Integrating the Wiki to the CMS (mixing webuser-editable pages with controlled pages)
* Integrating other php/mysql into the system (like polling, for instance)
* Integrating WYSIWYG editors like FCKeditor (I know, I know - but i hate to lose business to Wordpress because of this)
* Extending for tags and clouds, Flickr integration, Twitter, etc
More will come to me, I’m sure..
Thanks for the feedback, Jim! I’m collecting all of the feedback and going through it as I plan out future episodes.
Hi Ryan,
I’ve just purchased all 8 episodes cos I couldn’t find them on the torrent sites...(just kidding).
I can’t wait to go through them.
Good work and keep it up!
Hi Ryan,
I love the screencasts. Since you are taking feedback, I would love to see you “light up” the search box and also talk about building an archives page.
hi Ryan please dont stop to release more and more tutorials! of EE they are great and I want more and more skilled things of EE, more advanced everyday more…
and pleaes put on site… something to buy all for less money! :)
Hey Ryan,
Just purchased the EE screencast series and can’t wait to get through it all.
thanks for creating it,
Keith
Good work and keep it up!