Web Security is a Three Edged Sword

We just released a new build of ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 that includes some measures to help prevent information disclosure due to residing on insecure server environments, and it got me thinking that it would be a good time to write up a post on web security basics for people new to the subject and as a reminder for pros.

There’s an aphorism from the TV series “Babylon 5”: Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.  In a similar vein comes the title of...

First Wave of Kaylee Invitations Sent

The first wave of invitations to the developer preview program went out late last night.  I’ve been working like a madman since returning from SXSW to get some of the mundane but necessary infrastructure in place to enable us to support Kaylee and help third party developers transition to the new code.  We’ll be doing this in waves, very small at first, and as Kaylee matures and more developers become experienced with it, we’ll add larger numbers of people to the program at a time.

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Accepting ExpressionEngine 2.0 Developer Preview Applications

Ah, momentous occasions!  We’ve hit another milestone and are therefore opening up the application process for the Developer Preview of ExpressionEngine 2.0.  The developer preview release version is code named “Kaylee”, so you’ll see us make references to Kaylee regularly during the coming weeks.

We’re excited about the progress being made, and we know you’re excited as well to have another visible mark of our forward momentum.  So, coders, hop on over to the application page, which...

What’s Taking So Long?!

Many wonder what’s taking us so long with 2.0.  Hopefully this little walk through code conversion will help answer that question.  Rewriting all of ExpressionEngine to a new architecture is a time consuming process, there’s just no way around it.  It’s not glamorous work, and we have a very small team of developers who carry many duties in addition to programming ExpressionEngine 2.0.

We knew it would be arduous when we began, but we were and remain firmly convinced that the change in...

Accessories, a Quick Primer

Since the Developer Preview is still a ways off, I thought I would share something code-wise that is completely new to 2.0, control panel Accessories.  This is a very very basic accessory, that just displays some simple static information in the tab for the user.  We anticipate that these sort of accessories will be common for design firms to use, as each has a particular way that they like to instruct their clients on how to use the control panel, publish information, find out...

I See Dead Server-Side Scripting Languages

PHP 4 was discovered to be terminally ill on July 13th, 2007, when the doctors made the announcement that it had only until the end of the year to live.  They were confident that it would remain vital until December 31, 2007 (when support would officially be withdrawn), at which point it would be comatose, lifeless, only able to receive pain management (security fixes as needed) until 4 days ago, when PHP 4 fully expired.  However, like Shyamalan’s Crowe, PHP 4 has no awareness that any...

Site Themes in 2.0

Many of our users don’t realize that we offer a number of site themes for ExpressionEngine 1.x, but for the most part, you do, and none of these themes appeal to you because you either do a lot of client work with ExpressionEngine, or use it to maintain your own fully branded internet property.  These themes lend themselves more to blogging, really, and again, most of you are designer superheroes and would never use a stock theme anyway.  But if you had your own base set of templates...