Give a brief history of your life on the web.

Brendan Underwood: After originally being involved in CD-ROM based multimedia development in the early nineties, I started my career in the web in 1995. I moved into the industry at a time when there was very little education around web technologies, it was all a learn on the job experience. The company I was working with grew substantially for 5 or so years before I moved on in late 2000. I tried Freelancing for a short while, but the need for a steady income and supporting my young family was paramount.

A former client was starting a team into researching new web technologies specifically around object-oriented methods for content management. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and worked with a talented team of designers and developers up until December 2008. During that time I moved from table based layouts through to full Web Standards methods, and also undertook freelance work to keep my eye on commercial work and give myself a little freedom as working predominantly in the Government section has many restrictions on creativity.

It was in 2006 that I came across ExpressionEngine as a method to help build greatly sophisticated websites without the need for an applications developer. In December 2008, my contract finished up with the previous group and I felt it was time to go full steam ahead as a Freelancer ramping up my brand/company ipixel in the process.

Why did you choose ExpressionEngine?

Brendan Underwood: I originally chose ExpressionEngine for a number of reasons. At the time I was working with a team within an Open Source Web application environment called Zope and a CMS developed on top of it called Plone. It was a very very flexible tool, but way too complex for a lone designer-based developer to handle. I wanted a tool that I could develop in, create custom content types based on client requirements, manipulate data as and where needed and all in a system that wasn’t going to dictate semantic structure through archaic templates and CSS implementations. Along came ExpressionEngine and it was like a breath of fresh air. After 10 years in the industry, I no longer needed a applications developer except for the most complex tasks, and with the number of plugins/extensions/modules that were available, there was less of a need for said application development. The first site I built (early 2006) was for a local Wheel/Tyre shop call Tech9Tyres, they’re still using it today and have just gone through a minor revision to add some new enhancements. They love it, as do all my clients that work with it.

I do have to mention that the Support forums, and the community that surrounds ExpressionEngine is second to none. There’s always great support coming from EllisLab as well as other ExpressionEngine users.

What is the most compelling aspect of the site?

Brendan Underwood: With the Havilah Legal website, I don’t think the technology itself is the most compelling element of the site…it’s the content. To have a client, and a law firm at that, completely step up to the plate and continue to add new content whether it be a piece of news, information article or podcast is a great driver for the website. In addition to the actual content, being able to categorise each piece of content with the Service that it relates to, allows us to create links between content of a similar nature. Having said all that though, the ability for a client to make a booking with a lawyer on the site is great too. The module that was written by a colleague Justin Jones, allows Havilah Legal staff to receive the bookings and approve or cancel as needed. Each status change automagically sends off emails to clients, accounts and the lawyer involved.

You mentioned your client stepping up to the plate regarding content. What is their opinion of ExpressionEngine?

Brendan Underwood: As far as they’re concerned, it works just as they need it to. The main area within which they update content is in their Weblog. So using the ‘Publish’ menu to create new News/Info articles or add a new ‘Podcast’, they’re able to post up new content without hassle. For the weblog items, we’re using Categories to further break down the types of entries being posted and these also match directly with the main services that they provide. This allows linking between weblog items and the service areas by them selecting the relevant categories. We did do some upfront training for those responsible for posting content, but since then it’s all really been taken care of in-house. The only time that I need to get involved is when the templates need to be tweaked due to some corner case that crops up.

This feeling from the client finding ExpressionEngine easy to use is not isolated to this website either. All my clients that use ExpressionEngine, most of them never having used a CMS before as well as being technically challenged (self confessed) in some cases, find the system a breeze to use and understand with minimal training.

Other than your custom module what ExpressionEngine add-ons are you using?

Brendan Underwood: The main add-on that is being used on this site would be an early version of Travis Schmeisser’s Structure module. This allowed the generally static areas of content to be easily managed within an hierarchical sense, as well as the easy generation of drop-down and side navigation. The interesting thing with the Structure module, was the ability to create specific content types, such as a staff profile, and easily add them into a specific place within the Structure/website hierarchy. This feature has now been further extended in v2.x of the module by popping up a window allowing you to choose what type of page you want to add. To make relationships between Podcasts and Staff Profiles, I used the Mark Huot’s Multi Relationship extension. Mark’s File field type was also used in this project for uploading simple File attachments where required, remembering that this site was built in early 2009 and at the time I was yet to come across the nGen File Field and Brandon Kelly’s FieldFrame & FF Matrix extensions. The LG TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor is in use for Body content, and the plugins ImageSizer and FileSizer were also used throughout the website.

What’s next for you?

Brendan Underwood: Well, the Havilah Legal website was the first site I built after starting out on my own. It was a great site and a great client to work with knowing we were both moving into new territory on different levels of our respective businesses. Following this I moved onto more and more ExpressionEngine sites including Intelligent IP Communications which was primarily a corporate website, then an ecotourism website called TopTrailsWA. Each time I’ve found new and different ways of using ExpressionEngine and keep marvelling at the community support and talent behind the Add-on developers. I’m now developing another Tourism website where we’re developing another custom module that allows the client to pick and choose content that’s being stored in an external federated content database. It’s also employing Google Maps to a large extent with their ‘Directions’ functionality so that is one to look out for. There’s also the potential for some eCommerce websites using the Simple Commerce Module with PayPal. Eagerly awaiting CartThrob from Barrett Newton to be released, as I’m constantly looking for better ways of doing eCommerce sites that have rich content as well.

I’m hoping to make it to EECI2010 in San Francisco if the budget allows, it’s a large trip as I’m essentially travelling from the opposite side of the world, and it will allow me to buy beers for all those people on the forums that I owe them to. Thanks for listening and really looking forward to where ExpressionEngine 2.0 can take me into the future.