Thread

Call me a stickler, but I am turned away by the fact the “mini site” isn’t powered by ExpressionEngine. :(

Right solution for the right problem. You’re right, it isn’t powered by EE, instead it’s powered by a custom CMS I wrote using CodeIgniter. It was a better fit for the type of site I wanted to build. And soon, EE will be CodeIgniter-powered, too, so just think of it as if I’m ahead of the curve on this one. 😉

Then why does it say “powered by railsmachine” then? *cough cough* I realize that is the host but a little CI love in the footer would be cool 😊

Ah ha! I see where the confusion is: “powered by”.

Yep, Rails Machine is the host that is graciously supporting the site. I’m all about clarity, so I’ve tweaked it a bit to be clearer. 😊

I’m excited by the series. It’s a bit too basic right now for me, but I plan to track to when you get into more interesting things. I think $5 per episode is a pretty good price. I’m interested in seeing how you handle related articles, and a couple other things. It’s always great to have insight into how other people accomplish tasks; ad $5 for 30+min of your time (acknowledging that it probably took much longer to put the episodes together), seems reasonable.

Though, I do like the idea by stinhambo to also have a package rate. Sure you don’t know how many episodes you’ll do in total; but you could maybe estimate and create actual series or seasons for your series. This first set would be: Building a Dynamic Website with ExpressionEngine: for Beginners (set of 5-8 episodes), for $50.  That way if you continue the series, episodes after the first 5 or 8, would be more intermediate or issue focused. Or maybe even sets of single issue such as relating data: related data, reverse relationships, custom queries for relationships. You can go more detail into options and how to make decisions based on available options. That would be cool. But a set of 3 for $10 or $12 would be cool for an advanced look at an issue.

Anyway, just thought I’d congratulate again, and support stinhambo’s idea. I buy season passes from iTunes for the same reason— a single upfront cost, can go back to whenever, I don’t have to decide which episodes are worth my money.

Though, I do like the idea by stinhambo to also have a package rate. Sure you don’t know how many episodes you’ll do in total; but you could maybe estimate and create actual series or seasons for your series. This first set would be: Building a Dynamic Website with ExpressionEngine: for Beginners (set of 5-8 episodes), for $50.  That way if you continue the series, episodes after the first 5 or 8, would be more intermediate or issue focused. Or maybe even sets of single issue such as relating data: related data, reverse relationships, custom queries for relationships. You can go more detail into options and how to make decisions based on available options. That would be cool. But a set of 3 for $10 or $12 would be cool for an advanced look at an issue.

This is great feedback from you and stinhambo. I like the idea of breaking it into beginners series and selling bundles. I’ve had other people ask for something similar and I’ve passed this idea on to PragProg. While I choose topics and create the screencasts, I rely on them for the transactions and something like a bundle would have to be first supported by their store. But they know about it and it’s definitely an idea that I’ll bring up for consideration!

I was wondering if you (Ryan) had access to EE 2.0 and were planning to move your screencasts to it when it is released. Some future 2.0 users might be surprised to find their installation doesn’t match with your ‘casts.

Hey, Shawn. Yeah, I’d like to create screencasts to match EE 2.0, for sure. Until it is released, however,  I’m going to focus on more screencasts for the current version.

Hi Ryan, I just downloaded and watch the two freebie episodes and am very impressed with the quality.  I will definitely be purchasing and watching the other three this weekend.

The thing I’ve had the most difficulty learning is how to sensibly structure my data in EE.  The documentation is great for finding out HOW to use a feature…  but hints about WHY I should use one feature or method over another is pretty difficult to come by.  It is this type of guidance that I am hoping to find in your screen casts.

I would also love to eventually see one on the ins and outs of optimizing an EE site for performance.  The system gives access to a variety of different tools, especially related to caching, that an informed person could potentially put to very good use.

Thanks for making these!  I will check back in after I have watched the rest.

Hi Ryan, I just downloaded and watch the two freebie episodes and am very impressed with the quality.  I will definitely be purchasing and watching the other three this weekend.

The thing I’ve had the most difficulty learning is how to sensibly structure my data in EE.  The documentation is great for finding out HOW to use a feature…  but hints about WHY I should use one feature or method over another is pretty difficult to come by.  It is this type of guidance that I am hoping to find in your screen casts.

I would also love to eventually see one on the ins and outs of optimizing an EE site for performance.  The system gives access to a variety of different tools, especially related to caching, that an informed person could potentially put to very good use.

Thanks for making these!  I will check back in after I have watched the rest.

Hi, Joe. Thanks! I’m glad that you like them. I look forward to hearing your feedback after you watch the first three episodes.

You’re right, the entire goal of the screencasts to is to show by example and that includes how to structure data. While it’s not always explicitly explained, you can infer a lot by how I set things up.

Thanks for the suggestion of EE site optimization, it’s definitely on the list. 😊

Hey Ryan, I’m ready for part 4+!

Hang tight, malmethod. Soon!

Now that I have seen all 3 of the paid “episodes”, I have a few comments.

First, for those EE rookies who are still trying to decide weather or not they are worth $5 each…  they definitely ARE worth it.  They are fast-paced yet still clear, and very insightful.

Second, in video #3 Ryan assigns each of his demonstration articles to a single category - just remember that weblog entries (or “section” entries) may belong to more than one category.  I just looked it up because I’ve started re-thinking the design of my own site.

Third and finally, please keep up the good work, Ryan!!

Hello Ryan,

I went through the 3 videos and I like them a lot. They are just what I needed to make it to the next level (of getting a grip on EE). Of course I can’t wait for new videos to be released. I have watched several other videos on EE the past months and all good but what I still like to see is a bird’s eye visual overview of a web site and how that translates to EE.

Example
You have the Engine City Times web site. Take the home page and there you have embeds and a variable. I understand this but it doesn’t really sink in… What I would like is to see a map of some sort where is your visual web page (rendered), the code and to which places this links to EE. What in the page/code is a template group, what is a weblog, what is a category group, what is a category. Yes, some of these are obvious I know but the EE terminology is confusing. A map with lines, circles, blocks and words would definitely help for a person like me who seemingly lacks the capabilities to think “abstract” and is left with a visual brain :-D I tried to do this myself in Omnigraffle (Macosx product) but got stuck.

Please do mail me if this is unclear. English is not my mother tongue and I got a stack of work on my desk waiting to be finished so I write this in a rush 😕

Regards,
Jeroen

Hi,

I am also new to Expression Engine, and I bought the 3 screencasts to help me better understand what this CMS do. I started by free screencasts, and in the installation, it is recommend that the server should support the URL segments. My online server don’t support the PATH_INFO variable and I’ve turned on “Force URL query strings”. Can I follow your screencast despite that or I must find a way to support URL segments?
   
Your screencast are also very well done and easy to understand. I already look forward to continuing with the next screencasts.

Thanks.

Jeroen and François, thank you both for taking time to give feedback.

Jeroen, I know exactly what you’re talking about and reason I haven’t done anything like that is because, in my experience, showing examples is usually the most efficient way to learn how the system works.

François, you can follow the screencasts using your setup and the “Force URL Query Strings” preference enabled.

Hello Ryan,

I agree with you, examples are often the best way to show. For me, and this is likely different for others, an example and a high level overview of “what went where” would help even more. But, if I think it is such a good idea I better do it myself :-D I will look a few more times at your vodcast/video and slowly begin to convert my html/css into EE.

Hope to see soon more of your videos. Perhaps one about a photo gallery?...hint hint 😉

BR
Jeroen