A step-by-step guide to ExpressionEngine: the web-publishing system used by top designers and web professionals everywhere

* Learn all the key concepts and terminology of ExpressionEngine: channels, templates, snippets, and more
* Use RSS to make your content available in news readers including Google Reader, Outlook, and Thunderbird
* Manage your ExpressionEngine website, including backups, restores, and version updates
* Written in an easy-to-follow step-by-step style, with plenty of examples and exercises

In Detail

ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management system used by top designers and web professionals across the world to build and manage their websites. It is written in the world's most popular web scripting language, PHP, and built on the MySQL database server. Are you eager to start creating websites with ExpressionEngine?.

Written for ExpressionEngine version 2.1 and later, this book will give you clear, concise, and practical guidance to take you from the basics of setting up ExpressionEngine to developing the skills you need to create ExpressionEngine websites to be reckoned with.

You will begin with setting up a basic installation of ExpressionEngine. You will then learn how it works, before learning how to create and manage your website in ExpressionEngine. As you progress further into the book you will learn how to build an events calendar and how to build a photo gallery and before you know it, visitors to your website will be able to post comments, search your content, sign-up for a mailing list, and even send their friends an e-mail. As you consider the benefits of buying this book, you will learn how to manage members and member groups, how to optimize your website and avoid repetition, how to remove the index.php file for cleaner URLs, and how to take backups. At the end of the book, you will learn how to update ExpressionEngine to its latest version.

Go from the basics of setting up ExpressionEngine to creating a small business website with this concise, practical guide.

What you will learn from this book

* Install and set up the ExpressionEngine software and learn how to set up a local development website server on your own PC
* Get step-by-step instructions on how to build a business website in ExpressionEngine
* Build an interactive website with comments, e-mail forms, mailing lists, and more to allow visitors to interact with your website.
* Learn how to create dynamic content and organize it using categories
* Create a slick photo gallery using just ExpressionEngine and jQuery (and some photos!)
* Create an events calendar for your website to indicate what is going on when
* Learn how to manage members and member groups and handle new member registrations, forgotten passwords, and logging in
* Receive key advice on doing backups and software upgrades to secure your website
* Get an overview of must-have add-ons to stay ahead of the game
* Absorb tons of hints and tips so you quickly feel like a pro

Approach

This book is a clear and enjoyable tutorial packed with carefully explained steps for constructing a small business website, and information for applying the skills learned to your everyday work with ExpressionEngine.

Who this book is written for

If you have familiarity with building websites using HTML/CSS or with software such as DreamWeaver or other content management systems such as Drupal, WordPress, Joomla!, or Plone, then ExpressionEngine may be what you are looking for. This book is suitable for anyone who wants to develop a fully featured web presence with a simple and straightforward tool. No prior knowledge of content management systems, PHP or ExpressionEngine is assumed. A basic understanding of HTML is necessary to follow the examples.