Emtwo, LLC - Website Development, Website Design, Specializing in ExpressionEngine Design and Websites

UnionSportsmen.org is a website for Union Workers with a love for the outdoors.  When the site web manager, Tripp Allen, asked us to take the design and code that was created by BMA Media and finesse it into ExpressionEngine we jumped at the opportunity.  We are big sports(wo)men in this family and we love to get involved with sites that offer content which we are passionate about.  Unionsportsmen.org fit that bill perfectly.

Phase One included taking the existing HTML files and porting them into ExpressionEngine, so that all their content is now dynamic and delivered through EE.  Tripp can access and maintain the site using EE’s easy and straight-forward control panel.  Everything is right there, with a click or two of the mouse. 

We’ll be continuing to work with UnionSportsmen.org on Phase Two of their site, which will include some modifications and customization to the discussion forum.

Feel free to read more about this project on Tripp’s blog, where he goes into a bit of detail about some of the geeky features that were implemented into the site and EE. 

There was news on the ExpressionEngine Blog today with information pretaining to the next release of EE.  1.6 is sure to be one of the best releases to date for the software and Ellislab has given us a great sneak peek.

Though 1.6 includes a slew of new features like Hidden Templates and Category Custom Fields, it’s the Multiple Site Manager that marks a substantial new milestone in EE’s history. The Multiple Site Manager (sold separately) is an expansion to ExpressionEngine (not a Module, Plugin, or Extension) that will enable you to manage multiple websites from a single EE installation. And yes, this includes multiple forums as well thanks to the new Discussion Forums 2.0 (free upgrade with active Discussion Forum Download Account).

They also shared a great little video that shows a demo of the Multiple Site Manager. (Direct Video Link) We can not wait to get our hands on this because it will definitely come in handy on a few projects. 

I can’t wait to find out the other surprises that will be in 1.6.  I seriously, we just can not wait for it to be in our hot little hands. 

The fabulously talented folks behind ExpressionEngine went through an entire re-branding, leaving pmachine in the dust and launching an all new and quite spiffy looking Ellislab!

Why the name change?  pMachine was an outgrowth of our first, and at that time (six years ago), only product.  Both our company and software were pMachine.  A couple years later we released ExpressionEngine, which addressed some serious limitations of pMachine.  EE essentially made pM (the software) obsolete.  Our users agreed, switching to EE in droves and eventually compelling us to discontinue pM due to low sales.  Still, our company continued on as pMachine. [Source]

Congratulations to all the fine people at Ellislab.  I simply can not wait to see the other great things they will be working on in the future!

We shout from the rooftops about how much we love EE all the time.  But not only do we love EE, we also really love some of the great folks who create awesome modules for EE and than share them with the rest of us.

My absolute favorite module right this very second is Favorites!!  We’ll be launching a site shortly which is using this module.  It was the first time we incorporated it into a live site and it was really very straightforward to install and wonderful to work with.  The documentation was quite thorough and well, we just love it!  I want to figure out someway to use it on a site or two of our own. 

Thanks for this one, solspace!

So, today the newest release of Expression Engine (1.5) is available.  Personally, this release has me all in a tizzy.  I’ve been looking forward to it since the early part of 2006 and here it is.  There are a slew of changes (see change log)

One of the biggest features that I have been jonesing for is the Simple Commerce Module, which has been included in this current release. I know that I have a few clients who have also been waiting on this and I am so happy to finally be able to implement it into their sites.  This is not the full-featured Commerce Module, but that will be coming soon.  In the interim, this Simple Commerce Module should hold us over.

Reverse Relationships is yet another feature that is going to be quite helpful on a few upcoming projects.  There are over 70 new features and enhancements in this version, and I simply can not wait to dig in and check it all out.

I am beyond thrilled with the fact that the folks at Pmachine listen to their users and consistently strive to better their products.  Thanks Pmachine for another great job!!