http://erikreagan.com/ The Blog and Projects of Erik Reagan en erik@erikreagan.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-01T03:14:17+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/projects/redirect-helper-lite/ http://erikreagan.com/projects/redirect-helper-lite/ Redirecting can be a hairy thing if you don't know how to do it. Redirect Helper Lite is here to make that part of your life easier now. With a few clicks and strokes of the keyboard you can setup simple URL redirects for your ExpressionEngine site. You can also use Redirect Helper Lite to setup and track campaigns that utilize special URLs on your site. ]]> ExpressionEngine 2009-11-24T06:59:00+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/projects/er-developer-toolbar/ http://erikreagan.com/projects/er-developer-toolbar/ This is a tool that no ExpressionEngine developer should be without. ER Developer Toolbar creates a beautiful bridge between the front end of your ExpressionEngine site and the control panel with direct links for things like global variables, template editing, cache clearing and more. It is there when you need it and gets out of the way when you don't. Be sure to check out the video demo before you try it out for the first time. ]]> ExpressionEngine 2009-11-11T13:30:49+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/blog/logging-actions-in-your-expressionengine-add-ons/ http://erikreagan.com/blog/logging-actions-in-your-expressionengine-add-ons/ I've recently given some thought to a piece of EE that I have never had a great need for. Control Panel logging. Out of the box, ExpressionEngine logs certain actions that are performed in the CP saving the Site ID, Member, IP Address of that member, date/time and the action performed. This can be very useful when trying to figure out when something happened and who may have done it. It can also help see how many people might be logging in under the same account from various locations (IPs). This is all great but quite limited considering the number of actions for which this occurs. ]]> Development 2010-03-01T15:00:16+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/blog/redirect-helper-lite-updated-with-cp-logging/ http://erikreagan.com/blog/redirect-helper-lite-updated-with-cp-logging/ utilizing the Control Panel Log in ExpressionEngine and recording with certain actions were performed in your add-ons. To display how this might be used I have updated my Redirect Helper Lite module with such a feature. Now when any redirects are added, modified or deleted the action is recorded to the Control Panel Log along with the standard info of the data/time, Member info, and site ID. If you're a code diver you can check out the mcp.redirect_helper_lite.php file for the changes near the top of the file. ]]> Development 2010-03-01T15:00:01+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/projects/entry-category-count/ http://erikreagan.com/projects/entry-category-count/ included in the documentation. ]]> ExpressionEngine 2010-02-08T14:23:07+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/blog/performance-update-to-redirect-helper-lite/ http://erikreagan.com/blog/performance-update-to-redirect-helper-lite/ Redirect Helper Lite. This introduces an extension to the add-on which greatly enhances the processing time of the actual redirection. In earlier versions ExpressionEngined to being parsing the template before it even performed a redirection. That's a lot of overhead for something that should occur immediately. For this update I've utilized the sessions_start hook and now the redirection occurs as early as possible saving you that tiny bit of processing time. ]]> News 2010-02-04T11:23:49+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/blog/expressionengine-add-on-pricing-decisions/ http://erikreagan.com/blog/expressionengine-add-on-pricing-decisions/ the discussion about add-on pricing. There were many great thoughts shared and it helped me make my decision on add-on pricing. What I have decided is to stick closely to what EllisLab already does with ExpressionEngine. The exception will be MSM sites. Essentially I will sell one license per installation of ExpressionEngine. So if you run a single domain or 100 domains off of a single EE install you will only require a single license from me. I will stick closely to the volume discount rates that EllisLab has setup which is outlined on this page. ]]> Personal 2010-01-09T00:55:34+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/blog/error-5103-in-itunes/ http://erikreagan.com/blog/error-5103-in-itunes/ Tonight I felt like renting the new Star Trek movie in iTunes. I'd heard really good things about it and had wanted to rent it for some time. My wonderful wife bought me an iTunes gift card for Christmas so I wanted to start putting it to good use. The nearly 4GB download finally finished (HD rental) and I was ready to start the movie. After clicking play I received a dialog box with error code 5103. I ran Software Update to make sure I had the latest version of iTunes hoping that it would be a simple fix. That didn't do it. After some digging I got it going and now I'm sitting here enjoying this action-packed opening sequence. Here's what I found: ]]> Personal 2010-01-02T06:15:05+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/blog/2010-changes/ http://erikreagan.com/blog/2010-changes/ Personal 2010-01-01T19:27:06+00:00 http://erikreagan.com/blog/expressionengine-add-on-pricing/ http://erikreagan.com/blog/expressionengine-add-on-pricing/ There is an interesting thing going on in the ExpressionEngine community right now. More developers are realizing that they should actually get paid for their public add-on development. I'd venture to say that most developers who release public add-ons got their start by fulfilling a need for a specific client project. I know that was the case for me. I needed a few features in EE that weren't available any other way, 1st or 3rd party (hey! what ever happened to the 2nd party and why don't we ever mention them). Considering that detail, most add-on developers were originally paid for their development. Somewhere along the way these add-ons, not just for ExpressionEngine but for software in general, became commonly distributed freely. Don't get me wrong, I love free software. I love using it and certainly enjoy creating and sharing it. That said, we all have mouths to feed. Some of us more than others. ]]> Personal 2009-12-30T17:30:35+00:00