Not so long ago, I wrote about a method for running complex queries on an ExpressionEngine database using two built-in functions: exp:weblog:entries and exp:query. It’s a neat and useful trick, but the example I suggested was a somewhat limited, specific use case. There are tons of ways to relate one bit of data to another in ExpressionEngine and equally as many ways to get at that data. Let’s take a look at another one of those methods.
September 6, 2008
August 27, 2008
In addition to talking about it here, I’ve been chatting up Muxtape to everyone who’ll listen. But now it looks like Muxtape’s gone the way of the dodo. Enter Opentape, a virtual clone of Muxtape with one crucial difference: it’s your turn to do the hosting.
August 26, 2008
I sure as donuts wish someone had written a post like this before I needed it. So even if you don’t need it, file under “useful when someone’s looking for an answer.”
August 19, 2008
I promised more ExpressionEngine tips, and I intend to deliver. Today, let’s take a look at EE’s SQL query module. Like the gallery module, this one’s only available with a paid license, and for my money, the functionality these two tools bring to the table more than make up for the $100 personal site fee. So just quit yer whining about that price tag.
August 9, 2008
I’m in the middle of a mammoth site build using ExpressionEngine, the same CMS I use to power TNF. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting about some of the best tricks I’ve learned during this particular build. I’m starting with the simplest: Invoking EE’s $IN class for use in your templates.
August 4, 2008
So here’s something I just did: I turned on comments for Links and Quotes here at TNF. The reason: the subset of TNF readers that read my blog and talk to me in real life – most notably my sister-in-law Jessie – are actually paying attention to those sections. And because I’d do anything to get that particular group commenting here, this seemed like a wise choice.
July 27, 2008
I think I’m breaking up with GTD. I’ve had good luck with David Allen’s Getting Things Done in the year I’ve been following its (fairly rigid) set of instructions (suggestions? guidelines?) for stress-free productivity. But I’m realizing that some things just don’t need flow-charted, project-ized, over thought. They just need done.
July 19, 2008
The reviews for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight have been pretty darn good. I’m becoming more and more skeptical of reviews, but when Salon’s comics expert Douglas Wolk goes and points out, in total comic geek terms, what this movie could have been, I find it much harder to be completely in love.
July 13, 2008
I don’t care to talk about the piece of the iPhone 2.0 launch that Apple botched. What I am interested in are the little gems Apple have added to an already brilliant device. Sure, native apps are great. But for me, the real news is that Apple has left almost all of the iPhone’s UI and core functionality untouched, opting instead to implement a handful of fixes and incremental improvements to the 1.x series software.
July 7, 2008
Back in 2003, I got bit by the photography bug. I bought a killer camera, took thousands of pics. But I stopped carrying it. The phone on my camera’s no replacement, but I’m trying to keep an eye out for that occasional, knock-yer-socks-off, diamond in the rough.
July 3, 2008
ExpressionEngine template tags are great and all, but sometimes they just need a little of that extra sauce only PHP can provide. Luckily, EE makes it easy to comingle the two.
July 1, 2008
I think Muxtape is the bee’s knees, easily in my Top Ten list of best web services ever, and it’s not because of its feature set. All those “missing” features force you to do one important thing: listen to the damn music.
June 27, 2008
If you’re one of the unlucky people who recently asked me what I’ve been reading, I apologize. I just cannot shut up about Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. And it’s all because of that brooding asshole, Jack Burden.
June 22, 2008
So I admit it: I do, from time to time, stealth edit my posts. But on a backwoods blog like this, is that really a bad thing? Or how about this: If a tree falls in the forest and the other trees don’t give a flying flip about dangling participles, does it make a sound?
June 20, 2008
If you’d heard any of Girl Talk’s first three albums, you already knew what to expect from his fourth, Feed The Animals. But did you really? Gillis gets one step closer to proving that there’s actually some art behind the pop stew he’s cooking. Over-the-top, barely chewed, and many times not even off the radio, Girl Talk makes every song he samples more fun, and occasionally, more important.
