This training session has hit the bread and butter of ExpressionEngine and we went over several built in features. What a relief – so far I had thought EE was a skinny skeleton.
Built in Search Functionality
Simple Search Capability
EE offers built in search functionality. It’s a straightforward process, just a matter of adding some EE tags and creating the search results page. Visit expressionengine.com/user_guide/modules/search/simple.html for details on how to implement search and accepted parameters. Some parameters include:
- Search Result numbers
- Which channel to display ex: about|location|blog
Advanced Search Capability
Advanced search options are also available. Visit the expressionengine.com/forum to see a working sample of the search options and capabilities.
Recommended Addon: SuperSearch
Even though EE offers built in searching capabilities, result display is slighly limited so this recommended addon allows for additional parameters and improved search results. If a good search option is needed consider because even though it is expensive it is faster and more relevant than the default search.
To implement search functionality, create search template group and its templates:
- results;
- no_results;
Create an RSS feed
ExpressionEngine also includes by default the implementation of a feed. Implementation is fairly simple and full details are available at: http://expressionengine.com/user_guide/modules/rss/index.html. Your feed can be up and running in no time.
Mailing List Forms
ExpressionEngine settings include also the capability of separating customers that sign up into diverse mailing list forms. This is a great built in functionality that assists in audience segmentation and its features include:
– Allows creation of many mailing lists; separates customer according to content;
– Allows different confirmation emails/pages for each sign up
Recommended Addon: SL mailchimp subscribe
This addon automatically adds customers directly to mailchimp account simplifying the marketing process.
Overall, I feel most default functionality is practically unusable past from any basic things. At least we are at a place with the Platform that available addons are available for almost any additional Functionality needed.
