Introduction
Issue: 2, Craft: 3
Welcome to issue #2 of Craft Link List. Thank you for subscribing and reading!
In North American it's finally summer and that typically means things slow down. Not this year. The Craft 3 Dev Preview is upon us and I'm sure we're in a lot of activity. I know I'll be working on updating my plugins for Craft 3.
Loads of great links have been collected for you since the last issue. If you've got recommendations for the next issue, please get in touch.
Now on to the good stuff.
-John Morton (aka @johnmorton)
Craft Link List
Top Stories
Craft 3 Dev Preview arrives
Pixel & Tonic caveats this initial Craft 3 Dev Preview as basically Craft 2 running on Yii 2. It's meant for developers only. It also runs twice as fast as the released version of Craft 2. Before you install this, be warned that there are "plenty of bugs left to be squashed" but I know you're tempted already. If you give in to temptation check the docs on installing and updating to Craft 3.
pixelandtonic.com
Tools, tips, and fundamentals
Video: Craft CMS Basics Part 1
Jeroen Kenters, Community Liaison for Pixel & Tonic, has posted the first in a series called Craft CMS Basics where he explores the Happy Lager demo site. (12 minutes)
youtube.com
Where am I in the Twig Loop?
Make your Craft templates a bit smarter with this quick primer on the loop variable.
mijingo.com
Key Value Arrays in Twig
Ryan Irelan strikes again, this time with an intro to hashes in Twig.
mijingo.com
Perfecting your technique
Video: The Future of Plugin Dev
Attention plugin developers: you'll want to this video from Peers 2015. I've watched it once and need at least one more viewing. Brandon Kelly walks through how Yii 2 affects Craft 3 and how those changes impact your plugins. Along with the slides from the presentation there is a detailed list of topics covered along with the time they occur in the video. (80 minutes)
vimeo.com
Craft CMS Summit 2015 Recordings
Did you miss the Craft CMS Summit 2015? It was a great day and the recordings are now available for purchase. They're $99 for access to the whole set. This is not an ad. It's a public service announcement.
environmentsforhumans.com
Advanced Component Management
At Craft Summit 2015 Megan Zlock talked about breaking templates into components as a site grows more complex.
Her slides give you a glimpse of her technique but you'll need to combine her slides with her example on github to get a true understanding of how elegantly she builds her templates.
google.com
Ebook: Craft Validation for Plugin Developers
Stephen Lewis has written an ebook that many plug-in developers will find useful when validating user input. Debs have a solid set of tools with Craft's abstraction layer of Yii's validation tools but, you might need a more detailed set of instructions than currently exist. That's where Stephen steps in.
leanpub.com
Do you really need that plugin?
Seth Giammanco from Minds on Design Lab writes on the merits of judiciously using plugins (or add-ons, depending on nomenclature) in The Technology Debt of CMS Add-ons.
One thing we love about Craft is its power and flexibility. Because of that power we tend to need fewer plugins by default. Still the lure of plugins can be tempting. Fair warning, my friend. Seth knows of what he writes.
mod-lab.com
Plugged In
Sprout Email Plugin
This plugin looks impressive. It's used to design and build email campaigns within Craft. It also lets you export your email campaigns to Campaign Monitor and MailChimp. It's also part of a suite of plugins Barrel Strength has released this past month.
barrelstrengthdesign.com
FeedMe
Feed Me (Seymour?) is a Craft plugin to make it easy to import entries and entry data from XML, RSS, ATOM or JSON feeds.
github.com
Craft Permission Checkbox Toggler
After having set user permissions a few times in the Craft control panel, you'll really come to appreciate Fred Calsen's UX tweak with this plugin. Toggle all permissions or groups of permissions with a single click.
github.com
Star Ratings
Lindsey DiLoreto (aka Double Secret Agency) has his stars in alignment this month. His new plugin lets you:
- Rate any element type.
- Allow anonymous user to assign star ratings (if you choose).
- Customizable icons if you don't like stars.
- Sort elements by highest average rating.
Overheard
Brandon Kelly Interviewed on Product + Support
Ian Landsman interviews Brandon Kelly on the birth of Craft.
“Get some people you can trust involved in your product early on, and develop a relationship with your customers where feedback is encouraged and respected.”
productandsupport.com
It’s not Craft, but it’s interesting.
Why Lessons from Peers Conference are Vital to the Digital Agency Industry
I missed this year's Peers but I've heard raves about the conference. (Jessica, the community thanks you!) Whether you attended or not, Chad has shared some valuable lessons learned by going.
medium.com
Web Fellowship - Austin TX
If you live in Austin or feel like spending a few balmy summer weeks there, the Web Fellowship sounds like an amazing opportunity for a few lucky people looking to jump start a web development career. I know of this program through fellow Craft friends so I assume some Craft knowledge will be gained along the way too. If not, this still sounds like an amazing program.
webfellowship.org