Launch: go to Low
Seven years ago, I discovered ExpressionEngine in a search for a new CMS for the company I was working for at the time. Three years later, I quit my job to become a full-time freelance developer, mainly doing EE implementations. Late 2009, I released my first commercial add-on, and today marks another milestone: the launch of my dedicated EE add-on site: gotolow.com.
Turns out I enjoy working on add-ons more and more, while regular client work feels less satisfying than it used to. That’s why I decided to try and put more emphasis on add-on development, which inevitably meant setting up this site. From now on, if you need an EE add-on, you’ll know where to go.
Credit where credit’s due
First of all, I’d like to thank Erskine Design, and especially the talented Phil Swan and illusterous Greg Wood, for coming up with a fabulous design. Working with them to get the look and feel right was an absolute pleasure. Also a big thanks to Brandon Kelly for letting me use his quite superb Juniper module—it’s a thing of beauty. Last but not least, a big thanks to you, for buying my stuff!
Under the hood
I know you’re all curious people, so I’ll let you in on some technical details. The front-end of the site is built in HTML5 with some CSS3 sprinkled on top for good measure. I haven’t really tested it properly in IE, but since that browser only accounted for a small percentage of my visitors, I actually couldn’t be bothered. I use jQuery as the JavaScript library of choice, switching from my beloved MooTools. The nice typeface you see here and there is delivered via TypeKit and is called Ronnia Web: an excellent find by Sir Gregory Wood.
The back-end uses EE 2.2.2, beefed up with some ace add-ons. Apart from Juniper, I’m also using P&T’s Assets and Matrix. Solspace’s User also plays an important part here. Then there’s the icing on the cake: CE Gravatar, Minimee and Custom System Messages. As for my own stuff, I’m using Variables, NoSpam, Replace, Seg2Cat and FromFile: a custom fieldtype I created to read and output content from a file, especially for add-on documentation.
To conclude
If you bought my add-ons at loweblog.com, you’ll be able to retrieve them once you’ve created an account here. Be sure to contact me if you need help.
Comments
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Commenting is not available in this channel entry.John Macpherson 15 August 2011 at 14:46
Good luck with it Low, Love the design. Will be in touch if we need custom Add ons.
Euan 16 August 2011 at 11:02
Good luck Low. Great design and no doubt I’ll be back for some more add-ons.
Florian 16 August 2011 at 11:03
Very nice website! Congratulations on the launch. I’ll probably buy many many licenses of Low Variables here, because it’s an un-missable add-on when developing multi-language sites.
Janine 20 August 2011 at 20:56
Love the new look and the whole concept - best of luck with everything Low and thanks for all the great add-ons - here’s to many more in the future! :)