ExpressionEngine: Switched

September 17, 2006

I'm proud to announce that I made the switch. Fortunately I found a convenient way to migrate my old data to ExpressionEngine - namely by using EE's MovableType import functionality. I just had to create a text file with a specified format and EE imported all entries and its associated comments. So more or less all sections of Bartelme Design should work.

Refined Structure

When I started working on my new templates I tried to create an exact copy of the previous site. However after a while I noticed that this would definitely be the wrong approach. As some of you have already noticed, I stopped posting articles in the former “Articles” section. Instead I just posted them in the journal, which had a couple of advantages like commenting and archive functionality. So I cancelled the section and moved all articles such as “Aqua style with Illustrator” or “Creating organic wallpapers” to the journal.

Forum

I also removed the forum from the main navigation: on the one hand because I haven’t created any forum templates yet, and on the other hand because I’m not sure whether I wanna provide forum functionality any longer. Let me know what you think and how I could deal with the old data.

Search

By the way there are still some other sections respectively components not working or even missing. One of them is search. I also wanted to implement some sort of live search, but I still have to get a bit more familiar with EE’s templating system. So stay tuned :)

Updated layout

And last but not least I wanted to additionally emphasize the switch with a new layout. I actually tried to get the best out of previous layouts and to create a new one. Beside the dark color scheme, the fluid layout is probably the most mentionable change. Even though there is still a lot to do I had to go live, because I had no possibility to create further entries other than hacking tables using PHPmyAdmin. And to be honest, I wanted to avoid that ;)

So for the time being that’s actually everything I wanted you to know. Have a nice weekend. And to all of you guys currently enjoying “Oktoberfest”: Prost :)

61 comments

Whoa... the new design caught me by surprise. It'll take me a bit to get used to the non-white colours, but I love it as always. Nice work!

Biomech

What was wrong with the last design? This one seems "incomplete".

Appleologist

That's mainly because it _is_ still incomplete. As mentioned above I had to switch right now, because I had no CMS to manage the site.

Wolfgang

I love it Wolfgang! It's a pretty amazing layout.

Scott

Hallo Wolfgang, Dein Re-Design ist Dir wieder perfekt gelungen. Hut ab!

Andreas Ploch

WOW was für eine veränderung sieht sehr sauber aus aber vieleicht könnte man die RSS und Recent Comments noch farbig vom rest absetzten greez

Cabcom

Cool design! I like it.

pm

I liked the old design a bit more, nevertheless great work :)

Michael

Gratuliere, sehr schönes Redesign, das Archiv gefällt mir besonders gut.

Martin Hofer

hola maribel como estas esto es para ti byeee te cuidas

maribel

Yee i like it :)

Peter

I like it a lot, but blue text on blue background ... my eyes hurt.

Woody

Looks great!

Mackie

lol I got all confused at the first two seconds... this very morning ur site had the 'old' layout... u work fast!

Pati @-;--

I love the new design, congrats mate! :)

pickupjojo

Err, that was my wrong email. Could you edit my last comment and delete this one? Thx Wolfgang. ;-)

pickupjojo

Hmm... It feels like this design is... to blue :S

Marcus

You might should set a min-width. but it looks great!

Tom S. Weber

Wow, this is an absolutely amazing layout. It is very clean and powerful. Love it :-).

Manuela

Thank you for your feedback. As mentioned there are still some issues to be fixed and there are other ones, such as the header, that still need some polishing. I also need to think about how to assign widths to specific elements. Anyway, I'm glad that the transition was that smooth and that I now have a fully featured CMS. Take care, Wolfgang

Wolfgang

This is a _really_ nice layout! Congratulations, every time you do your updates I find myself impressed more and more. I hope your're comfortable with EE, I never regret my switch. Maybe you want to visit/join "ExpressionEngine.de":http://expressionengine.de, small german community (50+) – but growing.

Stefan

Nice design as always. I love this colours, now reading doesn't tire my eyes. Take care Wolfgang

adrmis

wow echt gelungenes design. Weiter so ;-)

Johannes Leis

I love the new design! Great use of space... very innovative!

Bubs

Yeah, this one rocks!

Martin Labuschin

Glad to see you made the smart choise of letting EE handle your backend. With each update it is getting more powerfull.... Just when I was getting used to the former new layout, I have to adjust again but I must say that the first impression is rather like, hmm yeah ok, new fresh aproach, always nice... Good luck learning EE, it will keep you busy for a while :-).

Dion

Dion, seems as if your comment was not displayed because I accidentally limited the number of comments to 25. sorry :)

Wolfgang

Blau auf blau ist ein wenig schlecht lesbar aber ansonsten find ich's gut :)

Michel Balzer

Michel, als der Kontrast zwischen den Blautönen finde ich alle mal ausreichend. Eine kleine Änderung wäre aber auch in Ordnung.

Martin Labuschin

Would be very sad to loose that forum functionality. I'd believe that it is one of the big reasons, why people come back to your site quite frequently. Perhaps you could categorize the forum a little more and therefore keep the thing. But I also know that creating those forum templates might be a big amount of work. Otherwise if you'd decide to remove the forum, perhaps some kind of "knowledge base" would be cool. Where you could present like worthy discussion from the forum in a categorized way. Of course that would require some kind of selection.

Tim

Redesigned again :-) I like that you're changing your page layout and design so often. My opinion on the new design: + Fluid Layout + Comments are well integrated in the new design + The dark theme makes pictures and photos look better + The top-most navigation with the "tab" style looks great - Contrast: I think it is way to low. Check it with the colour contrast Checker and you get a "No" for this colors: http://www.snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html - Green looked great. Over all as always a good design. Go on! aaron

Aaron

Sehr schön! Wirkt nur ein bisschen nach rechts gedrückt. Wie wärs mit einem etwas helleren BG in der "Zeitleiste" auf der linken Seite?

boooster

Hey, I like your new design. I like the way you layout the left column (commenter, date, etc.) Funny, we made our switches about the same time. N.Design Studio made the switch a day before you. I switched to WordPress though.

Nick La

Great ! i love the design, it might be too much dark, but i like it anyway :) The new archive is good.

Morishani

Mir ist aufgefallen, dass deine Smartlinks nicht rictig übernommen wurden. Es steht zwar "Link" bei den jeweiligen Kommentaren, aber nur als Wort. Ich denke mal, du hast noch ein Backup von deinen alten Daten, oder?

Martin Labuschin

Nice design Wolfgang, but it kinda reminds me of Windows 98 Blue screen of death :|

Azad

Your crazy Wolfgang... your crazy! Amazing work my friend, I really love the new design. It's something different from you, which is why it's so great. Your normally not one for full window fluid designs, but you really pulled it off. Great work!

Edward Scherf

This is by far one of the best looking blogs on the web right now. You and Veerle are a close tie for my personal favorite blog of 2006, just so you know. Oh, and stop making the rest of us look bad.

Patrick Haney

Thank you guys. The fact that images - just as those in the showroom - look far better on a dark background, was one of the main reasons for my decision to switch to an all-dark design. I'm aware of the fact that there may be some contrast related issues - but I plan to implement some sort of "accessibility theme" with high contrast, larger font size etc. in the near future. So stay tuned.

Wolfgang

this design is much better than the old one :) i love it :D

Pat

Great "redesign". The layout is handy and simple, but powerful! Love it!

sibbe

Wolfgang, welcome to EE. I'm sure you will enjoy the friendly and open community at the EE forums. Plus the support staff is great! :) I'm definitly liking your new design. My favorite part is the details column to the left. It lets the reader focus on the what's being said rather than who said it, while still showing the details of the comment so you can respond to a specific one. Really like the color scheme too! Great work!

Backspace

Very nice and simplistic - but hard to read.

Julian Schrader

What a nice surprise with the new design :)

Lucian Marin

Excellent new design Wolfgang! Great use of the fluid layout and the brighter, yet still diminuitive, left column. Cheers!

Jason Beaird

Hey Wolfgang, one question: When you create a new layout, do you go the whole way from Screen-Layouting with e.g. Photoshop over to Templating and after that putting it into a CMS; or do you simply start of with building templates?

Tim

In case of my own site I don't actually sit down like "Let's do a new design". I rather visualize certain ideas every now and then. And if I like one I may even create a template. When switching to EE I actually didn't want to create a new design - it just "happend" ;)

Wolfgang

Wow, i love the new design, always loved your work. ~Josh

Josh Illichmann

The Index-Page has a great Design und Layout. Congratz. The single post view has a very low contrast at the comments-area (blue, some lighter blue, some even lighter blue). That's somewhat hard to read. Anyway, the simplicity, the freshness and the fluid layout... is done very well.

John

Schönes Design, Wolfgang. Wiedereinmal sehr gutes Design.

macx

korrekt! war sehr überrascht als ich so ohne vorankündigung auf die seite kam!!! dachte zuerst ich wäre irgendwo falsch gelandet.. ich finde es sehr gelungen, schön übersichtlich und bilder knallen gut bei dem dunklen rest, nen bisschen weiß fänd ich trotzdem nett!

Alexander Hahn

Top Notch!! I love it.

Anand

Great work, Wolfgang! I am amazed by the enormous frequency of you re-designs... Keep it up!

Michael

I love the redesign! However, the color of the pointer on the dark comment boxes are the same as the light and it looks a little strange. But I love the site!

Lowell

Much prefer the old design.

Jamie Hill

nice, have to give expression engine a try...

erwin

Wie mal sehr gut gelungen das Design! Störend finde ich nur, dass es keine Suche und Kategorien/Tags im neuen System gibt.

Heiko Klingele

Wie gesagt, zur Implementierung der Suche bin ich noch nicht gekommen. Das kommt aber noch. Bezüglich der Kategorien: die sind schon vorhanden. Nur noch nicht "aktiv" - sprich filterbar.

Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang! Sagmal wie macht man eigentlich so große 45° Linien die dann auch noch Kachelbar sind ? Wie man kleine feine Linein macht weis ich aber das die so einen großen abstand wie bei dir haben daran verzweifel ich noch. Könntest du nicht ein kleines Tutorial schreiben ? Danke im Vorraus Greez

Cabcom

Das funktioniert im Prinzip exakt gleich - du brauchst nur größere Kacheln :)

Wolfgang

Again - truly gorgeous design. The layout of your comments is brilliant - so easy to understand. Contrast is perfect in my opinion. Well done all round!

Wayde Christie

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