101 Ways to Skin a Cat
If youre only interested in the slides, get my deck for 101 Ways to Skin a Cat before you go any further.
Common Addons Extended Breakdown
As part of my talk at EEUK this year I sent out a questionnaire to ExpressionEngine developers. One of the most interesting parts of the responses was the distribution of third-party addons developers most commonly use in the majority of their sites.
The full breakdown of the responses is here:
Q. What #eecms addons are in your default build?
A. This chart.
| Matrix | Playa | Structure | Wygwam | Freeform | CE Image | Assets | imgSizer | Low Seg2Cat | Nav EE | SEO Lite | CP Analytics | Channel Images | Custom System Messages | Freebie | Low Variables | NSM Transplant | SuperSearch | Switchee | Template Variables Acc. | Textile Editor Helper | Zoo User | Accessible Captcha | Accessible Image | Backup Pro | BluePrints | CartThrob | CopeePastee | Deploy Helper | Deviant | Draggable | ED ImgSizer | Espresso | ForLoop | GW Code Categories | IfElse | Last Segment | Low Reorder | Low Replace | Low Title | Menu Module Nav | Minimee | Mountee | MX Extended Count | MX Toolbox | MX Jumper | nGen FileField | NDG Flexible Admin | NSM Better Meta | NSM Email Login | NSM Live Look | Partials | PHP String Fun | SafeCracker | Spark | Strip HTML | Stash | Toggle Children | Triggers | TruncHTML | User | VZ Bad Behaviour | Word Limit | Wyvern | Zoo Flexible Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Really interesting it shows a classic exponential trend, from the most common, to the little used addons.
The most popular, Matrix has 50% more results than the number 2 addon, Playa. Once you’re out of the top 8 most common addons, the popularity shelves off dramatically.
Note
This was only an informal questionnaire, and had the princely sum of 74 responses. While trends can be inferred from the results, it’s hardly a large enough sample set to say anything for sure. So – take the results with a pinch of statistical salt.
Dry Templates
The DRY template style was one I’d never previously encountered, but rather than repeating it here, John Well’s has an excellent write up of the specifics.
