Domestic Geek

OK, I got Expression Engine 1.6 all installed over at my domesticgeek.com. Got the databases and everything set up with the host all by myself. I'm so proud. Everything I set up on this domain database-wise has to be done by Marcus. I just need to finish the darned theme I'm working on and we'll go live over there. w00t!

I remember being able to save my MovableType files as external docs on my server so I wouldn't have to edit them in the the program's editor. It's one of the things I've always been meaning to see if it could be done in Expression Engine because I hate working on my templates in the editor with a passion. I think it's one of the reasons I haven't really been working on my sites. I'd much rather work in BBEdit (my mac text editor of choice) and have the proper outline format and be able to see the color coding. Makes it a heck of a lot easier to spot problems, let me tell you! Instead of just figuring it out a long time ago, I've been copying from the editor, pasting into BBEdit, making changes, copying it back into the editor — not the most efficient workflow. Anyway, I was working on couple of friends' Wordpress templates the last few days and I was tinkering with their files on my own test server via my FTP program (Transmit) and BBEdit. So much easier! I decided today I was going to figure out how to make that happen in EE or I was going to dump the platform.

Fortunately, there is indeed a way to Save Templates as Text Files. The hardest part was figuring out what my server path was. I uploaded a page called pathinfo.php into the root of the site with this code: <?php phpinfo(); ?> and loaded the page. Down at the bottom was my server path. Yay! So, now I can code directly from BBEdit via Transmit. It is done and one more thing I've been putting off for so long is crossed off my list. Now it's late, but I'll get to working on my new design first thing in the morning.

I can't find what is wrong! I've opened up a test page, stripped out everything but the nav menu, the header, the posts and the footer and IT IS STILL SLOW TO LOAD! WTF??!!!

There are no javascripts, nothing from the outside, no dynamic headers, no CSS.

Obviously I've mistakenly changed some preference in my admin panel, but what? This is going to take a lot longer to fix than I thought. Hmph.

OK, heads up! It's going to be funky around here a lot today. I've vowed to fix the slow loading today so I can move onto working on a new theme. Since I totally removed my sidebar and it's still slow, yet none of my other sub sites on this Expression Engine install are slow, it's something going on in this particular blog. I may break something, but it's backed up in it's original state, so I can reinstall that at any time. Just thought it fair to give you guys a warning and yes I know about it. Hopefully I'll find and fix the problem and coming to visit me won't be such a chore.

Just as I said before, the HTML comment formatting buttons would be fixed when Marcus came home. Although he didn't actually spot the problem, having him looking over my shoulder as I talked him through my code allowed me to see the error. Yes, a simple missing right curly brace broke my CSS. Isn't that always the way? I wasted so much time today staring at that durned page. Grrrrr.

If you edit css alot and use Firefox, may I suggest the Web Developer Extension? Using the "edit css" funtion is great for isolating errors, playing with margin/padding or checking colors without having to edit and save your actual CSS each time. You can also have it outline block level elements to see if something funky is happening or show you the class names being used. It's pretty cool. The thing is a real time saver for me.

Now that that is fixed, I'm going to go try and get some sleep.