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  • Introduction to Web Garden

    My name is David Conlisk and I am a freelance .NET and Umbraco developer based in Glasgow, Scotland. Here I will be blogging about my experiences  with web development and the Umbraco CMS, and showcasing some of my work. Feel free to check out the blog or get in touch.

  • Latest News

    Umbraco Certified ProfessionalI completed the Umbraco Developer Level 2 training course and passed the test on August 19th to make Web Garden an Umbraco Certified Developer. Now there's proof that Web Garden Limited can delivery high quality web solutions using .NET and the Umbraco CMS framework.

  • Friends of Web Garden

    Secret Orange - I've completed a number of challenging projects with Lee Gunn at Secret Orange. Highly recommended.

     

    Ashleigh McNeil - a very talented web designer who has worked with Web Garden many times in the past. Also responsible for the design of this very site!

     

    Zantay Social Marketing - Web Garden's search engine optimisation and social marketing partner. I've worked with Colin many times in the past and when it comes to SEO he really knows his stuff.

     

    Chris Evans Ltd. - Another top class developer who is also very active in the Umbraco community. Chris is based in New Zealand and brings a truly international flavour to our work!

     

    Umbraco - the friendly CMS. I am using Umbraco for most of my clients at the moment because it is the most flexible, extensible and intuitive CMS system around. It's open source and .NET-based - what's not to like?

Web Garden batteries recharged

Monday, November 03, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco, .NET Development

I am just back from a two week break in the sun, the batteries are recharged and there is plenty of work to be done!

 

How to get on to the first page of Google search results

Wednesday, September 10, 2008  Filed under:  Search Engine Optimisation

I just discovered that my basic SEO strategy has paid off - Web Garden is on the first page of Google search results after three short months! And the search phrase? Umbraco developer of course!

 

Upgrading Umbraco v4 to the latest version

Wednesday, September 10, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco

I recently wanted to upgrade an existing site to v4 of Umbraco to eventually take advantage of the inline editing feature. Here's how I got on, with some useful tips if you are planning something similar yourself.

 

Umbraco Certified Professional

Thursday, August 21, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco, .NET Development

Last week Web Garden went to Copenhagen again to attend the Level 2 Umbraco training course to become an Umbraco Certified Professional. Here are some of the gems that came up over the two days.

 

This is my first post using Windows Live Writer

Thursday, August 21, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco

As I already posted here, it's possible to use Windows Live Writer to update your Umbraco content, and I've just set it up to allow me to update my blog.

 

Web Garden heading for Umbraco Developer Level 2 course in Copenhagen

Friday, August 08, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco

It's a bit last minute, but also something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. Next week I'm off to Copenhagen to attend the Umbraco Developer Level 2 course with none other than Niels Hartvig, the man who created the Umbraco project.

 

The importance of umbracoReservedUrls in your Umbraco web.config

Monday, August 04, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco, .NET Development

Sometimes you want to have a normal .aspx page in your Umbraco site that you would like to function as a normal page (i.e. doesn't get served by Umbraco). If you do, don't forget to update your umbracoReservedUrls setting in the web.config.

 

A general purpose Umbraco ImageGen solution using xsl call-template instead of RenderMacroContent

Friday, August 01, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco

A comment on my last post pointed out that perhaps using RenderMacroContent isn't the best way to go when trying to develop reusable xslt code blocks. So here's the same solution without using RenderMacroContent.

 

Passing parameters to RenderMacroContent

Wednesday, July 30, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco

RenderMacroContent can be very tricky to get right. You need to escape your macro text perfectly, and even then passing parameters can be tricky. I just spent a couple of hours getting it to work, so I thought I'd post here so next time I'll know how to do it!

 

An Umbraco AutoForm intranet - my first steps

Wednesday, July 23, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco

I started to have a play around with inline editing, a la Jesper Ordrup's excellent presentation at Codegarden 08. This is a post about my experiences with AutoForm, and how to get around some of the potential issues.

 

Turn on XSLT Autocomplete for Visual Studio 2008

Tuesday, July 22, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco, .NET Development

I have been using visual studio 2008 for a while now, and I just found out how to turn on XSLT autocomplete! This is very handy for any XSLT development, but especially nice for Umbraco developers.

 

One for the Technorati spiders

Monday, July 21, 2008  Filed under:  Search Engine Optimisation

In order to 'claim' a blog as your own in Technorati, you need to create a post on your blog to prove that you control it. Well, this is mine. Technorati Profile

 

Umbraco UK Developer Meeting State of the Art

Sunday, July 20, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco, .NET Development

This is the last of the series of blog posts about the Umbraco UK Developer Meeting in London last Friday. It is kind of like the results of an Umbraco focus group, and details how we think about Umbraco, what we like, what we dislike, and also a number of confusing issues and unanswered questions that we have about Umbraco. I'm sure this is one to kick-start some interesting debate!

 

Umbraco UK Developer Meeting Tips and Tricks

Sunday, July 20, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco, .NET Development

During the course of the day lots of handy nuggets of information were traded back and forth across the table. I've tried to pull these into a single post, here, to save you from trawling through the minutes to find them.

 

Umbraco UK Developer Meeting Summary of the Day

Sunday, July 20, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco, .NET Development

This is a walkthrough of what we covered during the day, from start to finish. Disclaimer: does not include details of what was discussed in the pub over a long lunch, or after the meeting had finished!

 

Umbraco UK Developer Meeting Overview

Sunday, July 20, 2008  Filed under:  Umbraco, .NET Development

On Friday last, ten of us met up at the SAS offices in London for the first Umbraco UK Developers Meeting. I came away with lots of notes, and this is my introductory blog post about the day.