Expanse +++ dream. create. do.
Features
Standards compliant code
Making a standards compliant site with most systems usually results in screaming, broken keyboards, cracked monitors, and splitting migraines.
Not so with Expanse.
The beauty of Expanse is that it is as standards compliant as you want. This means you can code your site to be valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, or if you feel so inclined, use tables, font tags, and even throw a <blink> tag in there. We keep our hands off of your source code, and let you have the power. This even applies to Javascript. Inline, or unobtrusive, it’s up to you.
Expanse means finally being free to make the site you want, rather than settling for the site you’re handed.
Easy 3 Step Install
Step 1: Confirm that you are able to install. Step 2: Enter in your name, email, and database details. Step 3: Congratulations, Expanse is installed. That’s it. No editing of config files, no setting Unix directory paths, no crossing your fingers and praying it works. It just does.
We even include a one step uninstaller that that makes moving between hosting accounts incredibly easy.
Automatically crop and resize your thumbnails
Are you sick and tired of wasting valuable time cropping thumbnails, resizing them, then exporting them, setting up a consistent naming pattern, uploading them, and then, God forbid, you need to edit one?
Yeah, we are too. With Expanse, you don’t need to worry about that anymore.
Expanse automatically creates and generates a thumbnail for you on the fly. Need to crop a certain portion of the picture? Yep, you can easily do that too.
Need to resize it to a custom thumbnail size? Gotcha covered.
Don’t want to use the automatically generated thumbnail, and would like to use a custom file instead? At your service.
With Expanse, uploading and managing your artwork is actually enjoyable.
Drag and drop reordering of your items
Sorting your images on your website is normally a humongous pain. Expanse lets you drag and drop your items wherever you want. You can sort them by how you want, or you can have them automatically sorted by the date they were created, alpabetically by title, or even by user, whichever you choose.
Sell your items through paypal
Expanse not only lets you mark items as "For Sale", but also allows you to add multiple options to each item, as well as the price and shipping & handling. You can sell prints, shirts, books, posters, whatever you want. If you have a Paypal account, you can make money!
Easy integration with your current site
Sometimes, you don’t want all of the features listed here, and just wish to have a quick way to display your content. With Expanse, you can bypass using themes, and quickly get your content with just two lines of code.
While using themes is the most powerful way to control your site, using our two line integration method is an incredibly quick way to show off your content, and helps make moving to Expanse all that much easier.
Add multiple items to your portfolio in an instant
By uploading a zip file of all the images you’d like to add, you can add your entire portfolio in an instant. Expanse will automatically extract the zip file on your server, and handle all the work, including generating the thumbnails, for you.
Do you have 63 images you’d like to add? Zip ‘em up, and upload them. Why spend forever uploading each one, when you can just zip, click, and go!
Add additional images to each item you post
Showing off a project you’ve completed for a client? Associate unlimited multiple images to each entry you add. Have a series of images that are related to your main entry? Add them in!
Have multiple users help manage your content
Do you want your (wife/brother/dad/friends/pets/insert old classmate here) to be able to post to your website? Easily add new users, and you set what areas you’d like them to post to.
This is great if you have news contributors, or friends who’d like their own category to post to.
Easily add unlimited multiple categories
With Expanse, you can quickly add an unlimited amount of categories, each with it’s own custom type. Want 14 blog-like categories? Want 23 photo album categories? Want 186 press categories? With Expanse, you can.
Also, each category can have an unlimited amount of subcategories.
Fresh out of the box, Expanse comes with the following categories: News, Artwork, Photos, Press, Events, Links, and a category to add regular pages.
Don’t like these? Don’t worry. Expanse let’s you rename, add, or delete categories (and subcategories) ‘til your heart’s content.
Easy content formatting
With our built-in WYSIWYG editor, you can easily format your content, add links, images, Flash videos, paste Word content, numbered or bulleted lists, and more. Dont remember exactly what image you wanted to insert into your About Page? Browse the server, preview and add it. Dont know the direct link to your pages? Simply browse a list of all your Expanse generated pages, and the link will be inserted for you.
Post into the future
When you use Expanse, you control when and how your portfolio gets updated. Going to be out of town, and want an image to be viewable while you’re gone? Easy. Getting married, and want a news item to be posted at the exact moment that you’re exchanging nuptuals? Done! (And congrats, in case we forget to tell you later.)
Add custom fields to your entries
When you add an item, sometimes you need an extra field. Expanse let’s you add an unlimited amount of extra custom fields to your entry.
Manage your site's themes with a click
With our Themes and templates, you can switch out your website design with the click of a button, edit your templates online, and even preview your theme on your website without your visitors noticing any difference.
Super simple (yet powerful) template system
We hate Smarty. Sure it’s great for some folks, but if you’re going need to learn a whole new language just to format your site, why bother? You’re a designer, not a freakin’ programmer.
With our template system, you have an elegant and clean solution that doesnt require a degree in Computer Science to get started. Any editor can read our templates; Dreamweaver, Textpad, UltraEdit, and even Frontpage. But what if you WANT to use the powerful features of PHP to format your information, or use formatting logic (such as "show a separator after every item except the last one"
? We still support that!
The beauty of the Expanse Templating System is that it packs all of it’s power under the hood, so you dont have to look at a bunch of complicated code that means nothing to you.
rss feeds, commenting, smilies and more...
Offer your visitors a way to keep up with your site, by allowing them to subscribe to RSS feeds, allow them to interact with you and your porfolio through comments, and a whole slew of features that you’ll find both useful and exciting.