devot:ee's 2010 AcademEE Awards

2010 Accessory of the Year: CP Analytics

CP Analytics

Derek Hogue (Amphibian Design)

Beautifully display your real time and historical Google Analytics statistics in the control panel using an accessory tab, control panel homepage display, and dashEE widget.

Winning Summary:

Derek Hogue’s CP Analytics opens our new Accessory of the Year category with a solid first place win. CP Analytics brings Google Analytics data into the ExpressionEngine control panel in a dead simple and incredibly useful way that many of you have enjoyed since its release. If you’re developing an EE2 site and use Google Analytics (who doesn’t?) then you owe it to yourself to check this accessory out. Since 43 people have favorited this add-on at the time of this writing, I’m guessing most of you already have!

Runners Up:
  1. Template Variables (Matthew Krivanek) – A very useful accessory listing all of your custom fields, snippets and global variables that allows you to copy them out with the click of a mouse.
  2. Anti-Pink (Jacob Russell) – Built for only one purpose, Anti-Pink gets rid of the blinding pink in the EE2 control panel. For many it’s a must-have add-on for making CP easier on the retinas.

2010 Extension of the Year: Google Analytics Panel

Google Analytics Panel

Derek Hogue (Amphibian Design)

Display your Google Analytics stats on the control panel homepage, showing today's, yesterday's, and last month's stats in a sexually-attractive display.

Winning Summary:

Derek Hogue’s Google Analytics Panel wins Extension of the Year with a dominant victory, much like its EE2 Twin CP Analytics did among Accessories. This add-on brings Google Analytics data and stats into your EE1 control panel to give you instant access to the most relevant metrics on your site. Any client that uses google analytics could use this extension to make their lives easier.

Runners Up:
  1. Custom System Messages (Brian Litzinger) – Adds flexibility and much greater control to specialty templates in EE, allowing you to create better error pages..
  2. Freebie (Doug Avery) – Allows you to pull segments out of EE control, allowing you to use them without running into problems with strict URL control in add-ons like Structure.

2010 Fieldtype of the Year: P&T Field Pack

P&T Field Pack

Tom Jaeger (EE Harbor)

OUTDATED. Enhanced replacements for the Checkboxes, Select Dropdown, Multi Select, and Radio Buttons fieldtypes bundled with EE2.

Winning Summary:

Pixel & Tonic’s Field Pack wins Fieldtype of the Year this year by providing a dead simple, well polished and very useful replacement for the default Checkboxes, Select Dropdown, Multi Select, and Radio Buttons that ship with EE2. The P&T Field Pack had the single biggest margin of victory in any add-on category this year, and it’s easy to see why. If you’re not using these improved fieldtypes, you owe it to yourself to check them out today.

Runners Up:
  1. SafeCracker File (Barrett Newton) – SafeCracker File provides a simple and problem free file upload fieldtype for EE2. Although it doesn’t have a ton of features it’s very solidly built and much better then the default file upload.
  2. BucketList (Stephen Lewis) – This awesome add-on provides seamless integration with Amazon S3, allowing you to ‘take it to the cloud’ in a truly useful way.

2010 Module of the Year: CartThrob

CartThrob 2

Foster Made

Using the power of ExpressionEngine and CartThrob, your store looks and works exactly like you envision it. Create your unique shopping experience with EE's built in templating system. Store orders and manage products using standard channel entries. CartThrob stores can look just like your site because they're truly integrated. CartThrob lets you make the most of your ExpressionEngine website. Sell products, software, donations, articles... tangible and intangible products. Take credit cards in real time, securely and with confidence. Add ecommerce capabilities to new or existing EE sites!

Winning Summary:

Barrett Newton’s CartThrob wins this years Module of the Year award, and there was very little question about it throughout the voting process. This incredibly well built add-on brings something to EE that has been lacking for a long time – a native, feature-rich, solidly built e-commerce solution that can handle just about anything you can throw at it. Backed up with incredible support, this add-on is a must-have for any developer building an e-commerce site.

Runners Up:
  1. Low Variables (Low) – The ease of use of fieldtypes and the channel-free scope of global variables, what’s not to love?
  2. NavEE (Booyant) -Self-described as ‘simple navigation, made simple,’ this add-on does exactly that, and does it well.

2010 Plugin of the Year: ED Imageresizer

ED Imageresizer

Erskine Design

An ExpressionEngine plugin to resize, crop and cache images on the fly.

Winning Summary:

Erskine Design’s ED Imageresizer wins this year’s Plugin of the Year award in much the same way that Image Sizer won it the two previous years: by providing incredible template based image sizing, scaling, and modification. If you’ve tried Image Sizer you’ll love ED Imageresizer, which offers all of the same functionality plus cropping and a bit of added stability on some installs. Erskine has provided a great plugin here, and it definitely deserves the win.

Runners Up:
  1. Switchee (Mark Croxton) – This plugin has burst onto the add-on scene very quickly this year by providing a very solid alternative to using EE if/else statements, and with proper inward parsing to boot!
  2. Active Record (Barrett Newton) – Allows you to use the CodeIgniter Active Record pattern in EE. For programmers and CI developers, this is a no-brainer.

2010 Developer of the Year

Pixel & Tonic

Brandon Kelly’s Pixel & Tonic has won Developer of the Year for a second straight year. Although a lot has changed in the EE community over the past year, the consistently high level of quality, polish, and functionality found in Pixel & Tonic’s add-ons has only improved. Pixel & Tonic’s add-ons are the bar by which all others are measured, and the support they provide is second-to-none. Follow what’s next here, at the Pixel & Tonic site, and on twitter.

Runners Up:
  1. Barrett Newton (Chris Newton, Rob Sanchez, et al.barrettnewton.com) – These guys have absolutely blown up the EE add-on scene this year with CartThrob and SafeCracker, along with some of the best support in the business. You’re missing out if you’re not using their software, so be sure to check them out.
  2. Lodewijk Schutte (Low) – Low has been providing great add-ons and awesome support (see the trend among winners?) for years, and this year has been the best yet for him. Low Variables was his biggest hit this year, coming in at second place in our Module of the Year category.