Students and learners: start here
This section of the help is for people who are learning Exponential: students at schools and universities, apprentices, career changers, self-taught developers and designers, and new team members who want to learn properly. It gives you learning paths built from the existing help, a study site of your own, graded practice projects, and honest answers about certificates and the partner program.
Everything you need to learn is free: Exponential is free software under the GNU GPL version 2 or later, and this help is free documentation under the GNU FDL 1.3. Every fact on these pages comes from the help, the code or the settings, and the pages say plainly where something is not documented.
Note
Official Exponential certifications are planned, part of the project's future plans for the community, partners, Exponential developers and students, but they are not available yet. The study projects here are graded by you, your study group or your teacher, and trainers issue certificates in their own name; neither is an official certification (Certifications and certificates).
Contents
- Your first hour
- Rules for learners
- Map of the student pages
- Pages from other audiences you will use
- Finding these pages again
Your first hour
- Know the names (5 minutes): Names and history for learners.
- Pick a path (10 minutes): Choosing a learning path.
- Get a site (30 minutes): Your first site: three ways, then Installing a study site in one command.
- Look around (15 minutes): the first stops of Your first hour in the administration.
Rules for learners
- Practice on a study site, never on a live site or one with real data.
- Invented data only. Test accounts use addresses at
example.invalid; no exercise sends mail to a real person. - No secrets in notes, commits or screenshots: no passwords, keys,
settings/override/orkickstart.ini. - Use the right names. Exponential is the product, 7x the company, the Exponential Foundation the nonprofit; the old name is history.
- Make honest claims. Never call yourself "Exponential certified"; describe what you did and on which release.
Map of the student pages
Studying
| Page | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| How to study with the help | Learn with the read, do, check loop and spaced review |
| Keeping a study journal | Record each session and keep secrets out |
| Student reading path | Read the pages in a sensible order |
| Asking for help and study groups | Ask well in the community and study in a group |
Learning paths
| Page | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Choosing a learning path | Pick editor, administrator, developer or designer |
| Learning path: editor | Learn to write, publish, translate and build pages |
| Learning path: administrator | Learn to install, configure, secure and update a site |
| Learning path: developer | Learn Git, templates, content classes, extensions and the REST API |
| Learning path: designer | Learn designs, overrides, the pagelayout and themes |
A first site
| Page | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Your first site: three ways | Choose between the demo, one command, the wizard and Git clones |
| Trying the public demo | Take a first look without installing |
| Installing a study site in one command | Install on SQLite with exp:install |
| Installing with the setup wizard | Install in the browser and learn each decision |
| Installing from Git clones for study | Install with full history to read and change the code |
| Site packages for learners | Know what the installer installed |
| Resetting and rebuilding your study site | Back up, restore and start over |
| Sharing one study site with a class | Share a site safely in a group |
| Your first hour in the administration | Find your way around the administration |
Core ideas
| Page | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Understanding the content model | Tell classes, objects, nodes, versions and sections apart |
| Understanding siteaccesses and settings | Know which settings file wins and ask with exp:ini where |
| Understanding caches | Clear the smallest cache that solves the problem |
| Reading logs and errors | Find out what went wrong |
| Learning the template language | Study eZ TPL with a plan and drills |
Study projects
| Page | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Study projects: overview | See the ten projects and what you hand in |
| Grading your own work | Grade with the rubric, alone or with peers |
| Project 1: a content class of your own | Design and create a content class |
| Project 2: a small site structure | Build a content tree with versions, locations and the trash |
| Project 3: a template override | Change how one class looks, the documented way |
| Project 4: a page with layouts | Build and map a landing page with Exponential Layouts |
| Project 5: a multilingual site | Add and show a second content language |
| Project 6: search that finds the right things | Choose searchable fields and rebuild the index |
| Project 7: reading content over the REST API | Read content with a personal API key and curl |
| Project 8: your first extension | Build a module, a view and a template in an extension |
| Project 9: roles for a restricted editor | Give a group just enough rights, and prove it |
| Project 10: capstone, a complete small site | Plan, build, document and present a whole site |
Courses, certificates and the Student level
| Page | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Taking a course with a trainer | Get the most out of a course built from the trainers' material |
| Certifications and certificates | Know what exists today, what is planned, and what you may claim |
| The Student partner level | Read the $25-a-month level exactly as published |
| Student level or free community: what to choose | Compare what is free with what the level adds |
Contributing and Git
| Page | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Contributing as a student | Choose a contribution that fits your path |
| Your first contribution, step by step | Send a documentation fix, a translation or a code fix |
| Bugs you find while learning | Choose the right tracker and write a good issue |
| Improving the help as a student | Fix and extend the documentation |
| Translating as a student | Translate the administration or the help |
| The CLA for students | Understand the agreement before you send kernel code |
| Using Git as a student | Use Git daily and learn from the history |
| Git quick reference for learners | Find the right command fast |
| Building a portfolio | Show your work honestly |
Reference
| Page | What it helps you do |
|---|---|
| Names and history for learners | Use the names correctly and know the history |
| Glossary for learners | Look up the words you meet first |
| Student FAQ | Get short answers fast |
| Student checklists | Check before sessions, hand-ins, pull requests and purchases |
| Help pages by topic, for students | Find the right page in the rest of the help |
| For teachers: assigning these pages | Plan a semester with these pages |
Pages from other audiences you will use
| Page | Why a learner reads it |
|---|---|
| Getting started | The first page for every new user |
| Getting started: install Exponential | The installation guide with expected output |
| Installing Exponential 6.0 | Requirements and every install method |
| Site packages: start here | What a site is built from |
| Develop with Git | The way from user to developer and contributor |
| Trainers: start here | The courses, lessons and quizzes you can read |
| Course catalogue | Every course with its length and prerequisites |
| Assessments and practical exercises | How trainers assess, and certificates in their own name |
| Editors 101 | The first course for editors |
| Student and education partners | The partner program's page for education |
| Partner plans and prices | Prices and support of every level |
| Supporters: start here | Every way to help the project |
| When something goes wrong | Errors, trackers and bug reports |
| Demo mode FAQ | Why a public demo's administrator password is published |
| Free documentation | What you may do with these pages |
Finding these pages again
- In the help, filter by the audience Students and learners or the category Learning, or open All pages
and the folder
students. - Every page has Edit on GitHub. If a step is wrong or unclear, fix it for every learner after you, or say so on the community issue tracker.
Related pages
- Choosing a learning path
- Study projects: overview
- Trainers: start here
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
Become an Exponential Partner
Partners share their information, provide funding, contribute back and develop the products with us, and that is how Exponential grows. A partner website and dashboard are planned for mid-2027: please become a partner today to speed up our growth rate and land new features faster.