I’m pleased to announce the launch of TheRealLifeSurvivalGuide.com.  The site is the web component of a new radio show premiering later this week in the CT area.

The radio show and the ExpressionEngine-based site is the brain-child of Bruce Barber, who writes:

In the early nineties, my life changed dramatically. In less than two years, I went from being a careless (or clueless, depending on who you talk to) single guy to an ostensibly responsible husband, stepfather, father, and homeowner. The idea for “The Real Life Survival Guide” was born of the abject terror I felt during that time. There was no “manual” for what was happening.

The site design was done by Bruce’s existing web designer, the translation of the design to XHTML/CSS was done by Andy Ford of Aloe Studios, and Boyink Interactive performed the ExpressionEngine integration.  From an implementation perspective there are a few interesting notes to make. 

First is the integration with HipCast.  Hipcast and EE are able to be tied together through use of the MetaWeblogAPI - which means that once connected, Bruce can upload his podcast files into Hipcast, and Hipcast will programmatically create an entry in ExpressionEngine.  That entry includes the Hipcast Flash-based audio player so that visitors can listen to Bruce’s interviews right on the site, in addition to being able to subscribe to the podcast.  The MP3 file can be downloaded directly from the EE post as well.

Second is that the site allows unregistered users to submit content via the Share page.  The Share page creates emails, and is connected with the Moblog module in ExpressionEngine.  The Moblog module grabs the emails generated by the Share page, and pulls them back in as an EE entry, where Bruce can edit them before posting them live on the site.

Here’s to the success of both the radio show and the website.  Bruce—I’ll be looking for you right in between Click and Clack and What Do You Know running on Saturday mornings here in W. MI.