First we covered the basics of installation, followed by Document Types, Master Document Types, and how they connect to Templates. Just before lunch we added content, and covered the umbraco:Item WebControl.

After lunch we covered Macros in XSLT and .NET, the Node and Document API:s, and the major differences between the two. I even managed to squeeze in XSLT Extensions and EventHandlers.

Luckily, they all had a good grasp on XSLT before we started, as that's usually a major hurdle for new Umbracians.

This was all done as a warm-up for tomorrow's MeetUp here in Stockholm, celebrating Umbraco's 5th birthday. I can't say I've been along for the ride for all that time, but I've seen Umbraco grow from a young version 2.1 to an almost grown up 4.1, that's almost 4 out of the 5 years it's been around as Open Source. It's been fun so far, and I see no reason to quit.

Tomorrow, we celebrate.

Oh, and if you for some reason want me to come and show you the ropes in Umbraco, get in touch.

I'm going to showcase the PDF Studio app i built last year, Peter will talk about using your own XML-formatted data in the Umbraco context and using the built-in XSLT macro engine for presentation, and Ted will cover extension of the Umbraco UI, with custom sections, trees, and properties.

We also decided to do all the talks in Swedish, however, I'll cover my talks in a series of blog posts here, as mentioned earlier, in English.

So far there's about 50 registered attendees, and I'm starting to feel the nerves. There will be PLENTY of rehearsing :)

Ted showed me some code he's currently working on, and it was clear that we work quite differently. His approach is "if possible in code, code it", while I tend to lean towards the XSLT approach, only opening Visual Studio when needed (however, I code my XSLT in Visual Studio as well).

I'm sure that it will be a very interesting afternoon for everyone, and there will be a lot of Umbraco experiense attending. Niels will hit like a Kamikaze, and do a quick presentation as well, but leaving straight afterwards for the oh-so chique Umbraco all-you-can-drink birthday-bash in Copenhagen later in the evening. I've got a kid, so I'm staying in Stockholm.

The company hosting the event, Milagro, has asked me to hold a short presentation at the event, and I'm going to talk about and showcase an application I developed for a client of theirs. It's a web based PDF Creation Tool, that uses Umbraco more as an application engine and framework, than in the role of the more traditional Content Management System, that I believe Umbraco is most commonly used as. This case was actually how I introduced Milagro to the magnificent product that Umbraco is, and they have already managed to certify two employees, both level 1 and 2, and by the time of the event, two more, making them the agency with the most certified developers in Sweden.

I'll be covering this application in a series of blog posts here as well, but if you're attending the event you'll get the goods in one go.

I'm very satisfied with the application, although steps has already been taken to improve it extensively, but as this is a work in progress and not nearly finished, I won't cover it in my presentation.

If you have no idea what Umbraco is, this is an opportune moment to find out. I really think you should attend.