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  • ExpressionEngine is too cool.

    29
    Nov

    Of all content management systems, I think EE has to be best.

    The age old problem for all web developers.  Does a system exist that can manage my content efficiently, but does not confine me to a stylistic straight jacket?

    As any web developer will tell you, making the decision to jump from static content to managed content has always been a pained one. 

    On the one hand there are enormous benefits from having control panel access to all of your editorial content.  With a plethora of plugins and modules you can add just about any functionality you need to a system - so the benefits can be significant.

    As any web developer will tell you, making the decision to jump from static content to managed content has always been a pained one.

    But then there’s the cost.  Not financial per se, but the time it’s going to take you to shoehorn your elegant design into some strangely constructed theme system.

    There are no shortage of options, all with varying degrees of functionality, all with varying degrees of emphasis on one or more particular functions.  Some more blog like, some more forum like, some more content focussed.  This is not a review and therefore I am not about to enumerate the alternatives.

    Suffice it to say, this developer has tried a number over the years and always found some degree of bother with how they work, until now.  Or to be precise until about 8 months ago. 

    Up to that point my only understanding of ExpressionEngine was, it was just another CMS.  But when I started to grapple with it I realised it was oh so much more.

    The beauty is in its simplicity.

    The beauty is in its simplicity.  The idea that a CMS can be logically divided into nothing more than a collection of blogs.  A blog of photos, a blog of news articles, a blog of albums, a blog of famous paintings.  It doesn’t really matter what, as the ability to create custom fields means you have the power of a flexible database without ever setting foot in a relational database management system.

    These blog entities form the backbone of EE, and account for it’s flexible content storage ability - but by no means is it the only thing on offer.  Talk to any web developer about CMS and you can be sure top of the agenda is - how easily can it be styled?

    Most systems deploy some form of theme based system which you must jump into to get the styles you want.  This means you must ‘get your code working with the engine’, and often the engine can look a little scary. 

    EE turns this idea on its head using a template system meaning you simply ‘get EE working with your code’.  The difference sounds minor but the impact is major.

    Talk to any web developer about CMS and you can be sure top of the agenda is - how easily can it be styled?

    Instead of starting the process with a hideous default template and then slowly manipulating style sheets to conform to your design, EE allows you to simply transfer your entire pre-built static site into its template database.  Once this is complete you can view your live site and it will look just as it did a few minutes earlier; except now it has the CMS equivalent of an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction to manage your content.

    Let’s assume your static page, now an EE template, is displaying a list of bars in a town.  Each bar has a name, address, photo and a brief description.  It all looks very nice on the front end but you want it all managed dynamically, so you can quickly add a new bar without looking at a line of code.  Enter your EE control panel, create a new blog - bars, add a few custom fields and add all your bars.  When you’re ready add a few lines of delightfully simply EE code in place of your static bar list and bang.

    But don’t believe for one second this is EE in a nutshell.

    But don’t believe for one second this is EE in a nutshell.  If there’s some particular trick you need to achieve you can be almost certain the EE Core, or a module or plugin has it covered.

    Okay, so you’re probably thinking this is all well and good coming from the EE poster boy but what about objectivity?  I agree, I simply don’t have enough time in the hot seat of the others to state categorically that EE is better.  But I do know I’ve tried the others and the reason I haven’t gone far is I’ve never been able to move fast enough.  This is the real beauty of EE.  You can have a site up and running in next to no time and, for me, this is a crucial consideration.

    It’s reached the point where any client who hints at needing long term editorial updates, mailing lists, editorial access or anything short of a thoroughly static brochure is sent down the EE route.  For scalability, flexilibty and maximum efficieny there’s no other choice.

    Suffice it to say all the content on this site is delivered through EE and I wouldn’t have it any other way (n.b. for now at least.)

    • Thanks for the kind words and glad you are enjoying EE!

      By Leslie on Monday, 01-Dec-08 17:12

    • Great looking site. Couldn’t agree more about Expression Engine. We’re big fans too! : )

      By Frequency on Thursday, 11-Dec-08 17:12

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