ExpressionEngine

Is this is the most flexible CMS?

[aspdaddy]

I’m thinking of doing a project build in this CMS v1.6.6, does anyone here have any experiences of it opinions of whether it’s a good system? Things to look out for etc?
I’m a bit sceptical that the version number is very low for a CMS, but I’m told it can do everything I need for this project, as always the proof is in the finished project and I cant find examples of what I need
The main functionality I want is:
1. themed articles - around 15 categories of article that need different look and feel when displayed - in addition articles can have 1 or more features ticked when creating them (e.g Select business sectors this article is for) which will add 1 or more graphical elements to the layout from a folder of icons.
2. Content management of hundreds of forms that ask different questions and submit responses to the owner as well as save the responses entered on the member’s profile, creating one if it doesn’t exist
3. Various custom php or .net based calculators integrated in the sites content that calculate based on input and save calculations on member profile.
If you think it’s not for the job, do you know any CMS that can handle this kind of functionality, or can at least reduce bespoke work significantly?

Thanks.

[mayest]

I use EE and I've been very happy with it. It is tremendously flexible and easy to use. Have you asked your question in their pre-sales forum? They are very responsive and helpful. You can also download the free version for testing. Your number 1 request should be easy since you can have conditional code in the template that looks at variables or categories set in the entry. Number 3 is absolutely no problem. You can easily include or exclude PHP (not sure how .net would work) code in a template much like a server-side include (it is called an embedded template). I don't know about number 2, but I doubt that it would be a problem. There is a free extension called FreeForm that can probably handle that.

[aspdaddy]

Thankyou for the info, it does look very promising indeed.

I am going to arrange a webex with an EE developer to get my head around how 2 & 3 works.

Do you mind telling how long have you been using it , or how many projects deployed with it ?

Do you find many bugs or security exploits when using features like embedded templates ?

[ergophobe]

Just to throw this out... I've only looked at EE casually, but I would actually see a low version as a positive thing. It means they aren't breaking the API every six months.

Also, keep in mind that the folks behind EE started by building what most people say is a very solid PHP development framework and then built EE on top of that.

Not to mention at Apache 1.3.x ran the majority of the websites in the world at one point.

So I wouldn't pay any attention to version numbers.

I think I've asked you this before, but based on your nick, I assume you're an ASP guy. If you're more comfortable in a MS environment, you might have a look at DotNetNuke. There are some members who who think it's the best open source CMS out there and it might be a less steep curve for you. Just an idea.

[aspdaddy]

Thanks for the info, very useful.

The only issue I have with major versions like 1.x.x is that typicaly this is marketing spin for beta :) I actually see it the other way around to you in that the higher number of API fixes and patches at the pointg you buy in, the fewer you are likely to have to deal with going forward

[mayest]

Don't let the version number fool you. This is not some newcomer. EE has been around for several years (used to be pMachine Pro, before being completely redone and renamed a couple of years ago). I started with version 1.60 and it is now up to 1.66. For the most part, those upgrades (all free) were for minor bug fixes that didn't affect my sites.

I've used it for a little over a year. In that time I haven't seen any security problems. There have been some security fixes in the upgrades that I mentioned, but nothing serious like WordPress has had. They jump, almost immediately, on any post in the tech support forum that claims a hack has compromised a site. I've yet to see one that was an actual hack of EE (doesn't mean it hasn't happened, but I haven't heard of it).

I'm far from a web pro. I've only got two sites. I tried the major FOSS alternatives and found them to be hard to learn. EE was a breeze once I got a handle on the templating language. You can pretty much start by pasting HTML source from an existing page into a template. That will work perfectly. Then, you start deleting stuff that should be pulled from the database and replace it with EE tags. With no prior experience, I had my site converted from HTML to EE in a few days. Most of that was spent copying content and pasting into an entry form so that it was in the database. I've now refined my templates as I've learned more and had new ideas.

The community is incredibly helpful. I don't mean this to be a sales pitch, but I am very happy with my choice.

[ergophobe]

Every report I've heard agrees with mayest - very solid and definitely not marketing spin for beta. I'm sure there are very good reasons that EE might not meet your needs, but I would not pay any attention to the version number.

I really love the incredible flexibility you get with drupal. Its power is amazing. But I can't tell you how much time you can waste on something like drupal that breaks the API with every major version, and comes out with a major version about once per year. Depending on your level of customization and how many third-party or custom modules you've built, the upgrade after an API change can eat hours and hours of your time.

The problem is that version 8.0.1 is likely to be much less stable and secure than version 1.6.6 of a given product. Major versions commonly introduce new APIs, minor version fix them. So a high major number and low minor number is more cause for concern. But that said, every project/product has to be evaluated by its traditional internal standard. For some products, their "beta" or "release candidates" are most stable than version 7.8.102 of some other products. At the risk of getting controversial, compare the shipping version of Windows Vista (AKA Windows 6) to the final release candidate of Apache 2.

[aspdaddy]

I'm really gratefiull for the input from you both.

It does look a great product. I asked around for the most flexible CMS for this project as it was borderline bespoke and I was told check out v1.6.6 of ExpressionEngine first, so I though I'd ask here!

I paid for a small model on RAC today, the speed of implementing the SEO , internal search and RSS requirements was very impressive. I'm not yet at the point of seeing the membership module or embedded templates.

I dont have time or skills to learn this myself but I will invest some time with pre-sales & get a full proof of concept built for my project now.

Thanks both for your help.

[ergophobe]

I don't know as I would say "most flexible". Frankly, I doubt that. It's reputation, at least as I know it, is for beign one of the most solid and solid and flexible are usually somewhat at odds with each other. The reason I'm a drupal fan is because I've found it to be the most flexible on the developer end (traditionally many in the community saw it as almost an application development platform rather than a fully-backed application out of the box, though the development team has been trying to move away from that).

Anyway, "most flexible" is sort of irrelevant isn't it? Isn't "flexible enough for my projected possible needs" more relevant? Then having answered that question, you evaluate based on other criteria.

Also, he hasn't shown up lately, but dbdev is always saying that DotNetnuke is extremely flexible and solid which, as I said, given your nickname might have some attraction to you.