ExpressionEngine design work begins
I’m working on a new web site for undisclosed client and the site is going to be run entirely off of pMachine’s new ExpressionEngine. From what I’ve seen so far, ExpressionEngine beats Movable Type in every area, especially speed. The amount of load the program puts on the server is far less since no rebuilding is required. The program is completely modular, so it’s very easy to add new features to the program without hacking the source code. Yes, MT has plug-ins, but they don’t integrate into the user interface. pMachine also has built in mailing list capabilities and way better calendar management.
For now, I’m sold. I’ll report back on how the template editing goes but I’m very impressed. In the future, if somebody could port the SmartyPants and Textile plug-ins for ExpressionEngine, I’d be much obliged. Here’s hoping that MT 3.0 gives ExpressionEngine a run for its money and makes the content management system market competitive.
4 comments
(4 years, 8 months ago)
I’ll keep an eye out for your future post on this subject as it’s something im following closely. I do have issues with the idea of playing $200 for a bit of bloggin software tho, no matter how good it is.
A question for you - would it be possible / easy to junk the templating engine that comes with EE if you wanted to go for a more lightweight php based approach? Is it that flexible? Also, how well does look like being able to integrate with an exisinting php site / structure?
(4 years, 8 months ago)
Well you can always code your templates to use lightweight PHP but if you don’t want the functionality of EE’s template variables, I don’t see why you would want to use the program in the first place.
As far as I know, it integrates well with existing PHP structure granted you use the correct paths to includes, etc.
(4 years, 8 months ago)
If you want php support in EE, you have to turn it on inside the control panel. By default, it’s turned off.
There is a plugin for Textile in the current beta.
Jamie, everything is based off of a single index.php file.
As far as integrating with an existing site, it depends on what your existing site has. Design wise you can use your css from your site and plug in the EE code into your existing pages.
EE is more than just a blogging software. It’s also a CMS. See my link for articles on using EE.
(4 years, 8 months ago)
I’m also really interested making use of EE but the cost is hard to justify when there are lots of other great tools out there.
As far as PHP goes, I’ve seen some discussion about integrating the Smarty template engine into it — this would make EE more desireable IMHO.