Without boring everyone with too many details… I was on the verge of converting seven massive static sites into db driven sites using Joomla 1.5.

However, I ran into a system requirement in the last 48 hours that brought me here to the Expression Engine forums.

Now… nearly a month worth of research and learning Joomla is in jeopardy as I’m considering throwing the whole Joomla solution out the window and using EE. My boss is going to crap a brick if I do this… so I want to make sure that EE is going to cover my bases.

The requirement was the need to administer multiple sites from one admin installation. At this point in time, Joomla cannot do this without massive and problematic hacking. Thus my interest in EE and its multi-site add-on.

My Questions:

One of the main features of our sites is advertising. We run destination related sites where local businesses buy banners, links, write ups, etc for display across our domains. Our sites, while poorly coded (prior to my coming on board… I might add), do very well in the search engines.

Can each individual page contain unique meta tags, keywords, titles, etc...?

Does EE offer any kind of ad management system where advertisers can login and modify their ads? If not, can EE be easily modified to work well with OpenX (previously Openads… previously PhpAdsNew) or another ad system?

Some of our pages will require custom coding… for example we use a Google maps feature where people can click on links we generate and the Google map will zoom in on that specific business. Will EE allow us to place custom code and js references in some of the pages - obviously in some sort of code view?  (note: Joomla is weak in this area but does have extensions that enable it to do so.)

As much as I like to refrain from using Flash ads… my company uses them and will continue doing so. In particular they use a flash based page peel that is called from a js file in the head of the doc. Will EE allow us to do this and play nicely when we do?

Some of our ads are generated within content areas. For instance, we might have a writeup on a particular restaurant and somewhere within the article is a graphic that is a purchased ad. Will using EE limit us in doing this?

Can we include Google Analytics and be able to track each section, category, page separately?

I hate framesets… but we currently use them on about 10% of our sites (not my call). Will EE allow us to use framesets without major headaches?

Will the upgrade process to version 2 be painful after having built seven sites around one install of EE using the multi-site manager?  (I need the downtime to be minimal.)

I know that no CMS is a perfect fit and that some custom coding is required. I am considering EE in this late hour of the project because it does appear to offer the most bang for the buck and enjoys generally positive reviews across the Internet. That being said… I want to have the fewest possible hoops to jump through to get up and running in the shortest possible time. Any and all comments regarding these questions is greatly appreciated!

Scruffy - 14 May 2008 12:20 PM

Can each individual page contain unique meta tags, keywords, titles, etc...?

Yes. Your sites can share as much or as little content as you want. The templates can be totally separated. All sites of the EllisLab Network, to give you an example, run off a single EE installation.

Does EE offer any kind of ad management system where advertisers can login and modify their ads? If not, can EE be easily modified to work well with OpenX (previously Openads… previously PhpAdsNew) or another ad system?

It does not, but you can certainly incorporate a third party solution to do this. I have worked with phpAdsNew (as it was called back then) myself successfully.

Will EE allow us to place custom code and js references in some of the pages - obviously in some sort of code view?  (note: Joomla is weak in this area but does have extensions that enable it to do so.)

Yes, you have full control over any template. Embedding CSS, PHP, JavaScript or in fact anything else you can do in a “static” website is possible with EE. When you say “code view”: EE does not come with a WYSIWYG editor by default. You’re always working in the template, but that’s easy to do: you take some (X)HTML and add a few EE specific tags. Also, take note that EE is not a page-centric CMS (you said “in some of the pages")—the basic unit is the article, and you use templates to determine where to show which article(s).

Will EE allow us to [use Flash] and play nicely when we do?

No problem whatsoever.

Some of our ads are generated within content areas. For instance, we might have a writeup on a particular restaurant and somewhere within the article is a graphic that is a purchased ad. Will using EE limit us in doing this?

No. Just add that image to your article.

Can we include Google Analytics and be able to track each section, category, page separately?

You can use GA, but it will depend on your setup how fine-grained the tracking is. It is certainly possible.

Will EE allow us to use framesets without major headaches?

EE allows you to use any kind of HTML, valid or not, including, certainly, framesets.

Will the upgrade process to version 2 be painful after having built seven sites around one install of EE using the multi-site manager?  (I need the downtime to be minimal.)

There is not much confirmed information about EE2 at this point, but it has been stated publicly that it will be an “update”, ie no major adaptions required.

That being said… I want to have the fewest possible hoops to jump through to get up and running in the shortest possible time. Any and all comments regarding these questions is greatly appreciated!

My advice is to get EE Core, install that locally somewhere and take a look at the docs, take her for a ride and kick the tires. If you like what you see, get EE Professional + MSM.

Hi, Scruffy,

Welcome to the forums!

Most of your post is answered the same way, so I’m going to refrain from quoting most of it.  A lot of what you want is simply a way to do your own customizations and make the front-end of the site look how you want, including different types of ads, and statistics tracking code.  With ExpressionEngine, it is a template and tag based system.  You build the templates however you want them to look, including ads and the like, then place EE tags in the templates where you want to pull in dynamic content.

This means that you can build the sites how you want, including frames or tables, advertisements in Flash or otherwise.  There are a few extensions for assisting with gioogle maps setups - Geocaching and CoolLocations.  You can also pass information through the templates to to the maps so this can definitely be accomplished.

While there is no add-on for OpenX, many people do use that on their ExpressionEngine sites without problems, so that should not pose any issues for you.

In regards to your meta keywords question, you might like to read this series on Search Engine Optimization which includes an article on Meta Tags.  The short answer, though, is yes - you can do as you asked. You’ll see that illustrated in the article.

I hope that helps - if you can spare a few days to work with it, I’d recommend giving the trial a run, and reading through some of the other series on the blog.  You might also like to review this tutorial

Post back if you have any other questions!

Thank you Ingmar and Lisa for your timely and concise responses. I have done a fair amount of research today on EE and… so far I am liking what I see. I have yet to come to any hard conclusions as I don’t want to rush this.

My initial decision in choosing Joomla was based upon its’ relatively good reviews around the Internet and the size of its’ user base. However, no good multi-site abilities are pretty much a show stopper for our needs.

My EE research continues and any further comments/insights on the above questions are very much appreciated.

If I can add one more question…

Is their any major obvious drawback in choosing EE for my company’s specific needs?

(As a sidenote, we do not consider licensing fees an issue. We’re more interested in any functionality problems we might encounter.)

It’s not free: EE is commercial, proprietary software (although you do, of course, get clean, well-documented unobfuscated PHP code that you are free to modify for your purposes.)

Apart from that, nothing obvious comes to mind, but your really should try it for yourself.

Is their any major obvious drawback in choosing EE for my company’s specific needs?

I didn’t see one.  The main thing that would concern me is always licensing.  I didn’t see above why you need the multiple site ability.  If you want to make sure all is within the license, you can email sales.  The main thing is to remember that all Sites under the MSM must have the same owner - you can’t host client sites using the MSM, for example.

I really didn’t see anything alarming in your request, though, and most of those features can be handled very easily once you have a handle on the template system.

@Ingmar: LOL. I edited my post adding the license cost comment in parentheses while you posted a reply. I’m glad to see EE community is quick to respond to questions!

I took the leap… well… my company did per my direction. We are now the proud licensees of EE along with the multi-site and forum modules.  Thanks so much for your quick replies which allowed me to make a decision without delay. Now I need to get my hands dirty!

Welcome aboard I’m sure you’re up to speed in no time.