Thread

Hiya!

I just realised that i really dont use all the Power of EE. I have even dropped out many things from the first online site that i run. Mainly because of my very very poor design, secondly(is that a word?) because users just dont use commenting that much that i need to keep it there.

But now i want mo powa =)

Yes, i have used and played around with EE since 2007 (short time but daily bases) and still i dont know how to put it to work like a supamachine! I mean look at the features, look at the addons, modules, plugins etc. C’mon TUITTU, what keeps me running with the basics?

Ok, enough this. I just wonder from where all the EE deveplovers gets the “golden clue” how to put all power to one package and make Sites that are soooo smooth and with many features (read user friendly and interactive).

I could say that in my hands i keep diamond but i sell it as common stone! ( I create EE site with minimum things that i could make via so many softwares too, and let EE stay screaming at me something like “hey you, dont ya know that i’m not a Lada, i’m Ferrari”).

Phew, that helped already. Oh why oh why i cant put the power together…

Hi,

Best thing is you tell us what you think you want to make EE do, and then we can tell you ways to make it happen. 😊

Thats way too hard to tell. So lets make it easier: tell me what it can’t do for us =)

I prefer to hold the other end of the stick: What business requirements are there?  It’s less about what EE can do than what the client or project needs.

Someone once said that EE is like a “toolbox.” A toolbox contains many different tools, each with different functions, for use in a variety of jobs.

Choose and use the tools you need for the job, rather than try to find a way to cram all of EE’s power into a single site (unless, of course, the site requires ALL of EE’s power, therefore, all of the tools available to the EE developer).

Off-topic, but I like your ‘Latest Job’ Ronnie. Great colour/s + layout combo.

Rogi, thanks. But the client picked out the design. I just build all the pieces to match. I don’t even know how to spell design.

Someone once said that EE is like a “toolbox.” A toolbox contains many different tools, each with different functions, for use in a variety of jobs.

Choose and use the tools you need for the job, rather than try to find a way to cram all of EE’s power into a single site (unless, of course, the site requires ALL of EE’s power, therefore, all of the tools available to the EE developer).

Well put. “When all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.” I think what he is asking for is what are the tools in that toolbox? I’m curious myself as I’m sure there’s plenty more for me to explore or use more appropriately or something, but I also feel finding and figuring out those tools on a per-need basis, whether it’s for a client’s needs or being innovative in general, is a part of the process/experience of getting acquainted with what the tools are and what they [can] do.

Somewhat difficult/unreasonable to list what EE can do just for the sake of listing it, so perhaps a better way to go about this would be to discuss developed sites and methods employed for individual things, the experience for the visitor, user, admin, and so on, then other people can come along and give their thoughts, alternatives, etc.

Thats way too hard to tell. So lets make it easier: tell me what it can’t do for us =)

I always like to joke about new tech stuff I buy, “Damn thing won’t cook me breakfast.” I’m not sure but I think that might just apply to EE, too. Though we could be in for a surprise with EE 2, no? Probably not. hah.

Just to be awkward…:)

I personally can’t see EE as a toolbox with a selection of tools in it as I don’t think that fits too well. I see some other scripts with ‘widgets’ in them more in that way as each widget/tool in those scripts can usually only do one specific or fairly constrained thing. Just like in a regular toolbox a screwdriver can mostly only screw in or out screws, a hammer can mostly only bang things etc.

EE is much, much, more fluid than a toolbox, though, as each EE ‘tool’ or ‘capability’ can usually in itself be made to do a multitude of things, and so EE can actually fluidly become (and do) almost anything that you ask it to be (or do).

So I find it better to think of EE more like a box of paints than a box of tools, as each EE ‘paint’ can be altered or mixed with other EE paints until you get the colour that you want, or even make your own pretty rainbows. 😊

And there lies it’s strength.

The key to EE, or the ‘lightbulb’ moment as it is popularly known, is, in my opinion, when you suddenly realise that it doesn’t need to be used or thought about in any way other than however you care to use it or think about it.

EE is much, much, more fluid than a toolbox, though, as each EE ‘tool’ or ‘capability’ can usually in itself be made to do a multitude of things, and so EE can actually fluidly become (and do) almost anything that you ask it to be (or do).

So I find it better to think of EE more like a box of paints than a box of tools, as each EE ‘paint’ can be altered or mixed with other EE paints until you get the colour that you want, or even make your own pretty rainbows.

While I don’t want to discount the toolbox metaphor, which I think remains highly appropriate, a “box of paints” has a lot of merit and explains how many of us approach EE.

Maybe it’s a left brain vs. right brain thing.

The key to EE, or the ‘lightbulb’ moment as it is popularly known, is, in my opinion, when you suddenly realise that it doesn’t need to be used or thought about in any way other than however you care to use it or think about it.

Quite true. Left brain or right brain, most of us have that EE lightbulb moment. That is when we realize that we’re not stuck in someone else’s (WordPress, Joomla et al) paradigm of how a site should be built, but can be truly creative.

Still, there’s all those tools…

😉

Good discussion here.

Why i first place opened this thread was the reason that i really dont need basic commenting and such that was the very first things i played when i bought EE. Then i tried relatioships but eventually that dropped out too and still im deleting those custom fields from other Sites i have done with MSM since.(heh).

The power i think is the query and segments and hihgly used {if}‘s .But im so freaking poor in that area still. Really dont know nothing about query, dont know how to deal with the segments and havent got inside of {if}‘s and thats bothering me quite much.

What makes my work harder is that as i’m doing stuff, i learn english at the same time =) I mean that i first usually need to think “what that means” and what is the main function to this and that. I’m pretty sure that EE is more easier to work with if you are native in english.

Templating system is easy and getting the EE-tags and all inside is easy but when i try to build very complex, kind of a big Site system with 11 MSM Sites in total, this has made me nuts. I have semipretty clear idea what and with what but there is one important point after all the hassle with designs and the actual stuff(weblog entries and all):

I want to build highly interactive Site-complex that makes users come and write, search, take actions by themselfs also. Should i say “they need to get involved” also.

With what tools/paints i need to work to get even started. Basic commenting lead into nothing mainly because of the forums that i have. They write there and interact.

Now i want users to start using the Site itself also - and i Do Know EE has tools and paints for this but what i build and from what tools i make them and in what color i paint them - thats making me…getting more coffee and surfing EE-based sites to get innovation or something but usually i dont get any because i dont know how those sites really are build and with what modules, tags and variables etc.

I have seen huge possibility from the start when i got involved with EE but after a year and a half i still wonder what i have done wrong because i cant get the power out.

Yes, im very impulsive person and i have that bad thing that i usually start something that sounds cool to me, then someone tell other thing and i start that also - and week after that i’m back in the beginning because i cant keep my lightbulbs in order i have the skills to kill all good ideas. Usually my skills just ends and get the wall ahead of me (sql, jquery, php aint my strong areas if they even are near me at all).

I like to make designs, and i love EE but the power is still out there and i cant find it!

I like to make designs, and i love EE but the power is still out there and i cant find it!

Perhaps the power you seek to find is in the journey and not the destination.

I like to make designs, and i love EE but the power is still out there and i cant find it!

Perhaps the power you seek to find is in the journey and not the destination.

Phew, i never want to find my destination with EE. I need my journey to go on and on, endlessly. But it would be nice to have the power that brings up more power and suddenly i can feel my self as SupaMan =)

...surfing EE-based sites to get innovation or something but usually i dont get any because i dont know how those sites really are build and with what modules, tags and variables etc.

Maybe just drop the site owner/designer/developer a note and ask them. It’s extremely unlikely that anything that you see will be truly innovative or difficult to do at the EE level. You might find what appear to be unusual or very clever looking designs, but even they are usually variations on techniques that have been used a thousand times before on other sites, probably few of which use or used EE (or at least didn’t originally - EE doesn’t by itself make extra cool designs, it just makes sites with good/different/unusual-looking designs easier and faster to put together).

Point out some interesting stuff from sites that you know are based on EE but don’t understand how to do. It’s not usually too difficult for people around here to figure out and tell you how someone has done something, and if the sites are solely EE based the designers or developers are quite likely to be here on the EE forums at least once in a while themselves.

Then, armed with a few new ideas on how you can do things with EE+a good design, you can go and do your own.

EE is nothing like as difficult to use as it appears to be at first. It’s a friendly thing under the strange mystique that seems to have built up around it, and almost impossible to break. 😊