Thread

I’ve done a few sites in CF but need to leave it behind and join the current state of things on the web (plus I’m tired of coding everything). I have a site I think will work well with EE but know very little about CMSs and hope you can answer a few questions for my application.

-Does EE have a built-in user profile system or is that an add-on module? How about messaging?
-Does EE have a way to control comment spam?
-For the forum does it allow users to edit and delete their own posts? Can I give them a 15-minute window to do this?
-A few users have mentioned wanting to keep forum posts or articles in a personal “notebook” in their profile. I’m guessing I’d have to script this?
-Is there an easy way to handle RSS?

The site is http://healthyfixx.com/ and is mostly an article site but I’m very interested in getting a real forum working and some security features that I can’t do myself. (hope it’s ok to post the url)

Thanks for the help!

Hi, David. Welcome to the ExpressionEngine forums!

EE comes with a member module as long as you purchase a version other than the Freelancer one. Messaging is built in a well. For a more robust experience, there is a third party module from Solspace called User.

There are a few third party offerings that can assist you with dealing with spam, and you can choose to moderate comments. Look on Devot-ee.com.
Yes, you can allow members to edit their own posts, but it’s not within a fixed amount of time.

You’d have to do some custom coding to allow for the ability to have a personal notebook in their profile.

When you say handle RSS, do you mean displaying a third party RSS feed, or creating an RSS feed?

During the install process, you can choose to install a series of templates called the Agile theme. In there is an RSS template.

You can also use the Magpie plugin to display third party RSS feeds.

Sounds like this would be easy enough to implement with EE.

Thanks for the reply Sue. I’m still trying to get a handle on how much CMSs allow you to fiddle so I’m curious about things like forum post editing. Is the module fixed or is that something I could customize with some scripting down the road? Also, I just noticed with this form that I don’t see the message to which I’m replying, can that be modified too?

What’s the cost range for these commercial modules?

So I guess the best way for me to proceed is to register a throwaway domain on an EE provider, buy the EE software, and then start learning it with online resources and books to rework my site for EE and then just transfer the domain when I’m ready to go. Does that sound reasonable or is there a better way to go about it?

Hi David, a regular EE user here, thought I’d jump in with couple of comments.

Forum post editing might be do-able with some Javascript, either to use to “show” the link for an amount of time, or to “hide” the HTML fragment after the time. It’s really down to manipulating the DOM as you would with any other site.

Addons are typically in the Free to $30ish range, with a handful up to around the $100 mark. All the popular addons are actively developed and improved regularly, and come with direct developer support. Like Sue mentions Devot-ee.com lists just about every addon available.

Yep the best way to learn EE is to install and play. As with any system there is a learning curve, but as you have a programmers mind you should pick the logic up in no time. Licences aren’t domain specific so you can set up on a domain/subdomain you already own, or even your local development server if you have one.

Thanks for the assist, Rob.

David, did the additional information from Rob help? As far as replying goes, if you use Fast Reply you’ll see the thread above where you’re posting (I use that 99% of the time) or you can click Post Reply where you can see the thread below where you’re posting, it’s expandable to show the thread.

I personally find that $35 is about the average I pay for third party add-ons, with a few exceptions. I tend to choose the add-ons where I know the developer or I know their support record. Support for third party add-ons is supposed to be handled by the individual author or his/her team, but if someone posts a question here, I move that question to the Community Help forum so that other members can assist.

Does that help?

Thanks Rob and Sue, that info helps. Now I just need to put together a plan and get going.

Glad to hear it. Let us know if we can assist further.