Thread

We had a web developer company create our site.  They created an include .website_page which has the code for the master page.  So for other pages that were created with just content they used

{embed="includes/.website_page"url_title="title_of_page"}

Then you create a content page named “title_of_page” for the content.

That way you can just make a change to the master page and it will take affect throughout the entire site.

Where we have problems is they created other template pages that, instead of using the include master page, they have all of the code from the master page plus what was needed for that pages content.  So when we want to make a change to the master page, it effects maybe 50% of the site, but then we have to go through the other template and make the changes to each one. 

Why I believe they did this was because certain pages have forms that require extra coding that is specific to that page.  Something that creating a content page would not accomplish. 

Is there a better way to do this?  Maybe, still embedding the master page, but then below the embed code add the code for the forms or any other specific items to that page.

That way if we want to make a change to the menu or to header footers it will affect the entire site.

I took the code from the .masterpage and compared it to the code of one of the pages I am referring to.  I found the difference and then put that code straight into the content area.

From what I can tell in the content section when publishing a page you can add code in order to create a form and even add a picture.

Correct?

I still do not think that it the correct way, because placing code into the content section does not seem to parse well.  I tried to put the code into a snippet and then adding the snippet to the content area, but it didnt parse at all.  Any ideas?

Leetrans,

I’m sorry that you are experiencing this trouble. What you have described seems to me to be a valid approach to the development of a site. Each developer builds their sites a little differently and if one is unfamiliar with their approach it may take some time to be able to make changes within the templates easily.

Without actually seeing how the site was developed it is difficult to provide you with the answers you are looking for. Since this is actually not a technical support issue with software, but more of a question about how your site was developed I would suggest contacting the developer who built the site. If that is not possible then I would recommend contacting a member of the Pro Network to see if they can assist you with this. Alternatively I would be more than happy to move your thread to Community Support to see if others can chime in on this.

Sean

Like Sean said, there’s ultimately no right and wrong way to develop a site. There are things like best practices, but unfortunately they are not always followed.

Would I develop a site with the pattern you are describing? No. This development pattern really doesn’t scale well as you add pages, you would need to add new template per page. That get very messy very quickly.

You can move this to community if that will help.

It is more of a best practice question as Philip stated.

I think also it is a question of the expression engine software.  Where in the content publish section can you add code for a page.  The content to me looks more like plain text or minimal html.  But what if you want to add specific css or html to a certain page and not throughout the whole site. 

If there are any white docs or information on the best practice structure for a website with expression engine.  Let me know.

Thanks!!

Each ExpressionEngine website is different - I’ve been developing in EE for over five years, and continue to refine my approach to how best to structure data within EE. On top of that there are continually new addons, and development techniques that emerge that change the way EE developers build sites. There’s no recipe for how each site should be structured as each site may have it’s own requirements.

As for learning best practices, that comes with time and experience. There are resources out there such as:

http://www.train-ee.com
http://www.eeinsider.com
http://www.ee-spotlight.com

All of these will point you in the right direction, but there’s no replacement for actually building websites day in and day out.

Best of luck!

Hi Leetrans,

Am moving this thread for you to community support.

As Philip said there are many approaches to building and I too continue to change the way I develop sites. The resources that he listed there are excellent sources.

Sean

From what you mention it certainly works but wouldn’t be a route we would take. It doesn’t quite embrace the EE way of working.