Thread

Hi all,

I’ll try to keep this short, thanks in advance for reading.

I’m a designer with limited PHP experience. I can do basic stuff without any problems, but customising a CMS may cause some issues.

I’ve always been aware of Expression Engine, but I’m unsure if it’s the right solution for an upcoming project.

Technically I’m not doing anything too extravagant, but in terms of the sheer amount of pages, content and sections in the project I’m working on, I’m not sure if it’s the right option!? In some cases there may be 50+ pages across 5/6 levels of content across 100 or more regions.

Please find the EE.png diagram attached to help you understand what I’m talking about. Please note the likes of Region 1 and Region 100 saved me from doing 100 separate branches. I also haven’t filled out every branch, the top level should give you an indication of how it would look across sub branches.

A few questions 😊

If I was to code the templates, would Expression Engine be able to handle that so many levels of pages? Would it become messy and unmanageable in the admin area? In terms of generating the navigation for each section, sub sections etc?

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Is is possible to create user groups and give them different views of the site, i.e. hide some levels of the navigation according to assigned user group?

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How does the search work, do you apply tags / keywords per page?

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In terms of actual content, is it possible to repeat ‘content modules’ across numerous pages?

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When working in the admin area, there may be a lot of data entry in tables, with LOTS of columns and rows. How does EE treat tables? Do you code them by hand in ‘html’ areas, or would you enter data into set fields?

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Is it possible to upload multiple images per page template?

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Does payment for the commercial license of Expression engine allow me to roll out multiple sites on the same server?

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How does Expression Engine handle custom Jquery? Can I use any libraries or tools I wish?

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Is it possible to run Expression Engine on the likes of Dreamhost?

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This is all I can think of for the minute. Any response or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron

The answers to virtually all these questions is yes - you can do just about anything you listed and more. . and it only gets better over time. Just start with contacting Ellis about your exact licensing requirements because licensing is not on a per server basis. Good luck.

If I was to code the templates, would Expression Engine be able to handle that so many levels of pages? Would it become messy and unmanageable in the admin area? In terms of generating the navigation for each section, sub sections etc?

I’m pretty sure you’d be fine but would you be able to give us a better idea of how you plan to structure the storage of information in the CMS?

Is is possible to create user groups and give them different views of the site, i.e. hide some levels of the navigation according to assigned user group?

Yes, you can restrict user groups to different Channels (and far more granular if needed) within the admin area as well as different page templates or parts of a given template.

How does the search work, do you apply tags / keywords per page?

Any custom field can be ‘searchable’. That takes care of what is or isn’t searchable. Then, when you create the search FORM for the template/front end, you can define what should be searched within the CMS.

In terms of actual content, is it possible to repeat ‘content modules’ across numerous pages?

Yes. Individual entries are repeatable and reusable anywhere by calling a specific entry_id within the Entries Tag. EE also has ‘Global Variables’ which are designed for static content which needs to be re-used throughout the site. e.g. a Global Variable called {address} would contain:
“Flat 3 London Main Road
London
W3E 6TG
United Kingdom”

When working in the admin area, there may be a lot of data entry in tables, with LOTS of columns and rows. How does EE treat tables? Do you code them by hand in ‘html’ areas, or would you enter data into set fields?

Is it possible to upload multiple images per page template?

Not sure what you mean here, I assume you mean multiple images per ‘entry’. You can use native ‘file’ field types for this or the Matrix add-on as above.

Does payment for the commercial license of Expression engine allow me to roll out multiple sites on the same server?

If each additional EE site s for a different client, then you will need to buy individual licenses for each.

If it’s a single client who wants to use one CMS to publish content to more than one domain, then you can purchase the Multiple Site Manager extension to facilitate them all from one CMS interface.

How does Expression Engine handle custom Jquery? Can I use any libraries or tools I wish?

EE can load jQuery using special tags and the jQuery Module: http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/modules/jquery/index.html or you can load it directly from local files or remotely from a repository.

AND yes, you can use any libraries you like.

Is it possible to run Expression Engine on the likes of Dreamhost?

Check out the EE requirements and also the EE Server Wizard which you can run on a given server to see if it is up to scratch.

There’s also a great article on optimising EE which may be useful if your server is slightly below par:
http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/optimise-your-expressionengine-site

Cheers for your thoughts, Enviromed.

Matt, thanks for all your responses, much appreciated. I’m feeling a lot more confident about taking the leap!

If I was to code the templates, would Expression Engine be able to handle that so many levels of pages? Would it become messy and unmanageable in the admin area? In terms of generating the navigation for each section, sub sections etc?

I’m pretty sure you’d be fine but would you be able to give us a better idea of how you plan to structure the storage of information in the CMS?

Hm, well… I’m not entirely sure how I can put this across. Essentially I’d require multiple levels of pages, all of which have parents and children running off each other. Some levels of the pages will just be for navigational purposes, others will be more detailed and contain actual information.

I’m concerned that I’m potentially going to have 1000s of pages by the end of it, I would hope to find an extension which would allow me to manage this with no real trouble. It’s good to know about the Global Variables, I’ll definitely be reusing the content across the site.

When working in the admin area, there may be a lot of data entry in tables, with LOTS of columns and rows. How does EE treat tables? Do you code them by hand in ‘html’ areas, or would you enter data into set fields?

Is it possible to upload multiple images per page template?

Not sure what you mean here, I assume you mean multiple images per ‘entry’. You can use native ‘file’ field types for this or the Matrix add-on as above.

Yes, I meant ‘entry’. This Matrix add-on you’re talking about, does it allow you to create customised tables per page? What is the interface like, would it be useful at copying and pasting data from the likes of spreadsheets?

Cool about the licenses. What is the deal if I want to set up a local installation of the site and then transfer the database to an online one, all good here? What’s the possibility of transferring the expression engine installation across servers without having to pay for a license each time?

Hello Aaron,

Thank you for your interest in ExpressionEngine and welcome to the forums!

Matt:P did an excellent job responding you your initial request, so I will pick up with you most current reply.

ExpressionEngine is okay with having thousands of pages, but I think once you get into it and see just how easy it is to reuse code and templates that the amount of pages will be drastically reduced. For example I have a site with many different pages using the Pages Module, but I have just one template for those pages that is reused as needed. The only thing that changes is the content.

Matrix does have a nice interface as you can see here and I believe it will do the custom tables that you are asking for. Take a look at it and if you have questions about Matrix the developer should be able to answer those for you. Our Community forum is also a great place to find out what other users think of Add-Ons like Matrix.

The license will allow for a local copy and a live copy. If you want more than one live copy then you will need to purchase additional licenses.

I hope this helps. Do you have any more questions I can answer for you?

Thank you,

Hey Shane,

Cheers for the speedy reply!

Sorry, I’m probably getting my terminology mixed up here. The use of templates etc does sound good, I was just concerned about the ‘page tree’ or ‘site tree’ in the likes of nav-ee or similar add-on becoming unmanageable when having so many ‘entries’. I suppose that’s just the nature of dealing with thousands of pages 😊

Matrix sounds good too.

What is the possibility of moving an installation of expression engine to another server? (If I eventually decide to change my hosting plan)

Thanks again,
Aaron

Hello Aaron,

I am more than happy to answer your questions and I am glad I can help.

Moving ExpressionEngine to another server is actually pretty common, so much so that we have this hand-dandy section in our User Guide on moving ExpressionEngine to another server.

Is there anything else I can help with?

Cheers,

Excellent Shane, that’s great for now.

Hi Aaron,

Awesome. You know where to find me if you have more questions. 😊

Cheers,

Cheers Shane, I’ve purchased a Freelancer license for learning purposes and can’t wait to get stuck in. I’ll hopefully be upgrading to a commercial license as soon as I need to.

Hey Aaron,

That’s awesome! Welcome to the community and have fun with ExpressionEngine!

See you around the forums Aaron.

Cheers,