Thread

Greetings!

I recently discovered Expression Engine while searching for Word Press, Joomla and Drupal applications to determine if they were suitable for this project. I would sincerely appreciate the communities help to answer these questions, make suggestions and other observations. Here is some background information:

1. Need easy to use CMS for community newspaper site (frequent updates)
2. Already have Adobe CS 5.5 design premium, MS Office2010
3. Knowledgeable with software & PC’s
4. Have constructed client Word Press site http://www.parentsinternetchild.com/
5. Have used Dreamweaver and Photoshop with some success
6. If I use EE, which version should I acquire and what additional modules/templates would recommend to accomplish the following:
a. RSS feeds
b. Reader comments
c. Local bloggers who can log in and post stories and photos
d. Residents who can post tag sales, community minded events, local stories of interest
e. Paid membership for specific stories or archived (future)
f. Easy to insert new stories and remove old ones (virtually daily exercise)
g. Is there an input screen available
h. Include a business directory for areas business
i. Will add photos of local events, gov’t meetings, etc.
j. Would include multi-media embedded in article or sidebar ad
k. Possible expansion with limited e-commerce
l. If I purchase software, what tutorials are recommended and all aspects being equal, realistically how long before I can have this up and running?
m. Would like, as a selling point, to have this available for mobile and ipads
n. Don’t want to spend 30 hours a day to keep site up and running
o. Would like to automate where possible and practicable
p. Here is a site I’ve seen http://www.ruralintelligence.com/
q. Here is another site:  http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge

7. Would like to export front page and print page, is this possible right from EE?
8. Would like to dump business directory into InDesign for other applications
Thank you for your time and effort to provide your suggestions.

[Mod Edit: Moved to the Pre-Sales forum]

Hi heraldpost,

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

I’ll start with this chunk:

a. RSS feeds
b. Reader comments
c. Local bloggers who can log in and post stories and photos
d. Residents who can post tag sales, community minded events, local stories of interest
e. Paid membership for specific stories or archived (future)
f. Easy to insert new stories and remove old ones (virtually daily exercise)

There is only one version of ExpressionEngine available for sale, that comes in 3 licenses. The licenses are split between Freelancer, for design studios and web professionals’ web presence. Non-commercial for not-for-profit, non-profit, or government entities. And Commercial, for any commercial venture.

Items a - f in your list are all included with ExpressionEngine, so you are off to a good start!

g. Is there an input screen available

ExpressionEngine entries can be made using the Control Panel or via the front end of the site using SafeCracker.

h. Include a business directory for areas business
i. Will add photos of local events, gov’t meetings, etc.
j. Would include multi-media embedded in article or sidebar ad

h - j: while not directly related, all deal with content types. ExpressionEngine makes no assumption about the kind of content you serve, or where on your site it is displayed. It is entirely up to you!

For items with a few images, you can add them inline to an entry. If you want something more like image galleries, you can look at Channel Images - or a combination of inline and galleries that you can relate in the Control Panel.

k. Possible expansion with limited e-commerce

ExpressionEngine includes the Simple Commerce Module which uses PayPal. If you need other payment gateways, there are third-party e-commerce add-ons available.

l. If I purchase software, what tutorials are recommended and all aspects being equal, realistically how long before I can have this up and running?

Indeed! check out Train://ee. Mike has several tutorials available for free that can get you a jump start. I couldn’t give you a fair estimate of how long it will take *you* to get comfortable with ExpressionEngine. Everyone is different and learns differently. However, I have seen some folks come along as quickly as 2 weeks.

m. Would like, as a selling point, to have this available for mobile and ipads

Again, this is entirely up to you. If you build a site with responsive design or mobile/tablet friendly CSS, ExpressionEngine will serve that based on how you say.

n. Don’t want to spend 30 hours a day to keep site up and running

ExpressionEngine is easy to maintain on a reliable host. Content creation and delivery is EE’s focus, not site maintenance!

o. Would like to automate where possible and practicable
—-
7. Would like to export front page and print page, is this possible right from EE?
8. Would like to dump business directory into InDesign for other applications

Might I ask for a bit more detail on these last points?

I look forward to your reply!

Cheers,

  o. Would like to automate where possible and practicable
  —-
  7. Would like to export front page and print page, is this possible right from EE?
  8. Would like to dump business directory into InDesign for other applications

Might I ask for a bit more detail on these last points?

I look forward to your reply!

Cheers,

Dan:
Thank you for the quick and insightful reply. I’ve been reading other areas of the Expression Engine site to learn more from your observations including Train:EE.

To answer your question: I would like to automate specific ares to update automatically vis-a-vis RSS feeds so I don’t manually have to check on them at 4 am. Regarding exporting I’d was thinking of taking (business directory) and exporting it into Indesign template to print the list into a booklet for distribution and generate additional revenue streams. I was thinking I may need to set up a MYSQL database for this? Can I use MS Access and have Expression Engine read the data from the access file? I’m currently using the business version of MS Office 2010. Another area was to export the front page of the web site as a printed version for distribution with a rack service and/or a handout/teaser at local events.

Any suggestions you have are appreciated and most welcome.

Thank you again!

Hi heraldpost

I would like to automate specific ares to update automatically vis-a-vis RSS feeds so I don’t manually have to check on them at 4 am.

If you mean importing data from other external sources you can do this using an addon such as http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/datagrab which can be “run” automatically, eg you could use a CRON job to run every day, every hour or whatever you wanted, this would then update your web sites content automatically in real time with no other intervention needed.

Regarding exporting I’d was thinking of taking (business directory) and exporting it into Indesign template to print the list into a booklet for distribution and generate additional revenue streams. I was thinking I may need to set up a MYSQL database for this? Can I use MS Access and have Expression Engine read the data from the access file? I’m currently using the business version of MS Office 2010. Another area was to export the front page of the web site as a printed version for distribution with a rack service and/or a handout/teaser at local events.

Expressionengine stores all content data in a MySQL database, you are totally free to extract that data however you want (via PHPMyAdmin for instance) and use it in your external process/applications.

I’d suggest if you wanted to create a handout that it’s best done separately since your web sites home page would be in a “web” format and not suitable for print.

Rob:

Thanks for the insight. I’d also like to setup a member subscription form with login (as set up for gmail or yahoo mail accounts) allowing members to setup their own password and user name with capability to ensure that there are no existing duplicates so paid members can log in and non-paid members would be refused access. Something along the lines of a paid subscription.

Is there an addin for this?

Thanks for your help.

Indeed you can use the (included) Simple Commerce module to allow paid memberships using Paypal for payments, or you could allow people to register first then upgrade to a paid member group later.

Thanks for all the help. Will probably have more questions later. Really appreciate the feedback. This looks like the program for me!

Hi heraldpost,

I’m glad to see Rob was able to fill in the gaps for me.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Cheers,