Thread

I’ve been struggling to develop a new site for literally 7 weeks non-stop, and I’m nowhere near completion.
In that time, I have developed a true love/hate relationship with EE.
I love EE because I can tell that it’s remarkably flexible and capable (probably unmatched) in the CMS world.
But I hate it because sometimes it’s just impossible to know how to accomplish even the simplest things.
I am *constantly* finding that I have to re-think my entire approach, change from categories to related entries to custom fields to….
I am *constantly* having to kill templates and start from scratch because there was some unforeseen caveat to my previous structure.
I am *constantly* searching ad-freakin’-nauseum through all the docs/forums/wiki/kb to find a simple tidbit of info, and usually not finding it.

Every other program I’ve ever worked with, I got better with practice.  Got to where I could understand it and zip through it quickly.  I can build a WP or VBAdvanced site in my sleep (practically), but I came to EE because I can tell it’s a far superior product. 
But the more I play with EE, the more totally overwhelmed and frazzled and confused I get.  I did have my “lightbulb” moment about 12 months ago, but now my lightbulb is burned out.

I am begging you guys for a start-up guide, or a start-to-finish tutorial, or even just a WHOLE BUNCH of explicit examples.  The quick-start videos are superb.  But I think many, many of us newbies (Newbie: I bought a license over a year a go and still don’t know what the hell I’m doing) could use more of them.  The difficulty comes when novices try to conceptualize the complex EE workings.  My “conceptualizer” just went offline.  I really need some VISUAL (this -> yields -> that) and (if you want this -> do that) examples.

Sorry for the rant.  I do love EE.  It’s just impossible right now.

I thought I’d chime in to give you my thoughts after reading your post…

I’ve worked with graphics, 3D models and animation, video, pencil drawing and many other items related to process driven trades.  When I started out professionally somewhere between 96 and 98, I worked with a comic book artist turned 3D artist.  It was amazing to watch this guy work.  Although quality was important, it wasn’t everything.  Production was!  He was all about getting things done.  Meanwhile, I was caught up making sure every detail was in place, every polygon was counted, every material was properly placed, every light was strategically located, etc..etc…etc…  Many anxious and frustrating weeks/months later, I was still on my first project and he was on his 50th or so.  I was stubborn!  I felt like my quality was slowly improving and frankly better than his 50 or so.  I was determined to learn my way around each and every feature of this massive and powerful 3D application.  It was truly polar opposite approaches to production.  His mentality was to crank out the work and learn quickly and circle back around later on and learn more about a particular feature.  Mine was just the opposite.  I had to learn everything about one feature before learning the next one.

I can promise you that there was no comparison.  His way was simply better.  It ran circles around my approach.  Before long, he was animating Toy Story like characters while I was still doing architectural type stuff.  It took me years to learn to have the production mentality that this guy had.  Finally, I feel like I’ve learned it.

The key is to focus on getting it completed to the best of your abilities at that given moment.  Working too slow without having any success will equal failure more times than not.  I tend to focus down on small things and have “mini successes.”  These “mini successes” add up to larger and larger successes and before you know it, you’re flying high.

I know you probably already know EE has many ways of doing things and that is what makes it so good.  There is no right or wrong way.  Keep this in mind as you work(If not, you truly risk burning out, feeling defeated, getting stuck, etc…).  Of course, there are always more efficient ways of doing things, but if you don’t have the knowledge at this time, don’t worry about it.  Pick a route and move forward… learn new things and note them for your next project.

Please don’t look at this advise as me disregarding your suggestion for a “guide.”  But it has been said around here before that Ellis Lab does not want to railroad us into doing things a certain way because it will stunt our growth with EE.  Actually, this sort of bit me earlier today…

I read the awesome article, Behind the Curtains (part 2, i think), by Derek Jones.  In it, he introduced global variables as one of the most underused features of EE.  From then on, I was making very good use of them.  I had an issue earlier today where I was using the Multi-Site Manager and I wanted to share global variables across sites.  I was very frustrated trying to figure out the most efficient way to make this work.  Finally, I made a post in these forums and Derek suggested I make the global variables into static templates and embed them… bingo, the perfect solution, but I wasn’t thinking outside the box because I was convinced Derek’s BTC article was the best and only way of working.

Anyway, good luck!

I wanted to share a particular view on EE that I have. I look at new projects that require learning new areas of EE that I haven’t been exposed to as really positive situations and something I eagerly look forward to so I can dig in and learn something new that I can bring to other projects after that. It’s fun for me. If I’m on a really, really tight deadline, it’s not so fun. But certainly educational. When I tackle a new area in EE I start by digging into the forum, user guide, wiki, asking lots of questions, and emailing an EE expert or two if I need extended help.

I’ve powered a number or websites that have come and gone and have never used the comments, trackbacks, simple commerce, wiki, moblog, member, and photo gallery modules. I’ve played around with a few of them a little and am consistently looking to integrate them into projects but the need has not been there yet. Photo gallery for one just doesn’t fit my needs. I tend to use weblogs to hold images. However, I’m still checking in on its progress every new version to see what it can do for me.

But, I know what you mean when you ask to see examples. There are so many different ways to accomplish the same thing with EE and so many undocumented ways of getting things done. It can leave you frazzled. That’s why the forum here is such a powerful place. Theoretically, the EE Wiki is kind of the code repository for examples. Still, the wiki does seem to be lacking when you consider all the things you can do with EE.

I guess my long wandering tangent of a post is about being focused on what you are trying to accomplish with your site and keep it as simple as possible with EE to accomplish your site goals. You don’t need to know it all on day one or year one. I’ve been using EE since late 2004 and frankly, EE is now a big part of my life. And there’s just so much still for me to learn. I keep at it, and try to introduce a new area per project. That’s fun for me.  😊

And, just to show that we’ve all been where you are, here’s one of my own early posts: http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/9097/

Oh man - my head is woozy and I"m so short on time. I’ll pay money ($25) to anyone who can walk me over the phone to setting this up _ I’m that desperate.

Would it not be possible to do a live e-conference regarding some specific subjects where experts can explain to a number of subscribers how things can be done? Adobe does this and with succes. This could even be done by you, the people from the forum. I would for sure be interested and willing to pay a fee for it!

I am begging you guys for a start-up guide, or a start-to-finish tutorial, or even just a WHOLE BUNCH of explicit examples.  The quick-start videos are superb.  But I think many, many of us newbies (Newbie: I bought a license over a year a go and still don’t know what the hell I’m doing) could use more of them.  The difficulty comes when novices try to conceptualize the complex EE workings.  My “conceptualizer” just went offline.  I really need some VISUAL (this -> yields -> that) and (if you want this -> do that) examples.

Michael Boyink’s Boyink Weblog has some tutorials - he’s up to Chapter Two.

But that’s not going to help much if we don’t know what kind of site you’re trying to build.

When it comes to weblogs versus categories, I prefer using weblogs. Mostly because categories are stored in another table.

Don’t forget that these forums are a great spot for brainstorming exercises. When I did my first multi-lingual EE site I asked and Sue chimed in with a great suggestion which I ended up using.
So do explain what you’re trying to do here and you might end up with some valuable feedback.
Just to show you’re not alone I’ll leave you with a quote from a post of mine when I had just migrated from pmachine pro to EE 😊

Right now it feels like I’m fighting it when it should be making your life a bit easier.

Brainwrek, your plea prompted me to go off and document how I built my own website using Expression Engine and I’ve finally put the first draft of it online. I hope this helps!

http://www.oneofus.co.uk/index.php/behindthescenes/