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Hey, I’ve been registered for some time now but I never really got into finding out what makes Expression Engine so different. I read the complete feature list and it looks pretty amazing.. but what makes it a better choice than other really flexible systems such as Wordpress or Movable Type. I’ve been using Movable Type for some time now cause of how flexible it is with it’s templating system, it’s archive mapping and really simple interface. So my question is.. how would EE make my site better?

I’ve been reading through the documentation and I’m still have trouble understanding the whole template paradigm for archives (index.php/template-group/template). For the moment being I think that isn’t too flexible considering MT lets me create my own archive mapping. For example I can set it to save my archives to BLOG-NAME/CATEGORY/YEAR/MONTH/ENTRY-BASE-NAME.php or simpley BLOG-NAME/ENTRY-BASENAME/index.php. Personally I want to have full control of how/where the archives are saved (or in the case of a dynamic system I want to have control of the URL it displays.. just cause i’m picky and perfeccionist). So.. anyone please help.. how can I make EE my own?

Almost a year and no help :S

Have a read about URL segments and that should answer your question.

The first part of your question is way to broad. How, why, and what’s it going to do for you question require some specificity, since I know I don’t know who you are, your website, and what your future goals for it are. Though the question has been asked in a variety of different ways before, so your answer might already exist. But otherwise, I might say something like:

I run a small gaming site using Moveable Type, featuring 200 members, that currently offers this, this, and that. I’m thinking about providing these future services. How would EE benefit me

Stinhambo is correct. Check out URL segments and learn what it can do for you. ExpressionEngine can do what you specify for any content you throw at it.. You just have to be creative in doing it. I’d normally go about for another few paragraphs and details its procedure, but since you’ve never used it, there isn’t much point of getting into it just yet.

If you’re serious about looking into what EE can do, there’s a core version that is completely free for you to try and was present when you first posed your question. Nothing’s stopping you from a few clicks to go and grab it mate. 😊

Good luck.

I understand. I have been trying the core version for a while but I haven’t been able to get the URLs working how I wish them to. Thank you for the replies btw

I’m looking at URL Segment Variables right now. I can’t find just URL Segments. I must be missing something?
These URL Segment Variables (http://expressionengine.com/docs/templates/globals/url_segments.html), as far as I understand, are not used to change the actual url but to change the aspect of the template.

Is there a particular structure you are looking for? The page you point to is the correct one. The straight forward approach. Say you want replicate the MoveableType BLOG-NAME/ENTRY-BASENAME/index.php.  Approach to a degree. If you fiddle around with segments, you’ll learn that to get the http://www.mysite.com/i-wrote-a-post/ url then, basically, you’ll have a default template group, say ‘site’ and in that group you’ll have the templates: index and maybe archive.

I’m trying to recall if it was Rick or Paul who set-up a single template to parse all types of data requests; but you should be able to find it in the forums. Theirs was super fancy, but you could just basically use {if} statements. If http://www.mysite.com is called, display 20 posts (w/ brief summary); if http://www.mysite.com/post-title/ then the display would show full article/post. You’d be checking for a {segment_1} that’s not empty, but you’ll need to avoid pagination P40, etc, and categories C25, etc.

Personally, I find it easier to have the template included: so I’d typically have a url like http://www.mysite.com/article/i-wrote-a-post/ Because having to turn dynamic processing of pagination and categories off can be painful, if you haven’t thought it through.

I’m trying to recall if it was Rick or Paul who set-up a single template to parse all types of data requests; but you should be able to find it in the forums.

That was Rick, actually: http://web.archive.org/web/20060618215757/www.ellislab.com/source_code/dashedlines/
I learned a lot from that template, but I still use multiple templates on my projects 😉

Carlos,

Templates can aid you in doing what you want to do in regards to your URL structure. It’s quite simple. It’s recommend going through a tutorial that teaches you how to do a basic website first. Check out Boyink’s ExpressionEngine tutorials.. By the time you go through around half of them, everything will begin to make sense and you’ll be wondering why you ever thought Movable Type was so good.

Don’t skip steps.. You’ll be ruining the experience for yourself. Make sure you ably prepare and take some tuts if the documentation is overwhelming for you. Trust me, if you can handle Boyink’s tutorials, doing those URL segments will be easy as pie. The tutorials aren’t hard, but provide enough of a foundation for you to navigate and understand the documents easy.

this might help as well: http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/categories_and_paths_in_expressionengine/

Thank you all for your replies and help.

mr_dimsum, I have been trying out Boyink’s tutorials and yes they are a big help. I’m beginning to think the issue I have is that after using MovableType for so long it’s become real hard to open my mind to another system.

allgood2, your explanation helps a lot. Its been hard understanding a totally different templating and url system but i’m starting to understand it.

I’ve always known EE was a very impressive CMS but I never really used it completely cause I always found MTs url mapping simpler (which is true, but it doesn’t mean it is better). So i’ll keep taking my time to wrap my mind around EE.

I’m very anxious about EE2.0 though!!!