Thread

Hi,

I am a moderate PHP developer that has worked with Code Igniter in the past but now have a CMS project that I would ideally like to use an EE solution for, but not sure how customisable it would be to suit my needs:

The site will manage a number of music gigs over the year. Each gig comprises of:
- Some info about the gig
- Some videos
- Some images
- User generated comments/images/videos (images and videos could be links to YouTube/Flickr)

There will also be a competitions section, which will regularly update with different questions. Basically a data capture form.

There is no need to have any login/members functionality, as the user can enter basic details (name/email) every time they enter a competition or add a comment.

Whilst I have played around with the free version of EE, I cannot see if things like data capture forms and customised commenting can be done easily.

CI would give me more freedom developoment wise, but the content management would beed to be custom-built, and ideally if EE can do the job, it would be better.

Any help, gratefully received.

Adrian

I’d probably go ahead and use the built-in member module- seems like a nice fit for a site like this.  And since users can stay logged in via cookies, it could reduce the data they have to input to comment, etc.  It might also ease user generated content.

But to hit the basics- there’s no problem with gig info and related vids and images.  The only problem there is there are a wide variety of ways you could approach it, so figuring out the best way for a given site will take some thought.  One approach would be to have weblogs/data containers for ‘gig’, and ‘media content’- then use relationships to tie it all together.  Probably the first approach that leaps out at me- there are others.

Then you’d need to consider the user generated content- and how to tie it into the ‘official’ content.  An easy way would be via comments.  A more complex way would be to allow them to post to the ‘media’ weblog- and relate it to a specific gig.  Embedding content might take some tweaks- depending on where and how you want to do it.  But we embed vids on plenty of sites, so it’s doable.  There’s a flickr plugin that might also be worth taking a look at.

For the competition section- it depends on what you’re going for.  You might take a look at Solspace’s freeform module- it’s a powerful 3rd party form module for EE.  It might well do what you need.

As to customized commenting- it depends.  What do you need in comments that the stock comment module doesn’t do?  There are a number of hooks in the comment module code- so odds are pretty good you can extend it to meet your needs.  If you haven’t checked it out already, it’s worth a read over the development docs.  If you’re good with CI,  you’ll likely find extending EE to do exactly what you want a fairly easy process.  And with EE, 90% of what you need is likely already there.

Thanks Robin,

I have spent today researching it, and Solspaces modules, especially the freeform module, is useful.

To simplify it, I would prbably keep the user generated content by way of commenting, and inserting links to YouTube/Flickr. Because it would be a commercial site, I can’t use the API for YouTube, and need to obtain permission from Flickr.

Just a gig weblog may do what I need for the basic functionality, and having a band weblog with relationships may then offer additional functionality. Still don’t see the need to have members module, as I think registration processes reduce the chance of someone entering a competition or commenting, however a ‘remember me’ type thing would work I suppose.

Thanks again for your advice.

Adrian

You might consider allowing membership, Adrian, for repeat commenters and repeat contest entrants; not require it, by any means, but you’ll need to purchase the commercial license anyway, so why not leverage that functionality for those visitors that would like to use it?

True, but maybe storing their details in cookies maybe better to prevent users from taking the extra step to login. I beleive the comment module already has this in place.

Yes, Adrian, it certainly does; I’m just saying that you may find some of your users like that extra step - membership can make you feel a part of the community.  It might be something you wish to foster on your site, depending on the band. =)