Thread

Hi,

Will Expression Engine’s new ecommerce module be like http://www.magentocommerce.com/?

Tim

Hi, Tim - We usually do not release information about upcoming features, you can see an explanation in Is there an ExpressionEngine Roadmap?

You may like to watch the information about SXSW ‘08 as it is uncovered, though! =)

Lisa, thanks for the reply!!!!!!! I realize that you cannot tell everything. I look forward to your next release!!!!!!

Tim

Will Expression Engine’s new ecommerce module be like http://www.magentocommerce.com/?

I’m working on a Magento site right now… I sure hope it’s not like Magento. Customizing the look and feel of Magento is a serious PITA (granted, it’s the first one but still)! EE is light years ahead of Magento purely on customizing/templating.

.angle,

Thanks for your reply!!!!!! My wife and I are working on launching our new business this summer. The business will start out small, but over time we believe it will grow.

One of the keys to the business success is having a content driven website which also features ecommerce. Now my wife is in school taking as many website design classes as she can, so she can create the website. I have been following both Expression Engine and Magento. Sometimes I think we should go with EE and simple commerce. Sometimes I think we should go with Magento. Hopefully after March everyone will know the new features in EE and then we can make some decisions.

Tim

Agreed. While Magento is pretty robust in what it can do, customization is nothing like ExpressionEngine. A while back I was looking at developing an ecommerce system that was customizable on the same level of EE. Now it looks like I won’t be needing to. 😊

That doesn’t mean Magento isn’t good… I’m using it for a couple projects right now. But I’m certainly looking forward to using EE for ecommerce when the time is right. I want the execution to be as perfect as I’m imagining in my head, so I think it will be worth the wait.

Most ExpressionEngine users feel 99% confident that they can do anything with the system. With the implementation of an ecommerce module, I think that will bump it up to 100%. :D

Check out CoolCommerce http://coolclimate.ca/coolcommerce.
I haven’t played around with it yet. But its supposed to be an ecommerce/shopping cart system integrated into EE.

James

Has anyone used http://coolclimate.ca/coolcommerce?

AFAIK it’s in beta testing, you can currently get it to try out as a free download.

Jim

Agreed. While Magento is pretty robust in what it can do, customization is nothing like ExpressionEngine. A while back I was looking at developing an ecommerce system that was customizable on the same level of EE. Now it looks like I won’t be needing to. 😊

That doesn’t mean Magento isn’t good… I’m using it for a couple projects right now. But I’m certainly looking forward to using EE for ecommerce when the time is right. I want the execution to be as perfect as I’m imagining in my head, so I think it will be worth the wait.

Most ExpressionEngine users feel 99% confident that they can do anything with the system. With the implementation of an ecommerce module, I think that will bump it up to 100%. :D

Couldn’t agree more. Magento IS robust in many ways, but like so many other (yet less appealing) options, it buries the templates that you use to customize the look and feel of a site some 3-4 folders deep and in 2 areas. And to top it off, templating is no fun. But considering that it hasn’t reached 1.0 yet, it’s not bad. I’m still rooting for the EE solution!

Has anyone used http://coolclimate.ca/coolcommerce?

Yes. I had a little play around with it today. It seems very good and would suit certain types of ecommerce applications, generally smaller projects that don’t rely on heavy duty backend features… as a cart ans product management system it looks like it will work quite well.  Not sure its what I am looking for at the moment, for my latest potential project but it was fun trying it out… one to look out for, definitely.

I find Magento quite amazing for the cost - zero! I do have to agree that templating is pretty harsh and it also has very poor performance, even after their optimizations. That being said, they also lack any type of content management asides from a CMS section that allows one to create static pages pretty much. Oh right, and the image management is pretty good, asides from the fact the core doesn’t handle aspect ratio’s without some hacking or now the extensions that’s been supplied third party.

Not what I had in mind! Hopefully they can figure things out a bit more down pat! I’m almost finished one shop running under it, so I hope they can figure some of those things out.

@mr_dimsum: ha - I hear ya there!

It’s kind of disappointing actually. Had high hopes. Oh well, I’m still holding out for EE’s answer to the e-commerce mess. 😊

Magento now has a way to integrate Magento with EE. Check out here at http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/tutorial-integrating-3rd-party-cms-content-within-magento/ I look forward to hearing your responses.

Tim

Just remember, that tutorial is talking about CMS content into Magento, not really integrating shopping cart solutions within EE, which I *think* is what most people (I am) are hoping for.