Thread

I’m considering using Expression Engine for the first time! I think this client is a good fit with EE, but I want to make sure before committing. I’m very excited about working with EE, and love the work I’ve seen by Sean Sperte, Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain and so many of you on this site.

This would be for a real estate site with about 30 pages. Several pages will list video files for viewing homes and such. Most of the other pages will be standard content pages with resources, info, links, etc. A few other features I think they’ll want are blogs for agents, ability to host tasteful banner ads, a news feed, and gallery. I’d love to see some things like “Latest blog posts,” “Featured Agent,” or polls on the front page also.

1) How well do you think EE will work with such varied content?

2) Will my client be able to easily update info? They do have a tech guy, but some content will need to be updated by basic users. In your experience, is the back-end friendly enough for beginners?

3) I’m not a PHP expert. I’m comfortable editing WordPress templates, though. Will I be able to work in EE without a huge learning curve?

4) My biggest concern is how easy is it to have the videos the site. This is actually my first site including video. Are there any tools in EE that simplifies this? Has anyone built a site serving videos in EE and can share feedback? The videos are already on a site that streams them.

5) They have a few other domain names (tied in, but not exactly the same subject)—is it essential I get the multiple site manager?

6) One last question. I find working with templates very easy in WordPress. Are there existing templates in EE (i.e., can you implement different “themes” out of the box)? Do I have to create templates from scratch? And is there any development of templates/themes in the EE community like there is with WordPress?

Thanks in advance for any comments and replies!

Maria

This would be for a real estate site with about 30 pages. Several pages will list video files for viewing homes and such. Most of the other pages will be standard content pages with resources, info, links, etc. A few other features I think they’ll want are blogs for agents, ability to host tasteful banner ads, a news feed, and gallery. I’d love to see some things like “Latest blog posts,” “Featured Agent,” or polls on the front page also.

With the exception of polls, EE can do what you describe out of the box. There are a couple of 3rd party ExpressionEngine Add-ons that can handle polls though. Hopefully someone in the community will jump in with more information as I’ve not actually used them personally.

1) How well do you think EE will work with such varied content?

Typically EE works very well in this situation.

2) Will my client be able to easily update info? They do have a tech guy, but some content will need to be updated by basic users. In your experience, is the back-end friendly enough for beginners?

Yes. There is a lot ways to customize and control how beginners enter content into EE. You can use a Stand Alone Entry form, hide parts of the Control Panel, or some combination there of to offer your clients the best interface for them.

3) I’m not a PHP expert. I’m comfortable editing WordPress templates, though. Will I be able to work in EE without a huge learning curve?

The easiest way to find out is to give EE a try. Based on your description I’d say you’d probably pick it up quickly.

4) My biggest concern is how easy is it to have the videos the site. This is actually my first site including video. Are there any tools in EE that simplifies this? Has anyone built a site serving videos in EE and can share feedback? The videos are already on a site that streams them.

EE can handle video just about any way you want. So its really up to you to find what solution you want to use and then implement it. Typically this is through some sort of Flash-based player. EE simplifies the process because you can dynamically feed the flash player the proper video.

Here is just one example of EE handling video, Adjack.tv.

Note that Adjack.tv also uses some 3rd party addons to handle things like ratings.

5) They have a few other domain names (tied in, but not exactly the same subject)—is it essential I get the multiple site manager?

If you want to manage all the internet properties from the same EE installation, then the Multiple Site Manager is your best option.

6) One last question. I find working with templates very easy in WordPress. Are there existing templates in EE (i.e., can you implement different “themes” out of the box)? Do I have to create templates from scratch? And is there any development of templates/themes in the EE community like there is with WordPress?

EE handles templates/themes very differently from WordPress. WP is a blog tool, EE is a CMS. WP is meant to power a blog, EE is meant to power an entire site (or multi-sites). It would be a good idea to stop thinking about EE like “advanced WP” or anything along those lines.

And again, the best way to approach this is to try EE.

Here are some resources to get you started:

Video Tutorials

ExpressionEngine Overview

ExpressionEngine Blog

Train-ee.com