Thread

Hello people of EE.
I was curious if anyone has seen/has sites that utilize 1 weblog and categories or just pages module?

I been working with multiple weblogs and starting to feel as if ‘I lost the perspective on keeping things simple’.
Does anyone have a few bookmarks to share?
Thank you!

Heh. The simplest site I use EE on has at least three active <EE 1.x.x terminology>weblogs</EE 1.x.x terminology> <EE 2.0 terminology>sections</EE 2.0 terminology> simply as a way of helping me keep track of content and put it where I want it. I didn’t even think about the possibility of using only one weblog on any of them.

Now I feel like I’ve been issued a challenge. Next EE site I build, I’ll have to see if I can do it with only one weblog.

starting to feel as if ‘I lost the perspective on keeping things simple’

I hear you. From time to time I have a similar issue with EE. Something seems to happen when building EE sites. Once you get a site up—single weblog, a few categories—you realize the power that EE brings with multiple weblogs, categories and subcategories, templates and groups, {embeds}, tags, conditionals, and so on. Simplicity gets brushed aside by “I can do this…” and something else gets added. Elegant design and functionality sometimes becomes obscured by yet another “feature” tacked on to a site “because we can” and not necessarily because users/readers require it.

I finished up a site recently and was double-checking the CSS. Over half the CSS was for two menus, the rest for the whole site. Diminishing returns, anyone?

What happens to some of us with EE sites probably has roots in our DNA. We start with something seemingly useful, beneficial, elegant, simple; an idea brought to fruition. Then our focus expands—we change it, build on it, expand it, complicate it, all in the name of progress or advancement or enhancements.

Finally, when it gets messy, becomes complex, weighs us down with a need for tedious ongoing maintenance, we blame the tool that led us to design and build a cottage which became a skyscraper.

Or, something like that.

😊

Hi McGehee,
There was a post here recently and amongst the links was a company using EE...from the looks of it mainly using pages module.
So…it got me thinking…where else can I sneak in EE and keep things simple.

Now I feel like I’ve been issued a challenge.

😊 It all really started with me thinking of converting a friend to EE…someone who has a handful pages updated 1-2 times/month with a new paragraph and a snap shot….not very techy…not very html/ftp/css kinda user…not a full on blogger…more of a ‘tweeter entry’ on his own page user.

Then our focus expands—we change it, build on it, expand it, complicate it, all in the name of progress or advancement or enhancements

😊 very true…my original idea of simple upload form turned into SAEF, jquery, multiple file upload locations, multiple member groups with access and process of content approval and revision…AGHhhhhhh…this was supposed to be a hobby site for 2-3 friends of mine LOL.
So I have decided to give my site a break and ummm…do some reading, build EE snippets library…the basics…and stay way from “what else can I add to it” approach.
Thanks!

Don’t be fooled into thinking that fewer weblogs always equates to increased simplicity. If you have varied content and you lump it all into a single weblog that utilises the Pages module then you will frequently have to mess around with formatting and will likely have difficulty automating other dynamic features (e.g. navigation).

Simplicity of management (and a simple interface for the end user) is a worthwhile pursuit, however I think that adding a little complexity to your workload (as the developer) can pay dividends for users.

That’s not to say I think more weblogs always make sense - there is a balance that has to be found depending on the variation in content, the site structure and the technical know-how of the people that will be updating the site once it’s launched.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that fewer weblogs always equates to increased simplicity. If you have varied content and you lump it all into a single weblog that utilises the Pages module then you will frequently have to mess around with formatting and will likely have difficulty automating other dynamic features (e.g. navigation).

Simplicity of management (and a simple interface for the end user) is a worthwhile pursuit, however I think that adding a little complexity to your workload (as the developer) can pay dividends for users.

That’s not to say I think more weblogs always make sense - there is a balance that has to be found depending on the variation in content, the site structure and the technical know-how of the people that will be updating the site once it’s launched.

Wise.

One of the benefits of EE’s weblog/template group/template/categories approach is flexibility. With flexibility, though, comes responsibility. And, frankly, it takes some practice, trial and error, to figure out the best, most efficient, most flexible way to organize a web site in EE because sites vary; organization requirements differ.

For some simple sites I can get by with a single weblog, less than a dozen pages, a few categories, more sub-categories, and even a single template group.

For other sites, it gets messy. Multiple weblogs, many template groups, more templates, many categories for each weblog, and an intern or two to help remember where I put everything.

One thing I’d like to see from the EE crowd, or, perhaps a Wiki entry, is how some sites are organized in EE—weblogs, template groups, templates, categories, etc. A dozen or so diverse examples may shed some insight and experience.

Out of interest, Rick himself had a blog not so long ago (not sure if it is still around now) that used some pretty trick EE structuring.

I can’t remember now if he was using more than one backend section/weblog or what, but I seem to remember that he had built the entire blog/site using just one single and (relatively) simple template.

I didn’t have time to fully read his explanation of exactly what he had done or how he had done it, but I do remember thinking “That’s a really neat approach”, as the site was fully functional but really extremely light on coding.

Maybe it’s still around, or at least the code might be. If it is it’s worth a look. I’m no newbie to EE and the many ways that it can be used but that method that Rick used had never, ever, occured to me up until I saw it.

Unfortunately, I still don’t know how he did it to this day. 😊

The template lives on at the Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060618215757/www.ellislab.com/source_code/dashedlines/

And, yes, it’s pretty neat 😊

I remember that. It was very cool. Very minimalist, yet sophisticated.

I find myself setting up more complicated sites these days, yet I’m spreading out the pages, template groups, and templates more, rather than devoting effort to intricate code (conditionals, URL segments, et al) to keep the page and template count down. Often I have to bring someone new to EE into a site to manage it after launch. It’s easier to teach someone organization than it is to teach detailed code.

The template lives on at the Wayback Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060618215757/www.ellislab.com/source_code/dashedlines/

And, yes, it’s pretty neat 😊

Thanks, Ingmar.

Indeed, that’s the template that I was thinking about. Very neat.

Though it’s not as simple as I thought that it was (especially those coloured bits). 😉

Though it’s not as simple as I thought that it was (especially those coloured bits). 😉

see…now I have to go learn more things… 😊

I have to confess that most of my websites use just one weblog. The last site uses one weblog and just two templates, combined with some conditionals. One template for the index page and categories, the other one for single entries.

I’ve only used different weblogs if forced too, for instance with multilanguage sites or with really seperated content. The site for zaal16 is quite an elaborate site, with a reservation system, event calendar, mailing system, and a restricted area, but still uses only one weblog (but a lot of templates).

So I’m wondering, am I missing the advantages of using multiple weblogs? For most users, it’s suffices if they can choose/make categories, why would they need to choose a weblog?

So I’m wondering, am I missing the advantages of using multiple weblogs? For most users, it’s suffices if they can choose/make categories, why would they need to choose a weblog?

For me it’s simple.  Each unique content type gets a unique weblog.

Have a page of Company officers each having a Name, bio, title, and photo? Boom - new weblog with those fields.  Client only needs enter the data, and the templates do all the formatting/sorting.

Have a FAQ section, each with a matched set of question and answer?  New weblog - with title, question, and answer field.  Client enters the Q& A and EE templates create the necessary pages as programmed.

Have a company timeline, with each event having a date and description?  Another weblog, each event as one post, EE handles the sorting and output as a collection.

I can’t help but think that if you are using EE with one weblog for everything you’re not fully realizing the power it holds. 

Using only one weblog means you’ve shoehorned all possible content types into one set of fields.  This means you are probably requiring users to put more HTML into posts than should be necessary otherwise.

You are probably also storing content in ways that prevent you from re-using it in other ways throughout the site.

For example, with a timeline implemented as it’s own weblog, you can easily pull one random event from it the sidebar of other pages on your site.  If you’ve stored that timeline all as one post in a generic weblog, then you will only ever be able to display and use that piece of content in one way.

With EE you have to forget how to think about websites as a collection of “Pages”.  See websites as a collection of unique content types, pulled to the web in different ways depending on the business logic and client requirements.  The scope and scale of an EE build has nothing to do with the number of pages the final site will spit out, but rather the number of content types and how many different ways they need to be displayed.

It’s really more akin to database development and normalization than typical website files and folders hierarchical thinking.

Thanks guys for keep the discussion going, I appreciate your thoughts

It’s really more akin to database development and normalization than typical website files and folders hierarchical thinking.

Quite honestly I am used to more going things from scratch and creating tables, fields, relationships, stored procedures and then worrying about presentation (which I lack) later. For all these reasons is why I appreciate the EE so much…what a time saver it is. But I always think about “what i am not using just because I don’t know about it”.
Much obliged for sharing your professional skill sets!

For me it’s simple.  Each unique content type gets a unique weblog.

Ditto!!!

The beauty of EE is you don’t have to shoehorn.