Thread

Hello,
I saw the EE 2.0 Video and I’m interested now in your system.
What I don’t know is, wether EE is a real CMS-System or it is more a blog system.
Is it build for creating big websites?

Another thing I don’t understand at the moment: how is the author of a website able to create new pages and to create a navigation? Where can I edit the navigation?
Is there any video, screenshot, documentation where I can see it?

How flexible is the author? Is it possible to publish different contentelements on one page so that the author is able to choose (and change) the elements he wnats to choose?
Or is there just one (of serveral) templates he can choose per page, so he can use the given contentelements but not “change” them? (i hope you understand my question - what I’m searching for is the flexibilty as given in typo3 or typolight fpr example).

I’ve been using a lot of CMS and I find your system very intersting, but because it’s a bit different to other systems I don’t realy understand how to create and publish websites and content.

OK, that’s enough at the moment.
I’m looking forward to your answers and I think other questions will follow 😉

Thank’s
audi

Welcome to the forums Audi.

EE is used on many *big* websites - Hop Studios actually have a good blog post listing some of these sites http://www.hopstudios.com/blog/the_largest_expressionengine_sites/

In response to your question regarding navigation, it very much depends on how you set your site out. I normally create a main nav menu that only the designer/developer can change in a template. I’ll then create a sub nav menu that an author can add to. If you take http://www.greenviewevangelicalchurch.co.uk/about as an example, the horizontal nav is static and requires template change, but an author can add to the sub nav by publishing a new piece of content in the *about* section.

When publishing a piece of content, there is no option to choose what template is used, your templates decide what content they should use, based on how you’ve coded them.

I find it best to map out your content types first and then create templates around your content.

thanks for your reply! I think the way you’re creating the navigation is ok for me, but I cant imagine how it looks in EE. Because in other systems, you create a page using the site tree. But here, in EE, there is no tree, I think?!

Concerning the content: if thereis no flexible way for the author to choose contentelements/fields, is there a possibility to multiply them? Because when I create a template I don’t know before, how many for example addresses the author wants to insert!

Thanks!
audi

If a site tree approach is what you prefer, then have a look at Structure which is a commercial add-on and would replicate what you’re used to.

However, in my scenario, each piece of content is just a publish function within a particular section.

Have you downloaded EE Core yet?

Yeah you could multiply using a combo of FieldFrame & FieldFrame Matrix

I use this approach on http://www.greenviewevangelicalchurch.co.uk/about to attach related docs to a piece of content. A piece of content can have none, 1 or more related docs. Would this would be a similar setup to your address example?

Yes, great!
That’s exactly what I’ve been searching for.

So, now I can test EE 😊

I think it’s much better startig now with 2.0, isnt’ it?
I’m also starting using CodeIgniter within my PHP.

Thanks a lot,
audi

That depends, EE2 is still a public beta product and not all add-ons are yet compatible with EE2.

I won’t implement any client sites on EE2 until it’s out of PB.

Purely personal choice though.

Because when I create a template I don’t know before, how many for example addresses the author wants to insert!

This is where EE shines as a non-page-based CMS.  You could create a “addresses” weblog/channel, and a template that would show a variable number of addresses at once.  If client enteres 10 - show them all on one page.  If client enters 100 - show them 10 per page with pagination.  Or categorize them and break them down that way.