Feedback requested: running CI app from within an EE shell
Development and Programming
I apologize for the length of this, but would appreciate feedback.
A project I’m involved in has recently added requirements that necessitate CMS functionality. I will be building the bulk of the webapp using CodeIgniter and want to use EE as the CMS.
I don’t want to build the webapp portion as an extension or module to EE, mainly because I don’t want to run the risk that, as EE is modified, it will need to be rewritten/modified. I know that in recent EE updates, addons have had some reasons for providing updates. (This is not a dig at EE, just a statement based on my requirements for a fairly low maintenance end result).
I did some testing yesterday and find I can grab EE’s ‘userdata’ array reliably from within my CodeIgniter app (that is running from within an EE install, thanks to suggested mods to the ‘index.php’ file). I can use this to authenticate users for different levels of access into the CI app.
Two questions:
Am I correct in thinking that the userdata data schema is probably stable?
Also, is there anything particularly problematic about my intentions? (I will be accessing a CI app from with an EE install and grabbing EE ‘userdata’ array to authenticate users within the CI app. Other than the ‘userdata’, I don’t anticipate using any other EE code in the CI app.)
Really appreciate feedback from anyone who can give me a good perspective on this.
One last question, the CMS functionality requirements are relatively minor for this project. Is it a simpler task to run a CI app from within Mojo than EE?
Thanks,
Randy Brown
Hi Randy,
Userdata should be considered stable, we don’t like making changes unless absolutely necessary. The EE_Session library has not been altered much in our development on 2.x. If we do need to change it, you’ll see notes in the changelog.
With your intentions. I don’t see it as problematic, and in fact I find it very interesting. I hope you’ll blog about how you are accomplishing what you need in order to marry a standalone CI app and CodeIgniter. If you do so, please make sure to hip me to it. 😊
As for Mojo vs EE, there are differences in userdata, so without understanding the exact requirements of your application, I don’t think I can give a proper response. Mojo is obviously a much simpler application. So if your needs are met 100% by mojo, use it. If not, use EE.
I hope that helps,
-greg
Hi -
I decided to built the entire app in CodeIgniter. This is a large project and I haven’t been able to find adequate documentation/examples (for me) for integrating EE and CI together. Best I build this one myself.
Thanks.
Randy
Hi Randy!
I saw your post and it is interesting. We are into the same goal if I am not mistaken. To create web-apps on top of EE. My question is, are you using the same member’s credentials from EE with your CI app? If yes, how did you do it?
I were able to do with my existing login-component developed with CI by querying the EE membership table directly in order to login to my CI-app. I am not sure if this is a good idea. What do you think? Maybe we can share ideas. As we are heading to the same direction.
best regards, Jay