TL;DR:
Boss needs site up and running yesterday. BackEndGuy1 uses zend framework 2 and is going way too slow. BackEndGuy2 (this is me) was hired to help BackEndGuy1 meet deadline. FrontEndGuy and BackEndGuy2 decide that using zend will take forever, so they want to switch to an easier framework or a CMS. What should they choose? Codeigniter or Expression Engine?
Greetings, EllisLab Community!
A friend of mine and I have a major decision problem. We’re working on a site that has to be up and running as soon as possible. My friend works on the front end along with an artist, and I work on the back end along with another guy. Actually, I was only recently hired because the boss and the rest of the team decided that the other back end guy needed a speed boost. That other guy thought that using zend framework 2 for this job was a good idea. As a result, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to learn zf2 (which is very hard to do, believe me) and doing php and javascript patchwork on existing code. Plus, I have the boss frequently asking “What do you think? Are we going to be up before Christmass?”, to which I try to respond in a diplomatic way like “Anything is possible with hard work and determination!”, but my honest opinion is “Sorry, this is impossible. At this rate it’ll probably take a couple of months, maybe three…”.
Bearing in mind that (a) the other back end guy practically stopped working on the site after I was hired (we only talk on the phone when I need him to explain parts of his code) and (b) there is still a considerable amount of work to be done on the back end, my friend and I decided that a switch to a different tool will probably give us the boost we need. I’ll try to give a brief but comprehensive description of what we are trying to build, and I’d like you to help us find the best option we have.
Ok, so the site we’re building will be a place where people will publish *candies* for sale and other people will browse published *candies*, and if they find one they like, they will be able to contact the publisher. It is important to note that no transactions will take place over the site. We will only provide a means for publishers to show off their product and customers to contact the publishers. Roughly, the pages / functionality we need are:
- home page
- *candy* search based on *candy* properties (with pagination, filtering, sorting… etc)
- individual *candy* page (as viewed by publisher (able to edit) and customer)
- publisher page with contact info and product list (as viewed by publisher (able to edit) and customer)
- login and registration pages for publishers
- maybe some static helper pages I forgot to mention
Now, many of them are already working (e.g. the search page, with all the desired features, is ready), but there are many things left that have to be done using zf2 and I have no idea how to do them…
We are leaning towards Expression Engine (money is not a problem here), because being it a CMS the front end guy will be more comfortable with it too, and also because we noticed that we will be needing a lot of the features provided by it out-of-the-box. Our only concern is that it may not be as customizable as a framework (no offense intended here, our concern is honest, we’ve never worked with it before and - given the situation - we don’t want to make a choice we’ll regret).
What is your advice? What would you do in our position?
Thanks in advance for any useful input!
EDIT: typos, formatting