Blue Dreamer Blog
Written articles and my personal thoughts on web design, ecommerce, the internet and odd ramblings about life, the universe and everything!
Expression Engine CMS
As a web designer/developer, call me what you will(!), I like to have a good toolkit for building sites with. Apart from HTML and image editors I’m talking here about applications that runs things like shopping carts, news posting, blogs, photo galleries and even small widgets that send mailforms or make random things appear on a page. Apart from my own custom software there are a myriad of ready made applications available that I utilise that can serve as a base for almost any sort of site and budget.
As a rule of thumb I’m picky about which applications I work with, choosing to use the better ones which I know can be adapted or used for on the projects I undertake. ExpressionEngine is one such application. After much testing and analysing I’ve now added it to my web design toolkit, the reason being that it’s one of the most flexible systems I have ever used and it can handle almost any sort of content - so much so this site is based on it!
Expression Engine overview
Originally released as a blogging system called PMachine, EE has now evolved into a comprehensive content system which makes it a superb platform for nearly any sort of site. It’s strengths lie in three main areas…
- It allows web designers to create a usable, accessible, standards complaint web site
- It can be used to display and maintain virtually any sort of content, text, media etc
- Site owners can maintain their content with little or no technical knowledge
Expression Engine key features
Weblog Module
- the heart of the system, allows you to add content (don’t let the word “blog” fool you!)
Comment Module
- allows your site visitors to give feedback on your news, articles or blogs
Search Module
- users can search for content on your site
Pages Module
- allows you to maintain static web pages
Photo Gallery Module
- maintain a fully categorise image/media gallery, with optional captions and user comments
Mailing List Module
- run a newsletter mailing list, includes full subscribe and unsubscribe facilities
Member Management Module
- run a member site or restrict certain content to registered members
Simple Commerce Module
- a basic purchasing system using Paypal, sell tangible goods or access to content
Discussion Forum Module
- a fully featured web forum
Mobile Blogging (Moblog) Module
- post to your weblog from your mobile phone
Wiki Module
- run a collaborative information archive
Email Module
- allows multiple email forms with anti spam protection
There are many other modules available for use which I won’t go into here but include Blacklist/Whitelist, Blogger API, Emoticon (Smilies), IP to Nation, Metaweblog API, Referrer, RSS Atom and Syndication, Statistics, Trackback, Query, and Updated Sites.
Is Expression Engine right for your site?
If your site has a lot of content that you want to be able to update and add to yourself then EE could be an ideal solution, even if you only have a dozen pages or so. Of course you’d only use it if it suited your needs. Maybe your first site won’t have much content but you want to expand it over time? - no problem, Expression Engine is flexible so new content areas can be added at any time, allowing your site to grow organically.
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