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+--- Thread: Combining EE and CI? (/showthread.php?tid=2063)
Combining EE and CI? - El Forum - 07-13-2007
[eluser]dshafer[/eluser]
I'm going crazy. OK, admittedly that's a pretty short drive. Maybe even a putt. But, still....
Over the past three weeks or so I've bounced back and forth between CI and EE as the solution to a Web design/development project in which I'm engaged. Almost the instant I reach a conclusion, something causes me to rethink it.
I think I can finally articulate why I'm having the problem, so please bear with me. I'll try hard to be brief.
This is an existing site. It has two faces. One is a public face that has a fair amount of application-style interactivity associated with it (signups, logins, qualifications, validations, etc.). The other side is the member side which essentially features a lot of information that doesn't change over time but which needs to be easy for the non-technical marketing team to add to and modify. Aside from basic login and validation, the member site features relatively little executable PHP code at this moment. That may change but for now, that's the story.
So what I think I want is a CI site for the public side and an EE site for the member side. But I'm not at all sure that makes sense or is even feasible.
It occurred to me as I reflected on all of this this morning, that it would approach perfection if I could use EE as my CMS and have its templates sort of become my CI views. That may not be precisely the best way of describing what I mean, but it's as close as I can come.
Anyone have any interesting insights, guidance, ideas?
Combining EE and CI? - El Forum - 07-14-2007
[eluser]Mirage[/eluser]
I've been there and back as well. I'd say that you can probably do everything you want in either.
As you discovered, EE has the benefit of already providing security layers, authentication and CMS functionality on the whole. So it's pretty much there for you and ready to go.
I would base my decision on what you are more comfortable with. EE and CI use fundamentally different approaches. CI is MVC, EE is not. I've found that for CMS type sites that require the power of EE, MVC is not necessarily the 'best way to go'. Sure for certain stuff, like building the auth layer and backend management. But content managed sites generally take an approach where dynamic content is pulled in by the view. While this is possible with CI Views it basically violates the MVC approach. I think that most 'generic' CMS that are out there do not use MVC.
One thing to keep in perspective is 'what level' of content management you need. To write a backend for editing blog type content is easy enough, as demonstrated in the tutorial videos. But there's definitely a difference between that and editing and managing entire templates through the CMS. The term CMS has been stretched far and wide.
Systems like EE provide a consistent shell for publishing a web-site using ready made components. They give the user the comfort of running everything through the webbrowser in a close to zero-conf environment. I have a lot of client that want to manage content. And they think they need a CMS. As it turns out they get hopelessly lost in the Joomla's, Drupal's sites that have been developed for them. EE is much cleaner, but still too heavy on the actually 'user' of the content management part. So they are paying me to re-write the sites in CI and make the content management part exactly the way THEY want it.
I think it's technically possible and feasible to run EE in a subdirectory of a CI site. Whether it's the right thing for your particular project is hard to say. Generally I'd think it's confusing for the developer and just wrong to mix two such different approaches. If I were you, I'd decide and then choose either.
Hope this helps a bit.
Combining EE and CI? - El Forum - 07-14-2007
[eluser]dshafer[/eluser]
@CI Mirage....
Thanks for the great response. It was VERY helpful. I took two of your points to heart in particular:
Quote:EE is much cleaner, but still too heavy on the actually ‘user’ of the content management part. So they are paying me to re-write the sites in CI and make the content management part exactly the way THEY want it.
I suspect I'd find myself in the same situation with my client. They are really not savvy at all when it comes to computers and as I thought more deeply about your comments about the usability of CMS by non-tech types, I thought I would probably find myself in the same situation. Great point.
G
Quote:enerally I’d think it’s confusing for the developer and just wrong to mix two such different approaches. If I were you, I’d decide and then choose either.
Particularly given your observation that CI is MVC (which we really like) and EE is not, I think you're absolutely right. So I believe we've now made the decision to use CI all the way down and roll our own CMS. A bit more daunting perhaps than I'd originally thought but I suspect it will result in a more cohesive app.
Thanks again. People like you make this forum and CI great tools.