Is CI for me? Just a simple discussion and thoughts sharing.

[eluser]Knitter[/eluser]
Hi,
I just started to use the framework and I intend to replace an existing website with a new one based on CI. Though I know I can research most of this info on the web, I would like to hear from those who use the CI and have developed in it.

I have a simple website with a few complex requirements. First of all, I want the client to control the site, which means I have to develop an easy and non obstructive way of managing everything.

The site has the following features:
a) front page with latest news, only presents the summary.
b) media gallery with image gallery and 'history' gallery, these are documents about a given car, the site is for classic cars and features na history section.
c) page for cars that are available to sell.
d) page for car parts that are sold at the store.
e) provide RSS feeds for all the dynamic items.

I have to create a nice and easy way to manage all the above, so I'll need to provide some sort of WYSIWYG editor, and image editor with the basic batch upload, resize and thumbnail creation, and a gallery manager.

So, to the point, will you consider CI to be able to provide me with all the functionality to create the above scenario? Will I be able to integrate other tools, like the tinyMCE editor or similar, add some AJAX if needed, etc.?

[eluser]Jelmer[/eluser]
It's a bit of a strange question I think. Could you make all that with CodeIgniter? The short answer is yes. However, to me, CodeIgniter is like a toolbox - one could conceivably make anything with the tools, it's one's own skill and imagination that limits the scope of what can be done.

So the longer answer is probably that CodeIgniter gives you the tools to built all of that within CodeIgniter's generous MVC structure. But it doesn't come with an overblown number of libraries, it's not a plug-and-play repository of bits of application you can slap together to create your own blend. That being said, when you take a look in the wiki and forums you will find lots of other users' contributions that will either help you along or even give you exactly what you need.

To you last point specificly I'd say there isn't any problem using either TinyMCE or any Ajax library. I'm using TinyMCE a lot and after having tried MooTools and jQuery I've settled for Prototype/Script.aculo.us for any Ajax/JS stuff I need (not directly a recommendation, I just liked these better - you'll find many fans of the other 2 here as well). I had to learn a lot when working with these libraries, and CI made my life easier - and I believe that's the bottom line of a good toolbox.

[eluser]Knitter[/eluser]
Maybe you see it as a strange question, I would like to see it as a discussion involving a given example and the use of CI in it . Maybe the question is more a rhetorical one, and I also see CI as a tool but I have found that, sometimes, tools get in the way.

What I wanted to know is if, as a framework, CI doesn't place any restrictions on what I want to achieve. I don't expect it to have a gallery plug-in or a news plug-in, or even an RSS system that magically creates the RSS feeds for my given scenario. In fact, all this is already implemented, without any framework, and what I'll do now is port it to the CI framework.

I think I'll just have to stop reading so much about so many frameworks and just get into CI

[eluser]Jelmer[/eluser]

I think I’ll just have to stop reading so much about so many frameworks and just get into CI

That's probably the best way to get a sense of it ;-) But the way I was convinced was by reading the User Guide, that's a good place to get a sense of what CI offers.

BTW, I just started to implent SimplePie for RSS reading as a library simply by putting it into the application/libraries directory - and it seems to work very well.

[eluser]Knitter[/eluser]
[quote author="Jelmer" date="1225160995"]
But the way I was convinced was by reading the User Guide, that's a good place to get a sense of what CI offers.[/quote]

That's where I've been spending the all afternoon, well between my WoW breaks