[eluser]einsteinity[/eluser]
i'm also new to CI, but that's not what i meant.
i meant if you cannot find what you need in CI, you can extends the framework or code the php code from scratch directly without extending the framework. extending the framework is the most preferred options. Personally until now i still have not really understand about extending the framework, so for my personal project which only run in localhost, i code it from scratch too if i need something that i don't understand how to use or create with codeigniter. and it works fine without problem.
that's only my opinion.