Integrating community features like forum, wiki, user messaging, etc.

[eluser]taewoo[/eluser]
Hi everyone.
I am currently using CI 1.5.4 with FreakAuth Light 1.1.

I am working on including a couple of standard web features, including wiki, forums, user messaging, events, groups, etc. Nothing stupendously mind-blowing.

I did read the Wiki page on integrating Vanilla forum with FreakAuth and also asked about pre-written wiki plugin / module that I can potentially use... but nada.

It seems like what I'm trying to do is something (that I'm pretty certain) that some one must have done in the past. As much as I like CI and open source, I'm also lazy... plus why re-invent the wheel?

What do you guys use as far as getting this community stuff implemented in your sites? Any tips and pointers?

PS: To CI team - why don't you guys integrate Expression Engine with CI a little more easier? Or is there already a page dedicated to this? I wouldn't mind purchasing Expression Engine if I knew there was some sort of time saving benefit to it... (i.e. easy integration with CI and plenty of support and docs)

[eluser]Majd Taby[/eluser]
Well, what I've done with CodeExtinguisher is integrate messaging, validation, user authentication, CRUDs, form generation, navigation, templating together into one application. Though it comes with a bunch of other tools to make it into the glorious admin generator that it is, I usually find myself taking the libraries and sticking them into my system/libraries folder to use them globally.

[eluser]Grahack[/eluser]
[quote author="taewoo" date="1202734750"]Hi everyone.
I did read the Wiki page on integrating Vanilla forum with FreakAuth and also asked about pre-written wiki plugin / module that I can potentially use... but nada.
[/quote]
Nada? What do you mean? Could you detail please?

[eluser]Derek Allard[/eluser]

PS: To CI team - why don't you guys integrate Expression Engine with CI a little more easier? Or is there already a page dedicated to this? I wouldn't mind purchasing Expression Engine if I knew there was some sort of time saving benefit to it... (i.e. easy integration with CI and plenty of support and docs)

Hey taewoo.

I'm not sure what you're looking for specifically, but if you're unsure how EE would work, or if it would save you time, then allow me to take a moment to talk about some of the tools we have to help you make this determination. Since you specifically mention support and docs, I'll be sure to highlight these.

1) ExpressionEngine docs, including out of this world developer docs which even most CodeIgniter authors find helpful.
2) ExpressionEngine knowledgebase
3) Actually, rather then listing them all one by one, check out our support page.
4) Support. Oh my god support. The EE support is absolutely killer. I wrote about it once and since its short, here's most of it.

Now, imagine John and I, joined by 2 other support staff who are flipping unbelievable in their own right - Robin and Lisa. Now imagine that we're all paid. We're paid for the express job of sitting on the forums, waiting for questions and then answering them and improving the ExpressionEngine resources and community. Getting good?

Now imagine we're also joined by 2 active developers (Paul Burdick and Derek Jones), then by the vice-president Leslie Camacho (who is also highly technical), and then the Grand Poo-Ba and original author, Rick Ellis. Now imagine that a hosting company with their own team of support techs also has an active interest in participating in support. You picturing it?

Now imagine all that, and a community of people, who are passionate and engaged and active.

And THAT my friends, is how ExpressionEngine support works, and it is a scary thing to behold!

Frankly, the support is like nothing you've ever seen before, and I'll leave it at that.
5) Related, but I'm going to give it its own number. The support is unlimited and lasts for a lifetime.
6) There are at least 2 books, and probably several dozen websites geared towards how to use EE.
7) The videos
8) Try it yourself. Seriously. Try it. For free. Or for $10, get the hosted demo (we'll install it for you) and have full access to all resources and support. (did I mention how good that was?)

Derek

[eluser]Derek Jones[/eluser]
I'd like to add that with all of the individual components you are looking for, it would to me seem easier to add what you need into ExpressionEngine via it's extensible architecture (if there even are any non-standard features that you'd need) then it would be to try to coagulate a bunch of unrelated tools with CodeIgniter, or any PHP framework.

[eluser]taewoo[/eluser]
[quote author="Grahack" date="1202957597"][quote author="taewoo" date="1202734750"]Hi everyone.
I did read the Wiki page on integrating Vanilla forum with FreakAuth and also asked about pre-written wiki plugin / module that I can potentially use... but nada.
[/quote]
Nada? What do you mean? Could you detail please?[/quote]


Nada means "nothing" in spanish... i.e. I can't find anything

[eluser]Grahack[/eluser]
Ok, I understand now. Could you just explain why you couldn't use Vanilla? Was it a technical problem, or maybe you don't like Vanilla?
Thanks.

[eluser]taewoo[/eluser]
Yeah. Vanilla sucks. For me anyway.