What Kills You About Designing for ExpressionEngine?
PSDs, PNGs, HTML, CSS, DIVs, in-line, attached – there are all sorts of things to remember when designing a website. Take all of that, then you throw ExpressionEngine in the mix and for many, you now have what seemed like a simple project that has turned into a blank stare.
Fear not, we’re here to help. What is it that frustrates you when you are designing for ExpressionEngine? What questions do you have that you can’t seem to find the answer to? ExpressionEngine is flat awesome, and we will help you see why.
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I don’t know that I’d say that it “kills” me, but one thing that keeps tripping me up is the default dynamic mode on the most common tags such as exp:weblog:entries.
The effects of dynamic mode—and the effects of setting dynamic="off"—are not well documented.
EE goes to some trouble to try to separate content and presentation, then defaults to dynamic mode where the URL not only selects the presentation—its main function—but also affects the selection of the content. But exactly how the URL affects selection of content is something that you pretty much have to figure out for yourself if it’s not doing what you wanted.
Yeah, dynamic mode can simplify your templates and in some cases can let you reuse one template for multiple purposes, but in my opinion it needs to be a lot better documented.
It occurs to me that I didn’t word that very well. The big problem is that the URL information is communicated behind the scenes to the content modules, rather than being supplied to the template and then communicated by the template to the modules. Exactly what is communicated and how it is used is not well documented. And what no longer works when using dynamic="off" is also not well documented.
I’m having a hard time figuring out how to change the theme for EE. I accidently placed a theme that I wanted in the wrong folder, so I wasn’t able to select it before installing EE. Now, I found the site_themes folder, but the changes that I make to the file don’t seem to effect the page.
What is the best way to edit or create themes for EE? I can’t find a very good ‘how to...’ on this. It is very frustrating.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Hi,
EE does not support the type of one-click theme changes that some other well-known blogging platforms support. This is not a bad thing really, but I can see how it may put off some newcomers, who are just having a play with EE for the first time. To switch to a new theme just create a new weblog and assign one of the themes you have previously uploaded to the that new weblog.
The trade off for one click themes is that it is difficult to create and test a new theme without having a separate install to do so. WP has only recently seen this problem addressed in an semi--intelligent manner.
I find that EE is actually easier to theme. It does not do it in one click, but I have never found a one click theme that does all I wanted. So, I have had to delve into the arcania of the template. With WP that means navigating PHP which I have neither the desire nor ability to do. With EE all I have to have is a rudimentary knowledge of HTML and CSS. Making a new template is easy enough and testing them does not disrupt my live site.
I am checking out some templates and will see if im convinced of them.
The fact of redesigning is what kills me more.
I’m thinking of trying EE. Let you know.
Most of my frustration has to do with the tempating, and more precisely how hard it is in EE to structure and maintain the templates.
By default all templates just repeat the whole page structure, and that makes redesigns a pain of synchronised cut-and-paste.
Yet if you start trying to split header, footer, menus etc. you suddenly have to make everything way more complicated if you want any small changes (such as a different title structure for SEO, or hide parts of the menu on single item pages).
This ends up being so time consuming!
I have a person doing it so is not a big deal for me!!
What you are struggling with is how to design an ExpressionEngine Architecture, or EEA. That moment of frustration is what this hour-long screencast was designed to get you through.
I am in love with your quality articles! I wish I had time and patience to make my blog like yours. Thanks for the informative information you share. Bookmarked your blog.
I was having difficulity in changing the theme of EE.But i think i have already got it answered here.Thanks.
It a good thing you’re all here to help, I’m going to start one of my own. Thanks, Ill keep myself updated with all your post. Thanks!
Thank you so much for posting this! I going to get right on it!
Amazing stuff..Thanks a ton for putting this out.
Another top notch post from your site. Keep up the fine work.!
Top grade stuff there..Thanks a lot for sharing this.!
Good post.
Thanks for sharing.
