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This is a on-going series of entries where I highlight EE experiences.
Finally digging into ExpressionEngine 2.0 and the new admin interface is a dream compared to the old one imo.
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Posted on Dec 22, 2009 by Ryan Irelan
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Mike — 04:33 on 12.22.2009
I’m not a EE pro by any means so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I’ve built one site using 1.6.8, and my current blog using 2.0. I still think the admin interface is not as user friendly for the client as it could/should be. They are still overwhelmed with options. The master admin should be able to turn off any menu option that they don’t want the client to touch. I don’t want my client touching the templates, so I should be able to remove any mention of that in the admin section.
This might be an option I missed, or maybe there is a plugin. With all that said, I love EE!
Ryan Irelan — 04:48 on 12.22.2009
Thanks for the comment, Mike. You can control what the non-admin users sees using member groups and custom tabs. Maybe that’ll get you what you’re looking for?
Mike — 05:04 on 12.22.2009
Yes, looks like it! I figured there would probably be a way, and my comment would make me look like an idiot, haha.
David Millsaps — 07:21 on 12.22.2009
Eh like you said on the podcast Ryan, 2.0 is a bunch of wasted space and the information design is just weak. Verlee has a nice decorative quality to her graphic design but we needed an information designer on this one.
Ryan Irelan — 07:26 on 12.22.2009
David, I don’t think I phrased quite like that.
There are nice things about the new control panel. I just think the 1.6.x CP is more flexible in terms of browser window size.
David Harper — 10:18 on 12.22.2009
As a site owner, i don’t care about the admin interface. (I definitely don’t care about frilly designs. IA def more important than design, as David says)
My question is: what can EE 2.0 do for my site (compared to the alternative like WP as CMS, drupal and joomla). The alternatives seems to be in relatively constant innovations, while little has changed for us end users in ~ 2 years.
I get that the close-knit family of EE designers is all gaga, but outside of that inwardly-focused world, EE 2.0 doesn’t seem to be winning any raves from a business use case perspective.
Mike — 10:35 on 12.22.2009
David, I’ve tried a few CMS’s Wordpress, Texpattern, DotNetNuke(dear lord never again!). None of them worked like I thought they should work or clicked with me like EE did. You don’t have to mess with PHP “hacks”. The EE code syntax is easy to understand. I can build my whole site template out of EE in my favorite coding program and then just import it in and add the appropriate EE tags. I’m more of a designer that knows xhtml/css. I don’t know much PHP and it doesn’t matter with EE. That’s why its so popular with web designers, not just web developerts.
Paying for a CMS when there are good free ones was tough for me, I’m pretty frugal. But you can get instant support, which I receive every time I’ve ever had a problem or question. And plugins are of much higher quality. I used to post on Wordpress forums and get zero replies. I would look for a Wordpress plugin only to find it has bugs and the author has stopped supporting it because it was too much work.
As of now, EE 2.0 is almost identical to 1.6.8. But because of internal changes, it should open up a lot of possibilities for plugins in the future.
In the end I think its whatever works the best for you.
David Harper — 12:52 on 12.22.2009
Mike - Thanks. In regard to free versus license cost, I am total agreement with you: $300 in the context of total cost (i.e., design + developer talent) is a rounding error. IMO, the value of having access to Ellislab folks and the comfort of knowing you can find support is worth more than $300.
I think the key is what you said: “As of now, EE 2.0 is almost identical to 1.6.8. But because of internal changes, it should open up a lot of possibilities for plugins in the future.” ... because, there has been arguably quite a long period of time then (~ 2 years) without significant “external” feature/functionality innovation. For example, the forum/wiki/commerce, all of which I depend on, are not inherently competitive from a feature standpoint. So, as a user, I am quite hungry for these future possibilities to which you refer