Gexla.com

It rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs...

Posted 2008-02-17 11:43 PM

Rolls over your neighbors dog!  It’s blog, blog, blog!

Here it is folks, what everyone in this audience of two (assuming the dog counts, because he is my best friend looking after my best interests.) After weeks of working on a custom CMS for my blog I am finally finished!

The CMS has been built using the CodeIgniter framework from Ellislab.  The front-end is using the YUI CSS framework and the back-end is using the Blueprint CSS framework.  Soon the back-end will be stocked to the gills with goodies tools from the ExtJS Javascript framework.  If you have not got the hint yet, much of the reason for building this system in the first place was for experimentation and getting exposure to new skills.  Unfortunately one of those skills is not design.  I am using a a modified Scribblish template and it works for now.

For those who know me (my pretend audience) I know which questions you have on your mind.  Why CodeIgniter?  You are an ExpressionEngine guru right?  Why not ExpressionEngine?  I have been working every day for about the past year and a half or more in ExpressionEngine.  I have no reason to doubt that I will be working in ExpressionEngine every day for the coming year as well.  As already mentioned, much of the reason for building a new CMS was to beef up my capabilities as a developer.  There is no better way to understand a CMS than by building one yourself. 

But there are other reasons.  CodeIgniter is a great framework which fills a need.  Many of the great applications I use every day violate the ExpressionEngine license.  These sites are also not a market for which ExpressionEngine is targeted for.  A development team looking to build the next Twitter or Facebook (as if we need another one) is probably not looking at ExpressionEngine as a basis for their project.  Where ExpressionEngine makes little sense, CodeIgniter just might be perfect.

I will likely also be using the system as a jumping point for other projects of my own interest.  Creating a database driven system is much easier when you have bits and pieces you can steal from another working system.  I suppose this is sort of like a framework upon a framework.  Like a potatoe, it’s all about the layers.  Or is that a beet?  Celery?

Oh, and please don’t try too hard to break my little app.  If you see any bugs, please report them with the contact form.  Thanks and check back often as I will be posting ExpressionEngine tips and help when I get the chance to post.  Lastly, click on the title of this post to leave a comment!

---