EE templates, how far can you customize the outlook, what can or can't be done with

[_Mario]

Hi all,

I hope you don't find this to be a negative critic but an opinion how I things are.

I discovered EE around 2 years ago, I installed 1.22 it worked fine, but didn't suit my demands yet, since I had to update my web galleries on the road so I when for static jAlbum application, and downloaded the galleries from Internet cafes, libraries and son on. After coming back from my year trip around Australia I have visited from time to time this websiite to see how EE was doing. I must say I thought the development was dead. Well today found there is a 1.5 R4 with, and my eyes kept wide opened when I read this four words: EXIF and IPTC support !!!

Bloody hell Pekka...you really surprised me!

I always saw a great potential in EE but a lack of continuity in the development and upgrades, no speaking about the little support 2 I foud here years ago, thinks may have changed a bit now. Actually I see much worst products than EE but with greater success and I find it is a pitty.

Recently there is a product which start to comes close to EE and will soon also support IPTC and EXIF and actually has a similar name (Expression Engine www.pmachine.com)
it is a CMS with a Photo Gallery Modul, also made using PHP and MySQL.

Another great think is a plugin for MT called Photon and a guy from www.stopdesign.com was able to create this amazing web gallery design with a combination of iphoto and photon:

http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2005/01/17/

http://dbowman.com/photos/nz04/

So now my questions:

1. Can such a design be made using EE? for instance some IPTC and EXIF info appearing on the left side of the picture and title and IPTC caption appearing on the right side. In that way the picture appears higher on the screen and things are a little clearer. At least for me.

1. Pekka, IMHO your main home page could, let's say, bit a little friendlier, clearer. I find your Exhibit Engine is in some ways mentioned but is not shown clearly. I think you could really do a nicer, clearer main home page, where you really show in a clearer way what you offer. Just an idea. Maybe you don't give yourself the real value of what you are doing, Exhibit Engine is a far better product as what you may think. Give it a appropiate value announcing it, you could really design a nice home page where visitors really find what you offer. Even in the forum the EE appears really down on the page.

2. now, how far can EE be customized? are there more designed templates, where can they be found? Can other people do other templates? how can people support you?
This is the lack i find here. Other products which I repeat are worst, get more people involved in the development, whitout the main programer loosing control on it, he gets wider help and support.

Yes I know this sounds as a bad critic, but actually it's just a small crying out, meaning, I love this product, I wish there were more involvement and develpment, templates, documentation, expansion modules.....

Sorry just small opinion..and if I said something stupied due to my ignorance I apologize in advance...

Mario

http://livemyadventure.com

[jgrove]

Hi all,

Recently there is a product which start to comes close to EE and will soon also support IPTC and EXIF and actually has a similar name (Expression Engine www.pmachine.com)



I took a look at this, and from what i can see it offers no shopping cart or even support for one. This is one of Exibt Engines best features.

Please correct me if i am wrong!

[Pekka]

1. Can such a design be made using EE? for instance some IPTC and EXIF info appearing on the left side of the picture and title and IPTC caption appearing on the right side. In that way the picture appears higher on the screen and things are a little clearer. At least for me.

(and)

2. now, how far can EE be customized? are there more designed templates, where can they be found? Can other people do other templates? how can people support you?
This is the lack i find here. Other products which I repeat are worst, get more people involved in the development, whitout the main programer loosing control on it, he gets wider help and support.



Yes, the layout you describe is possible.

EE works with template system which in turn works with simple PHP variables (or php code if you like) which is inserted to layout code for each page. Layout code is usually html. At the moment EE 1.5RC4 has quite many of those page element variables, next version has lot more which means more detailed page elements to choose from for the template. I am working on removing all the rest html from page element variables so it is easier to design e.g. CSS-powered page layouts.

The page element variables can be freely placed in template, they can be omitted and used conditionally, so theoretically any page design layout is possible.

1. Pekka, IMHO your main home page could, let's say, bit a little friendlier, clearer. I find your Exhibit Engine is in some ways mentioned but is not shown clearly. I think you could really do a nicer, clearer main home page, where you really show in a clearer way what you offer. Just an idea. Maybe you don't give yourself the real value of what you are doing, Exhibit Engine is a far better product as what you may think. Give it a appropiate value announcing it, you could really design a nice home page where visitors really find what you offer. Even in the forum the EE appears really down on the page.

I agree totally. My time has been limited to think about "selling" EE - I just working hard to get the next version out - then I can concentrate on web page and PR stuff.

Yes I know this sounds as a bad critic, but actually it's just a small crying out, meaning, I love this product, I wish there were more involvement and develpment, templates, documentation, expansion modules.....

I agree with you that those aspects are not documented. Especially templates will have a full documentation soon. After that template repository will sure get some cool user entries.

EE users have helped with translation files and I get a lot of help in form of reports and suggestions.

[EricKonieczny]

I always saw a great potential in EE but a lack of continuity in the development and upgrades, no speaking about the little support 2 I foud here years ago, thinks may have changed a bit now. Actually I see much worst products than EE but with greater success and I find it is a pitty.

Recently there is a product which start to comes close to EE and will soon also support IPTC and EXIF and actually has a similar name (Expression Engine www.pmachine.com (http://www.pmachine.com))
it is a CMS with a Photo Gallery Modul, also made using PHP and MySQL.




Can you show us a few sites that are using the Expression Engine as a Photo gallery generator. Because from what I have looked at, it doesn't even come close to EE.

Maybe I am not looking at sites that are utilizing the full capabilities of Expression Engine, but so far not impressed.:rolleyes:

[Pekka]

Expression Engine is a blog/www publishing system which has a gallery module. Exhibit Engine is a fully featured photo gallery database application. You should decide which you need more (check the price, too).

I can add a blog system to EE if you need that :)

PS. by design viewpoint to me Expression Engine gallery looks like Microsoft when Exhibit Engine looks like Apple :)

[UncleDoug]

Pekka,

Stick to the gallery aspects... :o)
You have a solid/awesome gallery web app. that takes enormous ammounts of time to code.
Bloggs/Forums can be added to a site with little to no problems via other web apps. PHPBB, etc....

I'm playing with the MAMBO/EE wrapping thing as I type.
Should have the basics up by tomorrow and will post a link.

Happy coding!

-Doug

[iceman]

I have simply added EE to my Mambo site by using the Wrapper Module already available in Mambo. Although I haven't done any custom changes to the php, the two programs seem to work togather quit nicely.

http://www.northernimages.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=35

Iceman;)

[Oceanwatcher]

I can add a blog system to EE if you need that :)

Please do not do that. It makes a lot more sense to make a bridge to Mambo. This way, you get "free" advertising. Mambo lacks a serious galleryaddon, so EE has the potential to sweep the market. There are a few lightweight galleries today, but none that has the power of EE.

But Mambo is very big, and just thinking about the number of people that would suddenly get to know EE, it would make sense to do a bridge.

What is a bridge? A bridge is something that let EE exchange userinfo with Mambo and vice versa. So if you log into one, you are logged into both. Then you can wrap EE into Mambo. Not the best solution, but it could work ok.

Would of course be nice to have same style/templates for both. And CSS is the only way to go.

[iceman]

Great Idea, I don't have a clue how to do it, but great idea.

[Jussuff]

Pekka, go the MAMBO way and EE will wipe away anything else which is on the gallery market for this application!

J.

[neil_r]

I have simply added EE to my Mambo site by using the Wrapper Module already available in Mambo. Although I haven't done any custom changes to the php, the two programs seem to work togather quit nicely.

http://www.northernimages.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=35

Iceman;)

That is looking good. What Mambo template are you using?

Cheers

N

[iceman]

rhuk_planetfall ----- one of the standard templates thst it came with.

regards

[_Mario]

Variaty is good for everybody, so anyone can choose what he likes best. I think eE shouldn't marry to any CMS system. Synce it is relative easy to use together with any of them. Mambo as big as it may seem although some of their templates look great, IMHO is by far not as flexible as Expression Engine, which by the way is also known as EE. But let's not talk about religion :) since there are so many CMS systems out there that you cold keep talking about this forever.

Yes it's true, the Gallery Modul included in Expression Engine may not seem as powerful as Exhibit Engine, since right now it does not support EXIF , IPTC or shopping cart but they are working in supporting it. They are also working in making the Weblog Modul and the Gallery Modul to work together. By the way, I saw a workaround to make a shopping chart with the Gallery Modul and looks great.

There is no question, right of the box, galleries created with Exhibit look great but I must say a system is as powerfool as it's flexibility to adapt to different demands.

Pekka, I'm really looking forward to see how you implement all those wonderful things you are working on right now, by the way, I liked your comparation of designs using Windows and Apple, I think the same way :)

I made the same question to the guys of Expression Engine and it seems the possibilities of their Modul Gallery must be quite flexible as well. But I must try all this stuff by myself and make an opinion on my own experience.

I'm happy I didn't get stoned for my critical intrussion in your peaceful forum :)

Cheers
Mario

[UncleDoug]

That "Bridge" would be the "Key" to open a whole new reality.

Pekka, you would change everything!!!!..... :-)

-Doug

[UncleDoug]

If anyone's interested.....
You can "watch" my integration of Mambo and EE as I get our site together.

http://www.hmitahoe.com

Basic as all heck right now.

The premise/guts of the combination is Mambo is hosted on our main site while the EE's(3 of them) are hosted on another.
The EE's are wrapped into Mambo under 3 headings;
Portfolio - needs no explanation
Client Gallery - Password protected gallery for client images
Prints & Stock - Images for sale.

Have not tried the EECommerce in this configuration.
I'll let you know what happens later this week.

-Doug

[Oceanwatcher]

Uncle I took a look. I have been toying with mambo too. I think mambo is kind of cluttered and too much on 1 screen. less is more. That's what I am aiming for. I think if you are going to use EE this way, maybe have it fill a full screen, then go back to mambo. Just a thought, as that is what I am doing.

WarrenO

I have set up a few sites with Mambo now, and the first thing I always do is reduce the things displayed. Mambo is just what you make it. Not more and not less cluttered than anything else. But totally up to yourself how cluttered you want it.

Right now I am working on a site about one particular country and I hope that there will be a Mambobridge in the near future for EE and that EE will allow multiple photographers to upload their pictures into galleries as they can with Coppermine. I much prefer EE over Coppermine.

The two integrationareas would be users and design. Users will probably be easier. Designtemplates in Mambo can be done through CSS and it should be possible for EE to inherit the main design from Mambo. That would make a very consistent userexperience and EE would gain a lot of new users.

[UncleDoug]

Taking my needs and the comments here and elsewhere, I've changed the mambo template and cleaned things up a bit.
Still work to do but.......

[UncleDoug]

Cleaned things up even more......
Nee to finish some image color changes in the EE.

[neil_r]

Cleaned things up even more......
Nee to finish some image color changes in the EE.

Starting to look fabulous, when are you going to share the template :D :D

N

[UncleDoug]

The look is based on the template...

"akoautumnfog_451"
You can get the base template from

And I have been modifying the Darker 1 style in EE.

Most of the changes are to CSS files.

I can post the Mambo template with mods. and the EE style if you wish..

Still alot to do!

-Doug

[Pekka]

The look is based on the template...

"akoautumnfog_451"
You can get the base template from

And I have been modifying the Darker 1 style in EE.

Most of the changes are to CSS files.

I can post the Mambo template with mods. and the EE style if you wish..

Still alot to do!

-Doug

If you could make notes what changes are where was needed in CSS (or anywhere else) then it is possible that I can make few switches to make styles more Mambo compatible directly in style editor, without a need to edit any files manually.

[UncleDoug]

Pekka,

No problem.

I'll be working on things quite a bit over the weekend and will go back over things a bit, take notes and send them to you Sunday or Monday.

Cheers & keep up the great work!

-Doug

[neil_r]

Pekka - UncleDoug.... you guys are wonderful :)


N

[Oceanwatcher]

I am really looking forward to this as it makes it easier to integrate the two programs.

One more thing..

Somewhere it should be able to tell EE that it is running in a frame under Mambo, because there are a few links generated by EE to link directly to a picture. In those links, it would be nice to have the link inkluding the Mamboinformation. I do not know if that is possible, but it would sure be nice....

[Oceanwatcher]

Taking my needs and the comments here and elsewhere, I've changed the mambo template and cleaned things up a bit.
Still work to do but.......

One more thing to clean up - The image on the contact page. It still shows the Mambo logo. This one you could change for a picture of your office, yourself or your logo :-)

I like what you have done with the template. It works very well. Now I hope that someone can write a good bridge to really bring the two together.

Maybe your site can be the advertising some programmer need to get it done. As soon as it is done, I will put out a request for a bridge and refer to your site if that is ok?

[UncleDoug]

One more thing to clean up - The image on the contact page. It still shows the Mambo logo. This one you could change for a picture of your office, yourself or your logo :-)

I like what you have done with the template. It works very well. Now I hope that someone can write a good bridge to really bring the two together.

Maybe your site can be the advertising some programmer need to get it done. As soon as it is done, I will put out a request for a bridge and refer to your site if that is ok?


No problem.

I'll post to this forum when I get things a bit more in-line.

Cold shooting this morning! Had to re-type the previous line 6 times.

-Doug

[UncleDoug]

Been working on things a bit and feel I have things fairly well set.
Still need to tweak styles a tad, but getting there.
I've been commenting lines that I've tweaked in both the EE and Mambo styles to guide anyone who wants to jump off the same cliff as I.
Still want to go over things a bit before I send this off to any interested parties.

Also....

Been working on Mambo component/module modifications needed for some Mambo-EE interaction. This will take time though.

More to come..... :lol:

[iceman]

Looking forward to trying your bridge, thanks for the work.