The best approach and normal approach to build new site?

Author Message

Wei Dai

Friday 11 July 2008 3:47:54 am

Hi,
I have an interesting questions as a new user/developer of the eZ Publish.

I have already read certain material on eZ Publish. There are many information on how to customize the eZ Publish with the Webinterface to build a new site. However, my question is this: is the web interface suit for any kind of the CMS (assume we don't require an ezflow site)?

I knew the basic steps to build a new site: 1. Content modeling (define contend classes and create content objects) and site structuring (construct the shape of the node tree). 2. Design the site's look and feel. 3. Tire the design and the content together use the template language (integration).

Of course, above steps are not necessary following a restrict order; design and content modeling can be doing simultaneously. However, my dilemma is:

If I based on the webinterface, there are already have a set of template, and have content classes I may can take advantage of (e.g. the frontpage class), and there are seem more tutors and guide on this. But, I need to based on the exist CSS and html structure, firebug is good, but there are so many CSS ids and classes, some CSS classes maybe involve with the content class. Is the webinface design can be changed to anything only through alter the two css files and images of the site style?

If I start from scratch, the obvious disadvantage is that I need build very template and override rules/template from sratch, and know a new language, the template language. And advantage is that I have the flexibility and freedom to create the template markup.

What you guys usually do when start to build a new site?

P.S. I am actually a PHP dev, and use the template language seems odd to me. Are you all PHP devs? Are designer use the template language?(I always think that the designer should know the content structure when s/he start to design, am I right?).

Certified eZ Publish 4 developer looking for develop information & collaboration.

Piotrek Karaƛ

Saturday 12 July 2008 2:15:07 am

Hello Wei,

We hardly ever use complete website interface, and build our interfaces from scratch or some sort of general-use design/config base. Some of the reasons:
- website interface is indeed an interface - includes lots of logic and dedicated solutions, which do not match our needs or preferences in most cases (that includes fetches, caching layer, organization of templates).
- website interface is complex enough (as you noticed) to take some time to learn, which make sense only if you're keen to learn or find ezwebin useful for your purposes.
- website interface's design, because it is highly repeatable, is not acceptable for our customers.
- website interface's partial adaptation for a project makes future development of the project more expensive than with dedicated interface.

However, website interface is a good place to look for patterns, examples, generally learning for implementing your customized solutions, a good source of practices and conventions to follow.

--
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