CodeIgniter 4

Hope you get some good answers on this topic.

I’ve been away from EE for a long time – so long I didn’t realize they’d made it Open Source. I’ve really missed working with EE, and now, with a new project in the works, I’m seriously considering coming back.

I prefer EE’s simplicity over some of it’s direct competitors.

But I’m concerned about EE’s longevity (and the dead vacuum I’m sensing in the developer community).

A roadmap would help lessen the abandonware vibes I’m feeling.

I feel pretty dumb now… I just discovered the EE Blog.

Not a Roadmap, per se. But some interesting (and satisfyingly recent) teasers about EE6:

https://expressionengine.com/blog/expressionengine-february-update

No way I’d be qualified to offer code contributions to this project, but I certainly don’t want it to disappear! To that end, EE Pro sounds cool.

Thanks for that blog post link. EE 6? I think they are moving too fast.

I remember entire books written about EE 2 and even 3. Personally, I think its hurting software projects that bump releases this fast. Someone buying a book or looking a video tutorial might find it is for a very old version. It also causes anxiety for people using the software. For enterprise or commercial usage, they like long stable versions. I would rather have a new major EE versions every 5 years only and only minor releases between that.

I’m still on 3 and can’t update because some modules only work until that version. Again, releasing major versions this fast has caused more damage than good to EE. I think most hard code users are still on 2.

As for EE Pro, I’m wondering what will happen to people that purchased a license like me in the past. Do we get upgraded to Pro? Do we get a discount? Do we need to pay again?

I wish PRO is not just some bloated version with useless features. I also love EE, for years now I have found some similar products but none took the market like EE did.

The things that pushes me towards EE is the freedom to code in any way you want. As opposed to any other CMS or framework, with Expression Engine you create templates and code the way you want without being forced into specific nomenclatures. This allows for an impressive amount of customization and flexibility. The other things that made me use EE is security. It still has a good record in terms of security and does not let people create insecure sites by automatically checking URL inputs, adding tokens in forms, and other things.

I have to admit I don’t personally use the admin that much. For me, it is about what you can code with EE and using any IDE or coding style you like. That and it also was the only CMS that had decent commercial modules. Sadly I can’t say that anymore as it seems the developer community has left EE for other things.

As for the core. I’m not entirely sure if it is a smart thing to create their own framework. Again, this could hurt them more than help them because people are not willing to learn yet another framework…. I have great hopes for CodeIgniter 4. I think many projects are going to be build around it and while it’s not Laravel, maybe EE can be that for CodeIgniter. Bring all the features for commercial development into an existing framework that is tested and constantly developed. CodeIgniter will always stay out of the way because its focus is to be a small, fast and secure framework on which others build products on top.

Having a well documented and tested core, also means a broader range of developers creating modules and other stuff. In the end, the real incentive for EE developers should be attracting a bigger audience. Just like Red Hat makes no money with CentOS but they make from Red Hat products. If EE wants to be a commercial solution, selling a nicer version with some extra features or profiting from support, they need to have people using the software. Ellis Lab did some horrible damage to the product. EE had one of the best communities in the world, high quality, same was true for modules and add-ons. All that is gone and I hope they can start developing that ecosystem again.

I have some hope. They re-opened this forum under the expression engine domain and I’m starting to slowly see some more activity here. They also launched EE as fully open source which is also the direct approach to getting people on board again.

They also opened a new store for modules and addons. Now, they need to get developers on board again.

>Thanks for that blog post link. EE 6? I think they are moving too fast.

>I would rather have a new major EE versions every 5 years only and only minor releases between that.

>That and it also was the only CMS that had decent commercial modules. Sadly I can’t say that anymore as it seems the developer community has left EE for other things.

I admit I don’t know what they have planned for EE 6. But I agree with you in principle. I still haven’t tried EE 5, because I’ve been nervous EE was about to disappear… and I didn’t want to waste time on a dead platform… OR… to get half-way into a project and discover there’s no plugin to accomplish a mission-critical task.

The promise of EE 6 helps alleviate some of those fears, but only a little bit, because ExpressionEngine cannot survive long-term without a thriving user community and robust plugin library. Period.

To revitalize/rebuild the user base, I think EE needs to figure out where they fit in the the marketplace, and where they want to dominate. They need to answer the fundamental question… “Who is our target customer?”

Is the target customer a Solo Coder? Or a newbie Website Wannabe? Or an Enterprise Agency? Once they have that answer, they must focus all their attention on satisfying that one user group.

Frankly, I don’t think there are enough Solo Coders left to keep it alive long term on their own. Most Solo Coders already have a preferred platform, and those who don’t are splintered into too many hipster fragments now with all the JS frameworks, headless CMSs, and whatever other faddy fad that’s popular in Q1 2020.

Enterprise Agencies? I don’t know that market at all. But I assume it’s already pretty full.

As for Website Wannabes… I think that’s the only viable battlefield for EE. While Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal dominate, those platforms (along with several other new up-and-comers) all have weaknesses, and I think EE could easily position themselves as “The Definitive, Once-And-For-All Wordpress Killer”, etc.

But to do that…

• EE needs to be drop-dead-simple for first-timers.
• It needs to demonstrate how it solves newbies’ problems better/faster then the competition.
• It needs to have a huge, robust, easily-searchable collection of accessible plugins that are intuitive and relatively inexpensive.
• Perhaps even Plugin Bundles that can instantly turn EE Core into a Social Media Sharing platform… Think Bimber Theme. (That’s the false-magic of WP. Even an idiot and install a theme and believe they’ve become SuperCoder, Master of Websites. EE needs some of it’s own WOW Moments for newbies.)
• …and EE needs to have a happy, friendly support forum and crystal-clear documentation so people have a single, centralized place to get all those pesky “How Do I” answers.

So yes, NIBB. I agree with you in principle. I think EE needs to spend the bulk of their time in two areas… (1) Providing/restoring plugin functionality and (2) Market outreach/positioning. …And perhaps less time on v6, v7, v8, etc. Call it EE Quantum and be done with it… then focus on plugin functionalities, accessibility, and marketing.

But all of that comes from a Marketer, not a coder. So take it with a grain of salt.