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Initial Expanse Review
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Alright, I bought a copy of Expanse to run on my test server. I have some comments (yes, I’ll post to the forum as well…). These pertain to using Expanse as a general CMS for a client site, and may not apply to using it for it’s apparent intended purpose (by artists, for artists).
First off, I may be old-fashioned, but I like the control that I have over a system like wordpress. I like the options that it offers me in the admin menu. Not too many, not too few. Expanse seems to offer too few. It’s a little frightening. It reminds me, however, of the first time I used a mac after being a windows and unix person my whole life. Now I love the mac interface above any other GUI currently on the market. Thing is, I use Terminal daily, and really like to be under the hood.
Second, there doesn’t seem to be a plugin architecture yet. I could be missing something, but at this point it just doesn’t seem to be there, which leads me to concerns about meeting specific client needs.
The editing and post ordering interface is great; simple and easy to use. That’s something any client would appreciate. Adding pages is a breeze, assuming your developer has set up appropriate templates for that page type.
The templating system is complete and simple. I’m impressed with it. I’m very disappointed with the entire system’s performance in Opera, however. Even the default template doesn’t load correctly in Opera 9. I can understand having some bugs in the back end, but the front end should be cross-browser. It does use nice, semantic code and the presentation layer is completely separated from the code, which I love.
One thing that’s bugging me is I can’t figure out how to change the order of my pages in the menu. There are no drag and drop features for doing this that I can find, even though changing the order of entries and articles is as simple as clicking one link and dragging and dropping them into place. Overall, the AJAX implementation is nice but not overwhelming. In the sense that it doesn’t feel unneccessary, I mean. I would love to see the full functionality of ZenPhoto integrated into the gallery section, but it’s the first CMS I’ve seen with a built in gallery section at all!
I see a lot of promise here, and as the community of users grows, so hopefully will the plugin base and available themes. Opera compatibility can be frustrating, but really should be a development priority. It’s my opinion that a web app should be cross-browser. Period. Only Microsoft is allowed to make proprietary code that only works in one browser. Wait, no they’re not.
This appears to be, at this point, a one-size-fits-all solution that may not be advanced enough to meet the needs of picky clients. It looks awesome for a personal site, and especially for artists sites. Regardless, I’m looking forward to what Expanse will bring to the CMS community!
Well, Aditi just got home from a dog-training session, so away goes the computer… ;-) 
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08.24.06 / 8pm
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08.25.06 / 6am
There must be a way to order the pages, I’ve seen the pages in non-default order on other demo sites. Maybe in the templating system?
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08.27.06 / 8am
[…] Second, my review of the Expanse CMS has generated a lot less interest than I thought it would. I’m going to try retagging it and perhaps expanding it and see if it does any better. Not because I need the page hits, but because I think people want to know but aren’t finding it in the blogosphere. I figure hey, I spent the money, and I kind of know what I’m doing, I really should be sharing with the community. Right? […]
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09.09.06 / 1am
Hi there Brett,
Thanks for the really fair and honest review of Expanse. I did want to address a few of your concerns, points, etc, and maybe explain why we made some of the choices we did, and some of the choices we’re going to make.
First, I know you were judging it not on it’s intended purpose, but for other uses, which is totally fair. However, we did design it for artists first, and while I know those who are more familiar with Wordpress probably find it a bit sparse, we’ve actually found that people who aren’t as programmatically inclined actually enjoy it.
We really subscribe to the idea that too many choices leads to confusion and frustration, very much akin to the 37signals philosophy of less is more.
We really try to get users to the most common and important areas first, and the more detailed stuff we place in the background.I think Wordpress does a great job of UI for an open source project, seeing that most open source projects jam every option and their mom on one page, with little to no organization.
However, having sat with many an average person and artist as they try to navigate Wordpress, they get incredibly overwhelmed by the number of options, and really don’t know where to start. I’ve seen the glazed over blank look far too many times, and I can feel their pain.
Second, about the lack of plugins. We’re actually currently working on that in two areas:
One is an actual plugin architecture similar to Wordpress’ (hooks, actions, and filters), but also custom module creation. Currently it is possible to create your own category module, but it’s as of yet undocumented, because it is going under a major overhaul (which will be released in version 1.2).
Also, it is currently possible to extend the power of your themes using a logic.php file inside of your templates folder. You can add variables, add loops, grab remote content, or pretty much anything you can do in a regular php file.About reordering menu items, there is not currently any way to do that, but if you have any thoughts on how you would LIKE to be able to order them, please let me know, and we’ll definitely look into developing it.
About the Opera issue.
We’ve seen this mentioned briefly before, but let me first say why we don’t really care about supporting it: no one uses it.
I do want to say, I love Opera. It’s speed and functionality is downright amazing. It has a LOT of great things about it, but a significant user base is not one of those things.
The other reason is that it seems to be a problem with Opera, and not with Expanse. What I mean is this:
If a website works in IE 6, Firefox PC, Firefox Mac, AND Safari, but breaks in Opera, which is a browser with about 2% market share, how much time should we spend trying to hack it to make it work?
I do believe in being cross browser, but I don’t believe in wasting resources going after a browser that breaks things when the other 98% of the browsers do work.
We will most likely look to add support for it, but it honestly is not a huge priority for us. And that’s not meant to be cavalier, but more just honest about where we’re going to devote our resources.About ZenPhoto’s features, are there any specifically you’d like us to integrate? We love to give customers what they’re looking for, and we’re anxious to get everyone’s input.
Thanks for the really awesome review, as well as the exposure. It means a lot to us.
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