All those that give up using elgg, use this thread and state your reasons,... Ill begin:-
My Reason: After having found 1 small thing i wanted change, after days of looking, Im now spending more time looking for another small thing to change. These changes are basic changes to the theme. So its gotten me really frustrated. I know its do-able, but i also know it takes a huge amount of time, looking into tens of css and php files figuring out which file i need to chagne to get what.
Until Elgg, sorts out themeing and stops making code more and more complicated i wont be using it.
my conclusion: Elgg will get no-where if it thinks by making the code more and more complex the product becomes some how more and more powerful to all us users. I think its being to smart for its own good and getting no where. It really needs to make themeing the prime priority, because its the designers that are the users of elgg really. the designers made wordpress a success becuase of its easy themeing.
anyway, its a great product and I really want to carry on using it, buts its just too time consuming for basic things.
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ever think about contributing to the project to help make it "better"? Just a thought.
Elgg is like a piano
You can play beethoven on it
or you can play Jerry lee lewis
or you can play the spice girls
but you have to learn to play
sorry gota go and knock out a few bars
I would suggest your inability is more down to you than to ELGG.
Why not do what everyone else does and look though the available themes for what you want to do and then find out what the differences are to the basic theme and take it from there?
Sirwan..
Yes, it is very frustrating if you don't understand how this script is structured and how all those files tie in together.. but why not take time out and straight into the screen stirring at those files and see how they're interlinked.. that might give you an idea on how to deal with things. Trust me, once you've got the basic understanding of how it is structured, the answers are all there infront of you.
Also, if you are abandoning elgg because is too complex, that's cool, but take my advice.. don't think that other scripts will be far easier.. But sure, why not have a taste of every dish!
Final thing @Malaga_Jack.. I never thought I'd ever see the words 'Beethoven' and 'Spice Girls' in the one sentence.. lol.
OK
Sirwan.. I've been holding back my comments.
I gave you a lot of my time to explain what code to look at and study through.. about 1 hour++
Jed is too modest in his comments. I remember when he used to post things like you and was frustrated with some problems with his customised header. I noticed that no-one was giving answers.. so I looked at his code using view-source, looked up the relevant css attributes and wrote the code needed to do the fix.
And not long after that HE started The Idiot's Guide to Elgg to help other people out. And I can see just how far and how knowledgable he has become working with Elgg.
From chatting with you.. I am sure that you have more programming knowledge than he had when he started. And yet Jed is doing a great job with his site.
Some of us actually can make a small change quickly with Elgg.. but that is because we have spenty many hours studying Elgg code and trying to understand the Elgg OOP MVC way of developing code and themes.
There *are no limits to what can be with Elgg except the ones *you put upon yourself..
You quote WordPress, etc.. I worked with WordPress, Joomla, Xoops, Dolphin, etc etc ad nauseum before I fell for Elgg ;-)
You give up so easily... ?
I knew some would go on the defensive mode.
a) the documentation is to hard to read, i cant see any docs that help me see what files interlink besides it takes far too much time.
b) I need a theme that fills the screen, a fluid theme, not a fixed in the middle theme.
edit: i think i just dont have the time, i just finished my Architecture degree and have been thinking about what career to go into, i needed elgg to be much faster in development to make a decision. i think ill come back to it one day but someone needs to Write a BOOK, in depth.
Sirwan,
I was having the EXACT same complaints as you. DON'T BELIEVE ME? Check my profile and look at my wire post. I agree, changing the theme shouldn't be this hard to do, PERIOD.
But you have to decide which is better. Spending hours on things and still not getting where you want to be or paying someone who can do it for you. I'm choosing to do the later. I am going to pay chambo67 to do my theme and some other things.
If you just want to play around with this software, then cool. But if you want to create a social networking site and get it up and running, you must prioritize things. Either spend the time to learn how to do things or pay someone and move on! Do what you can and pay someone to do what you can't!!!!!!!!
Oh, and just in case anyone thinks I created that statement, I didn't. I heard it from Bill Gates!
@SoulZ
You're doing the right thing for your situation and your needs .. ;-O
Good Luck with you ventures...
@ Sirwan, just remember one thing that is the same for all parts of life;
"Rome Wasn't Built In A Day"
As Soulz mentions, mix (your own coding time) and match (Paying for a coder with more experience in the part you can't grasp) that's what a fair few of us have to do when we come up against sticking points.
I've only been an Elgg user for under a month and whilst there is still SOOOO much for me to learn, pushing my boundaries and comfort zone; I am slowly doing so with a desire to see this platform can deliver what my site needs in the end.
Don't pressure yourself in to wanting it all done yesterday, as that will only hasten your own impatience and more often than not when that happens, people miss out on the best things in life. ;)
Whatever route you decide to take, I wish you well.
P.S. It's not about being defensive, it's about being factual :p
@Sirwan.. talking for myself, I was not going on the defensive, I was just trying to be factual.. for marketing reasons, all software distributors will always tell you that you can use their code and you're in business in minutes.. we all know that is not always true.. The fact is no matter what piece of code you work with, it takes time to dress up.. I am sorry that you are having such a hard time, and I know that you would love to use elgg because you like it.. but at the same time, this is just one of those things that only time can deal with. I would take what those other guys are saying seriously as they have been doing it for some time and Dhrup over there knows the script like the back of his hand, so, he wouldn't be making up bullshit.
@Soulz.. money for peace of mind?? sounds like a good deal to me.. and yes, it is the right thing to do... (Note: you should tell Bill Gates to put his money where his mouth is and get a hair stylist..LOL).
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