To ExpressionEngine and back again…
I’ve been toying with the idea of moving my site over to ExpressionEngine for quite some time and last week I actually started to do so. The first thing I did was purchase a Freelance license which was the most suitable option for me and conveniently the most affordable also.
In the past I have played with ExpressionEngine Core (the stripped down free version) and eventually experienced the infamous light bulb moment. Soon after this ExpressionEngine 2 was released. I thought things could only get better.
So, I purchased my license, installed the files and began to build my site. Obviously the first thing I wanted to do was import all of my blog entries from WordPress. I knew from experience that they had to be converted to Movable Type format first.
I went to import my newly converted entries and couldn’t find any way of doing this, so naturally I googled the solution, only to discover that EE 2 currently has no import facilities. It was suggested to me that the best way to do this was to install EE 1.6x, import my entries and then upgrade.
Since I had only purchased a freelancer license I didn’t have access to EE 1.6x other than the Core version so I installed that, imported my entries and proceeded to upgrade which again turned out to be impossible.
By this point I’d had enough. I decided it was time to take EllisLab up on their 30 day money back guarantee. I’ve never had anywhere near as much trouble as this using WordPress so I guess I’m going to stay put.
Disclaimer: I know ExpressionEngine is a renowned and respected product and even I have seen it shine in the past. This is in no way a statement on ExpressionEngine as a whole, just my experience with it. Quite clearly it isn’t suited for me in my current situation.