ExpressionEngine
From DreamHost
ExpressionEngine is a modular, flexible, feature-packed web publishing system that adapts to a broad range of needs.
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Specifying the PHP version
Installing ExpressionEngine on Dreamhost soon results in the dreaded ""Your config file does not appear to be formatted correctly" error. This error can have many causes, but on Dreamhost it is easily solved by either placing the following line in the .htaccess file at the root of the domain:
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
If there is no .htaccess file in the root, create a plain text file, call it htaccess.txt and type in the line above. Upload htaccess.txt with an ftp program and then change the name to .htaccess. The leading period is required but will make the file invisible, unless you instruct your ftp program to show invisibles.
Search Engine Friendly URLs
ExpressionEngine runs fine at a Dreamhost hosting account. One thing to remember is that in order to use search engine friendly URLs you need to disable the "PHP 5 FastCGI" option. Instead, choose to have your domain run on PHP 5 CGI. This can be done by clicking the edit button located next to your domain under the Web Hosting column found in the Manage Domains page of your control panel.
Search Engine Friendly URLs are URLs like
www.example.com/index.php/theme/page
Apparently, such URLs are easier indexed by search engines than the default
www.example.com/index.php?/theme/page
The ExpressionEngine documentation has some more info about how URLs work in Expression Engine:
[ http://eedocs.pmachine.com/general/urls.html ExpressionEngine Documentation on URLs ]
Hosting multiple websites
Another nice feature of hosting ExpressionEngine at Dreamhost is that you can host unlimited websites from one ExpressionEngine installation. This is a good thing since the license fee of ExpressionEngine is hefty. You can install the ExpressionEngine CMS on one domain (in one directory), and by pointing the path.php in every domains root to this installation all domains can share the same system. Of course, every domain can still have its own unique templates and content. This is a part where ExpressionEngine really shines.
- [ http://eedocs.pmachine.com/installation/install_subdomains.html ExpressionEngine documentation on running multiple sites, domains or subdomains ]
Licenses
ExpressionEngine is available with three different licenses:
- Commercial License - this license is for companies, organizations and individuals who use Expression Engine with a commercial (for-profit) purpose
- Personal License - this license is for personal, non-commercial non-profit use only.
- Core License - the core license is for personal non-commercial and non-profit use only.
The commercial and the personal license come with technical support and all available modules, except the forum module. The core license comes with no technical support, and also a number of modules are missing, including (but not limited to) the moblog module, the photo gallery module and the mailinglist module.
