Expression Engine Parse Order

I have been using Expression Engine while working on some freelance projects the last few months. It is not free and I am only able to use it because a colleague I am working it bought a license for it.

Expression Engine is touted as the best Content Management System(CMS) for web designers. Even if I am not one of those creative types, I can certainly attest to the ease of use it provides to people who wants works on how the the page is displayed as opposed to knowing how the system works.

However, it can be a pain for web developers looking to implement a solution that requires lots of custom code and tweaks.

I am talking about the template parse order

Their templating system goes through specific steps when parsing each template. Usually, you don't need to know about the parsing order when working on your templates. In fact, it isn't apparent when you code your code is simple at first.

But the more complex your template tags are, the higher the chance of encountering an error that is caused or related to the parsing order.

In order to solve this problems, you need to understand the parsing order. The links below will prove useful.

Ellislab's Template Engine Documentation
Low's Expression Engine Parse Order(PDF)