In need of a sanity check#

I'm webmastering a large MODX 2 website that was developed by "an agency". Because the company paid big money to the agency, they don't believe me when I say I can do better.

I'd like a fellow MODX-Pert have a look at at a few templates and tell me their professional opinion.

For example, would you put a snippet call in a chunk and put that chunk where you needed it? And would you create 20 of those chunks for the sole purpose of putting the "right" container id# in it?

Would you create 8 longtitle TVs, 8 publishedon TVs and then build that logic into 1 template, requiring a User to know what directory they were in in order to put the longtitle in its "correct" TV?

I guess I just need to vent. For the life of me I don't see why a template needs to be gunked up this way. I wouldn't dare provide screenshots - except on Halloween - of how the directories are symlinks pointing to a Resource elsewhere, and then when that Resource is actually in a directory, a custom snippet takes the place of FirstChildRedirect, even though it's installed.

Even if I were a MODX Partner, I seriously doubt me when I say that getResources can handle 90% of the functionality and output the site needs. And what happens when they update the site from 2.0 to 2.2x??

I'm going to have to bring my book and throw it at them. I might even find out the agency that did this and stay far far away from them.

Would anyone care to put me in my place? Or just co-miserate so I know I'm not off the rails?

I have to say that sounds completely nuts and you have my sympathy. I've had to work on sites like that and it can definitely make you crazy.

That said, I've also found some things that I thought were insane that I later realized were there for a good reason.

It does sound, though, like maybe the creator(s) didn't get the concept of checkbox, dropdown, and/or radio option TVs. That might be a good place to start. Take one of those 8-TV longtitles and convert it to one TV with 8 radio options or a dropdown list with sensible TV == options. Then show it to the client and ask if it doesn't seem like a better solution.

I'm not sure I understand the snippet call in a chunk thing, but offhand, it also seems crazy.

It's also likely that all that processing is slowing down the site. If they care at all about page-load times, they'll want something more efficient.

Thanks for the feedback Bob.

The snippet confusion clarified:
Snippet in a chunk, in the content pane. The chunk is in the content pane, and the snippet references the directory ID# - I call it hardwiring - rather than by the TV

I guess this is okay in that if the snippet were in the content pane itself, and accidentally deleted with a flick of the mouse, at least the chunk would be there.

But now that I think of it, the snippet call should just be in the Template, maybe a few of them in a TV so one could choose which Snippet call and its associated TPL would yield the correct look and feel for that section.

That goes back to what you said about having those 8 TVs in a drop down box.

I guess what gets me is why couldn't this plac hired me for big bucks? Now I have to clean up big money's mess for pennies, so to speak.

I only hope that I can convince them that I know what I'm doing that will keep their URLs intact, the site functioning seamlessly, and keep me employed.

You might put a single snippet tag in the template and have the snippet check the TV value and return the correct ID. If the snippet were a little smarter, it might be able to calculate or look up the correct ID, doing away with the TV -- that would likely be at least as fast, if not faster.

I worked at a place for a long time and created their original web site for free back when the President and all his execs literally didn't know what a web site was. Once web sites became the big thing, every few years they'd pay over $100,000 for a new website that was always a complete piece of crap. In every one, it took new visitors at least 15 minutes just to find the address or phone number of the place (though it was always easy to find the video of the President's welcome message).

Companies can have pretty strange ideas about who qualifies as an expert and "outside" experts always seem to get extra credit.

Thanks for sharing. My hearinst very good. Role get hung up on that and rarely ever interact with me, the person. I compensate by knowing my stuff. I'm an autodidact, when I say it sounds like "auto-idiot".

;-)

A part of me wants to believe that we all get rejected for one reason or another. And it always comes right back to us. We have yet to grasp that Reaping what one does is a matter of fact, not belief in sny one deity(s).

Although I'm a pretty good MODX webmaster, I still find it a challenge to practice "what would Love itself do ?". Your story actually gives me a way to practice love, seeing far fear and judgment has moved us backwards into more of the same.

Yes, I am a philosopher, top.

Wow, it looks like the word c r a p got filtered out of my post. That's some sensitive badwords filter.

LOL! I like it just the way it got filtered. My mind read it as s__t. Just finished Steve Jobs bio. It's fantastic. Best bio I've ever read. I actually wrote him 10 years ago, splainin how the Mac opened doors for me. He replied within 5 minutes.

He called just about everything a piece of crap. Thanks for the good laugh!