[Addons] Unable to control markup output...

I have a vision that one day every MODX addon will hold true to creative freedom!
If you come across any situations of MODX Addons limiting your ability to edit the end markup without "hacking" the addon please share that situation here.
I'm not even going to post some of my own findings yet, just opening this up for discussion.

Articles! Very limited in what you get. Which is why I prefer using MIGx for much the same thing, only the output and addition of any extras like Quip are up to the developer. http://rtfm.modx.com/display/ADDON/MIGXdb.Manage+Child-Resources+in+a+grid-TV+with+help+of+MIGXdb

A really great addition to this sort of thing is the QuickBar extra, which provides a menu in the front-end for editing the existing page, or adding a new page in that part of the site.

Ding ding! Articles is one of the ones I had in mind

While Articles does put some of the markup as accessible Chunks (using the sample. naming convention), there are still areas that are 'hard coded' that you can't really modify without hacking the add-on.

I understand it's a give and take choosing between making markup available via Elements in the Manager because it then introduces the problem of merging when updates to the addon are made. By owning the markup and storing it say in the core/components folder merging isn't an issue, but lack of creative freedom is.

That's why I started this post. I hope that it grows overtime and points out some practical changes that could be made to Addons to make them better follow the "creative freedom" paradigm. I'm just trying to cure the MODX community of Wordpress flashbacks, one addon at a time!

I'll add another: http://modx.com/extras/package/starrating (Can't fully customize output without core hacking)

Great finds. So the question becomes what is the solution. Is it to use sample. elements? Or maybe system or component settings to define what chunks should be used? Something standardized in the xPDO API that allows markup returning methods to be overridden?

If I recall correct that extra was ported from Evolution, so if anything it just needs a rewrite to better leverage current coding methods/standards. Perhaps we need the ability to flag extras for specific issues (Broken in version, Output not chunked, lacks RTFM article (could hook into tracker, and if present they should be linked up), abandon extra, legacy php errors).

That doesn't resolve the underlying problem, but it does allow the community to identify problem extras that could use some assistance. Heck, there could be Save an Extra Saturdays

Granted creating a guideline for new extras could also help, some developers may not understand how to leverage properties, interact with chunks, etc. Some basic code samples, recommend methods for handling specific items, etc?

It would make more sense to correct the extras than add "bloat" to the core, after all the less additional processing required the faster things run, which is a good thing.

How about a team of reviewers for all extras, that way the quality can be better managed which would also help clean up some of them. I think what happens a lot of times, or it seems, that they are created for particular projects with specific needs and depending on knowledge level they are limited. Though they have additional uses possibly to others they lack that flexibility. Then you have the other side where you have project built for community use, these often have greater flexibility and sometimes better documentation.

Not sure there is one correct answer, but that's what the community is good at.

You can add SPForm to the list as well. The only reason I haven't bothered to fix it is that FormIt is such an obvious alternative.

SubscribeMe. Useful but severely limited by its hard-coded nature. I know the background to the development of this, and it was a custom, rush job. The developer does clearly state its limitations in its Extras entry

It is currently not actively supported or developed.
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(Only PayPal or manual - NO other payment gateways supported or planned)

I've assigned Mark Hamstra to submit pull requests to fix all these extras by tomorrow AM!