The Core, the Community and the Future of MODX

Just like we did for people interested in the MODX Add-ons ecosystem on Feb 7, 2013 we had a jam packed Google Hang Out to discuss the future of what's happening with the MODX core. There was a lot of concern and ambiguity, and we wanted to start putting those subjects to rest. Here's some of the highlights of what we discussed.

First concern was expressed over Evo vs Revo vs what's coming next. We get that Evo is a great CMS and really comfortable for a ton of people, but we also know it's not the right platform to do the right thing for the future. That being said, one of the most compelling things is how comfortable and fluid the Manager in Evo seems. Our goal for the future, therefore, is to take the User Experience (and ease of customizing) from the Evo Manager, with the core architecture that's even more streamlined, performant and scalable based on Revo to get the best of both worlds.

Some other bullet points we discussed:

• Evo doesn't run on PHP 5.4 and it would be really great if it did
• We tried to recruit people from the Community to take over the ongoing Evo maintenance and development while we focused on the future of MODX—we would still love to see someone or a group handle bringing Evo to 5.4-compatibility in a way that ensures security, stability and backwards compatibility
• We will be recruiting a team of trusted, proven developers to help maintain and develop Revo and what comes next going forward … need to work out the process and core commit privileges process to make this successful
• There really needs to be a solid way to migrate to newer versions … it doesn't have to be perfect but it should handle making sure your files and content in the database are moved. Converting tag syntax would be awesome, too.
• Miss the days of the Evo sample site during install … Revo Distributions were intended for this but never materialized.
• Localization of learning about MODX and MODX software is important … need the main information on modx.com translated
• Everyone loved the idea about taking work product and code originally created for clients (but that needs cleanup, documentation and support) and selling them in a Premium Add-on Marketplace (see first link in this post)
• There needs to be a public roadmap and more communication about efforts

We definitely will be doing more Hang Outs in the future and look forward to rapidly improving Community involvement with the future of MODX. What would you like to see?

Hi Ryan,

As a long standing member of the community ( around 3 - 4 years now ) I'm sure you've realized I love MODX.

Just 1 thing that concerns me and 1 I would love to see introduced and would give time to.

Concerns:

If your going to give a "market place" for packages how will it be policed ?

My concern with this is that someone will pay for a addon but the developer will loose interest due to not much revenue and abandon it, where will that leave the people that have already purchased it, ( prime example is Vision cart ) had a great following but just got left half developed.

What I would love to see to spread the word:

I believe that MODX is the future and would love to be part of it, would you consider trying to get it into colleges as a ( for arguments sake ) 12 week course and recommending tutors from all the areas that colleges agreed ? I would love to be able to give a bit back but don't have a lot of time to come on here, but I'd be prepared to give up a few hours a week to go into a local college to teach the basics as I'm sure a lot of other people would ;o)

Evo doesn't run on PHP 5.4 and it would be really great if it did

Yes, but if Evo & Revo are being replaced by MODX3 who's going to put in the time & effort for what's marked for deprecation?
With the best will in the world, it still seems like a rather futile task.

Quote from: bunk58 at Feb 22, 2013, 11:14 PM

Evo doesn't run on PHP 5.4 and it would be really great if it did

Yes, but if Evo & Revo are being replaced by MODX3 who's going to put in the time & effort for what's marked for deprecation?
With the best will in the world, it still seems like a rather futile task.

But what if there are volunteers to do this?

But what if there are volunteers to do this?

That was my really my point.
I'd thought about offering but then started to consider the short lived nature of the work involved versus the time spent.

There are a ton of sites for both Evo and Revo … sometimes people will only want to upgrade them and not migrate them to software with which they're not as familiar.

I suspect we can find volunteers at this point.

my fork modx evo works fine on php 5.4 (https://github.com/dmi3yy/modx.evo.custom/)
as well as a lot of things that can be implemented in the official MODX EVO

I gladly took up the support EVO
I can give you a list of what we can update and correct in EVO
I note also that all the proposals already testing of more than 100 sites

I think that, however, should be support in until the release of the next version of MODX and maybe longer

the practice of many brands when supported several versions and it shows the company's reliability and overall product

I understand that all is not enough time and hands, and therefore willing to volunteer
support and upgrade MODX EVO

See!

dmi3y - that is fantastic! I thought modx evo custom was dead like the elegant mind fork. My mistake. How did you do that ? I tried to replace deprecated functions in php 5.4 with a wamp server, but gave up on it. My php coding skills still lack. You know, I am 90% a designer, html, css, jsmodules, and 10% a coder. Modx Evo was the first cms in my life that matched both my designing and coding skills. I really could wrap my mind around it and started to be productive. I tried Modx Revo but always felt desorientated and left out with extJS, objects, MVC, and PHP5 as a framework. If there is one thing I learned during all my cms rides is that there is no escape in the end from decent learning php. I put my hopes on modx3. [ed. note: sitecms last edited this post 11 years, 1 month ago.]

There is lots of talk in the German community about this EVO problem and frankly they are freaking out. Many of them also are not programmers, but designers (including myself) and need an easy to understand way to implement any changes into EVO to make it compatible with PHP 5.4 if there will not be an official release with this compatibility any time soon. The problem in Germany is that one of its largest providers are switching over to PHP 5.4 by the first of April - 2013.

Is it feasible to get this taken care of soon?

Unbelievable how dedicated some of the MODX users are to be volunteering for this. Respect!