Is Modx the best choice for graphic designers?

As a graphic designer You are often answered to design CSS/HTML layouts.
That's nice and it's fun.
But in most cases, when it comes to PHP coding to actually build a full working website, things get harder and You need some programmer's help.

That's why Modx looks so attractive to people not used to PHP coding, compared to, let's say, Wordpress: You download a few amazing snippets, You write some chunks, then You handle everything through a powerful internal tag syntax.
After a few days of struggle with its logic, everything gets clear and You feel like You are able to put together a cool website.

But soon You realize (or at least, You feel like) that working with default properties and Output Filters is not enough, even in many simple situations.
So You have to go back to PHP.
And You are (almost) in Wordpress, again.
So is Modx actually the best choice for beginners or non professional programmers? [ed. note: fredela last edited this post 10 years, 5 months ago.]

It's never enough. There's no such thing as a system that you can just use as it is. That's whey there are designers and developers. And for designers, MODX is (in my opinion) the best option, since you can do far more with your design than with other systems that require a developer just to realize the vision of the designer.

I've worked with a number of designers who cut their developing teeth on MODX, and it's still the best even then, since it's so easy to start with simple bits of PHP to enhance existing add-ons or create your own small bits like a custom output modifier. So if you work alone or in a group too small to include a developer, you're going to have to learn coding in some language no matter what system you use.

As Susan says, if you want to get the most out of your platform, you're almost always going to have to use some PHP code. With the architecture of MODX, the many System Event hooks, and xPDO, though, the PHP coding in MODX is also quite fun once you get the hang of it.

As I recall, WP is weaker for graphic designers because you can't just take a template from online and "put it in", templates need to be customized for WP's system. So a designer would be required to develop within WP rather than just using the normal design software.

That's one reason why I preferred Modx, where I could take a template and it looked just the same in Modx, without needing customization. However I was a newbie back then, maybe the modifications needed for WP were easy to do.

No, WP and just about every other CMS or forum or ecommerce system I've look at requires coding to build the theme. And of course they all need coding to make any custom features or functions. As BobRay says, the MODX API makes it a lot easier to do custom coding. It does need better "newbie" documentation, but Bob's Guides is one site that goes a long way towards filling that need. He has some good bread recipes too!

http://bobsguides.com/modx.html
http://bobsguides.com/blog.html