Old stuff?

Hi everyone,
I was working briefly with MODX several years ago but have just started to try it out again.

One thing that strikes me as odd is that almost all plugins/extras are very old and have not been kept up-to-date.

When working with other CMS the experience is quite different and both new plugins as well older plugins will be kept up-to-date.

Howcome is this not the case with MODX?

In which direction is MODX going?

Best regards
//Carsten - Denmark

Hi,
I am also from Europe and had the same feeling and concerns before redesigning a large site...
After using Modx again (after several years working on other CMS), i must say i find MODX as one of the best and most flexible CMS i have ever used.
Even for a large site i havent used that many extras, actually the min. (for maintenance reasons), the basic ones (e.g. Formit, Getressources, Wayfinder, Getfeed, Breadcrumb, etc) still work well. Whenever possible i try and develop my own snippets.
So as long as security fixes are done regularly by the core team and the forum is alive, i am happy.
Good luck !

Many of the classic MODX add-ons are very well-written and haven't needed updating for some time because most of the MODX core code hasn't needed changing, and when it does, backwards compatibility is maintained.

WordPress add-ons, for example, have to be rewritten often because for WP, updates often require significant changes to the core code, which was not very robust to begin with.

I agree, that it might seem odd in the first place not having to update as often, but unlike other CMS where you need to update things almost everytime you log in, it's a great experience not to have this update mess and the worry if your site is going to break after you updated something. All the extras I've used so far are very solid and I don't know why other plugins are updated that often but maybe MODX ones are simply build well enough in the first place.

Also keep in mind that MODX is completely modular which means that alot of extras just provide or link functions to make your life easier but they don't bring anything completely foreign to the system if that makes any sense. Therefore probably things keep working longer and don't need to be updated as often.

As far as in which direction MODX goes I'm not an expert or developer, but my experience with the MODX CMF and all its amazing supportive community tells me, that MODX won't stop anytime soon. I don't know any other CMS out there which has the same amount of flexibilty and community like MODX so I'll definitely stick to it and keep recommending it whenever I get the chance.

Hope that helps!

@Justinet, @BobRay and @Vibe Design,
Thanks for your replies, they make a lot of sense and especially the fact that you @Vibe mentioned, that other CMS has to be updated often.
So this all makes sense, but in my opinon it also leaves concerns.

In my case I have been away for a long time and wanted to find some recent tutorials on both Wayfinder, TinyMCE and other Extras, but was faced with the problem that almost all tutorials, written or video, are all very old.
The most recent I found on Friendly URLs was from 2015, just to mention one.

When you are somewhat a noob like me, this gives a lot of problems because the core, back-end look and feel has changed during the years I have been away.

The latest books on MODX was written in 2011 and 2012 as far as I could find.

So yes maybe MODX will be around for a long time yet, but if the documentation for most cases is out of date, it will mean that it will hard on newbies to start developing with MODX.


But thanks for your replies.

//Carsten - Denmark

FWIW, I'm starting work on a new edition of MODX: The Official Guide. It will probably be a while before it sees the light of day, though. The E-book version is more up-to-date than the hard copy, but the Manager has been redesigned since it was written.

I think Login is the only extra that's particularly clunky, but Bob has simplified that with Subscribe which can be implemented in 30 minutes.

Also user management is a lot easier now with ClassExtender. I do wish this was a bit better fleshed out.

For something like Wayfinder its possible that so little has changed that there is little need for new documentation. As I say below more sample models would help. Its also possible that its not being used as much now that there are more options.

I would search in google for the last two years and you will probably find quite a lot, on this board and other places. Also, search "modx andy tough" and you find current full solutions posted as models, brilliant if its close to your goals. People are writing about Modx, the community is clearly bigger than before.

I do feel that the biggest weakness to adoption are some clear models and sample codes for basic things. With Modx you can do anything, but without experience it can't work out so easily, with models you can get going quickly and then learn to tinker from there, and then be able to see the power in clearer pathways.

It is definitely true that we have to go around the net picking up pieces of code sometimes.

For something like Friendly urls, what's to be said? Pop them in your htaccess, flip the right 2 switches, and you should be good to go.

Otherwise, come into the forums and ask

Quote from: nuan88 at Sep 19, 2018, 05:22 PM

I think Login is the only extra that's particularly clunky, but Bob has simplified that with Subscribe which can be implemented in 30 minutes.

Also user management is a lot easier now with ClassExtender. I do wish this was a bit better fleshed out.

For something like Wayfinder its possible that so little has changed that there is little need for new documentation. As I say below more sample models would help. Its also possible that its not being used as much now that there are more options.

I would search in google for the last two years and you will probably find quite a lot, on this board and other places. Also, search "modx andy tough" and you find current full solutions posted as models, brilliant if its close to your goals. People are writing about Modx, the community is clearly bigger than before.

I do feel that the biggest weakness to adoption are some clear models and sample codes for basic things. With Modx you can do anything, but without experience it can't work out so easily, with models you can get going quickly and then learn to tinker from there, and then be able to see the power in clearer pathways.

It is definitely true that we have to go around the net picking up pieces of code sometimes.

For something like Friendly urls, what's to be said? Pop them in your htaccess, flip the right 2 switches, and you should be good to go.

Otherwise, come into the forums and ask

I will indeed use the forums nuan88. In regards to my issue today with MODX installed on localhost, I found the answer in an old video post from 2015.
Everywhere else I had searched did not give me the answer, not even via the official channels. And that is not good enough in my book.
In my opinion this makes it hard to start up using MODX.

It simply turned out that my htaccess had to have to a Rewrite base that reflected a folder in my xampp installation.
The same issue is what made me stop using/trying to use MODX 8 years ago, and it still haven't been changed.

I am sure that once you get into the quirks of MODX it is that great, but for a noob the lack of current documentation makes it very hard to test and develop with MODX.

/Carsten

I will indeed use the forums nuan88. In regards to my issue today with MODX installed on localhost, I found the answer in an old video post from 2015.
Everywhere else I had searched did not give me the answer, not even via the official channels. And that is not good enough in my book.
In my opinion this makes it hard to start up using MODX.

Yes I agree, it is tough. It seems like old stuff comes up before new stuff, and finding the right info can be tough even when its out there.

I think the trouble is that every user experience is different, its hard to build up common use cases.

Also remember the user base of Modx is developers, many of them bespoke professionals. It ain't no Wordpress and thank whoever's asking for that.

The advantages of Modx are just too clear for me, but the entrance has to be easier for sure. We need pathways...mapped out at least a bit.

Every model helps

I had the same problem installing on localhost with XAMPP. The docs mostly assume that you're installing on Apache or something similar, where the rewrite base does not need a reference to the subdirectory. Also, if you had installed MODX in the web root (htdocs) rather than the subdirectory, it would not have been necessary.

Bottom line: yours is a somewhat rare case. I looked over the various docs on using MODX with XAMPP (including one of mine), and you're right that your issue is not addressed in them and it certainly should be.

Your experience is not typical and I hope you'll continue to give MODX a chance now that your problem is solved.

If you're using MODX Revolution, be sure to include "revolution" in any Google searches. That will keep you away from MODX Evolution information that may not be relevant. It's not a bad idea to try including MODX Forums in the search string as well.