hacked off

Well I’m glad I’m not the only one, I’m no techno light-weight, when it comes to CSS and XHTML I’m an advanced hand coder, I often pick up something new and expect to be able to learn it based on my track record, I can see the potential for modx and I’m really excited, but the instructions don’t really tell how to do what you are most likely to want to do, what things are ie TVs are explained, but there is little in common uses for the average user. I feel that most people are going to want to use modx to integrate their own XHTML and CSS designs into a database driven CMS site (kind of the point).

I’ve used CMSfromScratch too, something similar to modx but without the DB, it’s very good, but I’m sure modx has a wider scope of application due to the fact that it is DB driven, however, CMSfromScratch has a tutorial video on the home page of the site that explains exactly what you’d expect to do with it, I learnt CMSfromScratch in about an hour. Modx has taken be 4 to 5 and I’m no nearer getting it yet, I’m sure I will though and I’m sure it’ll be great when I do.

If you do a youtube search on modx, you’ll find a few useful things there, I managed to set up own template based on what I saw on a youtube tutorial, have a look.

Basically my point is, I hear you, and I’m suffering too! Let’s stick at it and I’m sure it’ll come good.

i have calmed down now and feel a bit of a bastard for being so bad tempered! lol

id love to get stuck into MODx.. i can honestly see the potential and its flexibility compared to other systems... in not new to web design, i have been hacking Zen Cart for ages... and have just started playing with Magento. (oddly my PHP skills are shocking, in fact, id say almost non-existent)

maybe its me, being used to template override systems like ZC that has me stuck in my ways. The company i work for (because of the UK recession) has down sized.. im strictly e-commerce but now im being forced to expand into CMS.

I do understand the developers problems of work/life/modx balance, I just get so angry when something which could be f***ing massive is restricted by a crappy instruction manual. Forgive me for saying that.

I have seen some amazing modx sites, (and some truly nasty ones haha!) and its that why it winds me up when I fall flat on my face. I think for now I will have to follow TypoLight. Restricted design it maybe, but its idiot proof (ish) and i need my job.

I will still however, keep plugging away at MODx in my spare time, just because im a stubborn sod that hates to be beaten! Forgive my rant,, and expect more in the future.

So when av mastered the bugger, (v3.0) i’ll write you a bloody user guide that will smash the sh*t out of joomla and co! Now I need to go smash the gym, as its been a slightly frustrating day!...

lots of love
M

(sorry to be a moaning git... but you know im right)

I also sympathize, we have all been there and you make some good points. However, I know that there is a big effort going into making things much better. Keep in mind that, in my opinion, the quality of the documentation is more of a reflection on the community than on the developers. If everyone chipped in a little more and realized that this is a young project and that to build it up depends on us also (not only them) things might change faster. It is so typical to simply blame the government

MODx is undergoing a huge transition period with the core team concentrating on the new direction (which will need to be documented as well). It is up to the community to maintain the ’legacy’ documentation. If we want them to do everything, then we will never get Revolution released and take MODx to the next level.

McShane,

By all means do what you have to do and try some other quicker, simpler alternatives to MODx if you need to get some work done now.

But I would set up a local test environment and add several test installs of MODx and just mess around with it in your spare time. Go to http://www.sottwell.com/ and view every page that Susan has created. I learned tons just by examining the pages she built and how they are all structured. Log into the back end Manager she provides to do so.

I, like you, felt frustrated with MODx and then tried some of the other systems. There are several very "light" systems out there but any of the platforms that offer any real degree of flexibility will require some study. In the end I cam back to MODx and am glad I did.

I brought with me some skills: image editing, design, XHTML and CSS. I think knowing CSS is the best skill with any kind of web design. I knew next to nothing about scripting languages and PHP though. While this is somewhat of a liability I learned to function within the MODx world without it. Each site gets easier and with each new site I try to do a little more. After a while you will realize how far you have come.

Some call MODx a developer platform and then add lots of cool sounding technical terms to describe who it is targeted towards. Whatever? Simply put I find that MODx is a great system for building rich, dynamic sites that will work with your design and goals. WIth MODx there are many, many different ways of doing the same thing. Even very experienced MODx users learn from other users on this forum just because someone did some task a certain way they had not considered before...

Those of you who are struggling with MODx could do the community a huge favor if you could be more specific about exactly which pieces of documentation are falling short and why. Saying "The docs suck" doesn’t upset us, but it also doesn’t help us. Believe me, if we could wave a wand and make the docs better we would, but without specific comments and suggestions, we’ve got other priorities.

From a personal standpoint, I’d ask you to go to the site in my sig. It’s mainly for people new to MODx. Let me know where it confuses you and where it raises further questions that aren’t answered. Let me know what you were looking for that you couldn’t find. I’ll fix it as fast as I can (often in less than 12 hours) and you’ll be doing everyong a huge favor and it will take very little work on your part.

Bobray:

that’s the problem... MODx is a great system, even tho i dont know how to use it right, i can see its potential. But it is the scattered, out-of-date and loosely structured (in parts) user guides that (for me) is the problem.

Your site, is possibly the best and most user friendly guide i have read so far. But why is it not like that on the MODx site?

i know MODx is free, and the whole work/life/modx balance of it creaters is something that can never be over come. But if you want MODx to really take off, expanding the community and allowing for better, further development then surely the documentation should be part of the foundation of MODx?...

im just using this link as an example: http://dev.typolight.org/wiki/TutorialsFramework

Thats what people like me are after, a step by step guide... right down to the semi colon on how to achieve things in MODx. So i can become an expert, and help out on the not so tough questions for new comers, and maybe cut the traffic on simpler question in the forums. Because the way it feels to me at the moment, it’s like you are expected to be able to read between the lines.

im try not to sound like an ungrateful child, what you have all done is amazing!... but if you had documentation as well as TL, ZC etc life would be easier and quicker... MODx would be come more main stream... and you’d pick up more development help along the way.

i dunno, im bored of talking about it now... i think you all know where im coming from... and i hope those with the power can agree me.. and i tell you what.. if i could master the system id write you tutorials... like i have done for ZC and NOFPM.

mcshane78, we DO agree and we do want it on the main site. We’re launching our new support site soon, and that’s when the ball will start rolling in that direction.

thats great... i hope i will be able to help... in some way, shape or form!

I just want to say that it has taken me about 6/7 hours of hard graft with Modx, but now it’s starting to work for me, I’ve booked these days as training days to learn this as I think it’s an important part of what I do or should be able to do. What has been valuable for me is a few videos I saw on you tube, as well as this one:

http://www.tipsfor.us/2009/01/22/new-overview-of-modx-modx-series-part-ii/

and Bobray! Not to mention other people on the forum, my advice is this, start working with it, when you hit a brick wall, post on the forum if you can’t see a thread that suits you (to be honest, I find it hard to learn what I want from other people’s threads, I often need my own to work something out) but the poeple here have been amazing, you can’t pay for support this good!

So, yes it’s tough, and agree that the instructions often affer you more questions that answers, but take that info with the help on the forum and it’s not long before it makes sense, the other good thing is this, there is more than one way to do some things, it’s a flexible system.

I was a noob yesterday, now I’m up and running and would know how to make any site dynamic, I’m not blowing my trumpet, I’m just saying that a bit of time and the forum and you’re away.

I think the best tutorials are video based, since most of us a visual audio kinesthetic learners, that would be my wish, I can even get over the excessive use of ’go ahead’ for things like that..... I’m just going to go ahead and...... Now go ahead and...... LOL

Quote from: Jobborrow at Feb 12, 2009, 07:41 AM

http://www.tipsfor.us/2009/01/22/new-overview-of-modx-modx-series-part-ii/

he does some cracking videos that dude!! we should pester the hell out of him to do more! haha.. id pay him to do a full 1 or 2 hr modx video tutoral - you know... build a site from scratch.. start to finish!

(sadly his vids on youtube are not as high def as that link)