The modx backend. A living nightmare?

I certainly wouldn’t use both libraries for the Manager (or anything else). If the rest of the Manager will continue to be mootools, then it makes no sense to use jQuery as well. Both libraries are perfectly capable of doing what’s necessary here, although I do think there are reasons to prefer one or the other apart from familiarity (not that I plan to make any of these arguments here).

An update to the latest mootools would be nice.
Is this planned?

I’m beginning to get the feeling this is getting out of hand. So many posts, we have made it to the top in no time. Thanks. Yet I’m afraid that it will be more and more difficult to keep track of ideas and wishes.

I don’t know if this is the proper procedure, but I welcome everybody interested in this topic to write comments at http://svn.modxcms.com/jira/browse/MODX-656. Leave your wish lists, ideas and bug reports there, so they don’t get lost.

Thanks for taking the initiative on this pepebe. I would love to see this work make it into the Evolution 1.0 release in conjunction with some security improvements on the forms, and once I get a few moments to spare to take a dig into the code you’ve posted, I may start a code review in our Crucible system so we can scrutinize the code and comment on it directly. Or we can save the review until you make more progress if you would rather.

Either way, great work and I look forward to helping you bring these improvements to the community.

pepebe,

looks really nice. my thoughts on the js stuff here:

if you need any help hit me up here. I would use jquery and jquery-ui. I’ve been working with jquery-ui to do tabs, sortables, etc. and it works really well and quickly. WP and drupal does use it too.

I also have an alpha version of a new TV type with multiple fields/columns - in jquery.

I think jquery or mootools would work. they’re both nice. I could help if it’s jquery.

Quote from: OpenGeek at Feb 24, 2009, 05:57 PM

Thanks for taking the initiative on this pepebe. I would love to see this work make it into the Evolution 1.0 release in conjunction with some security improvements on the forms, and once I get a few moments to spare to take a dig into the code you’ve posted, I may start a code review in our Crucible system so we can scrutinize the code and comment on it directly. Or we can save the review until you make more progress if you would rather.

Either way, great work and I look forward to helping you bring these improvements to the community.

Right now its just messing around with the html. I don’t think there is much more to do about it (apart from lookingg for unexpected dependencies). If we manage to make a modified mamangermanager work with the new markup, then everything will be fine. If this schould not be possible (I doubt that), then this will all be for naught. Too many people depend on it. Have to take a look at the source and contact ncrossland (http://www.modxcms.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=8308). Let’s hope for the best.

Regarding the review I would be glad if I get some feedback regarding the new markup. Up to this point nobody complained about getting rid of the tables, so I guess that’s OK. How about the new tags? Anyone out there believing definition definition list are not the right choice?

If everybody is fine with that, I would advice working on a completely php based generation of the code. This way it would only take a few changes to alter the order of the items or to switch them completely off. As soon as this is accomplished a whole range of new opportunities will arise. User/role/document/template based layouts would be within reach.

If this goes not to far I would like to head into this direction.

My gut check, based on ManagerManager alone, says that jQuery would be the right call. If not that, then the latest Mootools. I like the thought of JQuery UI and Themeroller.

As far as the new TV type, that needs to get in Revo first, then back-ported to Evo to mitigate any migration issues that may arise. Please chat with Señior ’Geek ’bout that. (It’s really cool, too, btw!)

Stupid question.

What would be the easiest way to store some variables like for example

$settings_page_settings = 1;
$show_preview_tab = 0;

(editable for administrators in the backend)

and check during page render whether $show_preview_tab == 1 or not?

I’ll be brief but my vote for jQuery is for the following reasons:

* The jQuery core is around 16kb (minified and gzipped).
* CSS/XPath selectors for DOM elements. This makes jQuery accessible to a much wider group of developers than would otherwise use a framework.
* Chaining. $(’#menu’).do().this().then().do().that()
* Wrapped sets make for code brevity with no need to iterate over matched elements: $("tr:even").addClass("zebra")
* $.ajax(). Makes ajax trivial.
* Plug-in extensibility. There are hundreds of existing plugins that can be leveraged for almost any conceivable purpose.

jQuery is not always the right choice. Mootools might be preferable in a large application where you want your code to follow a conventional OO design pattern. Personally I find jQuery to be a better fit for Javascript’s prototypical-based inheritance rather than trying to impose a classical scheme on it, but many others would disagree. I’ve also found that jQuery is not a good choice if you’re trying to build an application with modal dialogs and other standardised replacements for the browser interface - because the jquery.ui is not yet a mature system like, say extjs, which powers modx revo.

However, for this specific purpose - manipulating form elements and enhancing functionality with the Manager - there really is no better choice.

Just my 2 pence.

Quote from: pepebe at Feb 25, 2009, 05:22 AM

Stupid question.

What would be the easiest way to store some variables like for example

$settings_page_settings = 1;
$show_preview_tab = 0;

(editable for administrators in the backend)

and check during page render whether $show_preview_tab == 1 or not?

Store it as a system and/or user setting and simply add those form fields to the System Settings and User Settings pages. Then all you do us check if !empty($modx->config[’show_preview_tab’]). But isn’t there already a setting for the preview stuff?