a few questions about modx integrations/features

hello again guys, I have been really going to town with modx, just incredible, but I am having a difficult time finding the answers to a few questions I have in the wikis, forum and scroogle searches and was hoping one of you could point me in the right direction. I can’t ask you to write snippets or chunks for me and my questions could be individually posted throughout this site (I thought this more appropriate for the forum rather than stringing out the questions all over the place) but if anyone has a link with solutions which I could tailor to my and a future client’s needs, I would be incredibly appreciative. I just want to be prepared if a client demands something which could take me a few weeks to figure out.

1. which is the best newsletter extra to use with modx evolution 1.0.2? I like TXnewsletters but how could I set it up for a language other than english or french if possible?

2. I would like to have a single email form (instead of several) that could be configured to send an email to a specific person from a dropdown list, I figure php using IF would do the trick, but I can’t code php or javascript worth a darn, I go into a coma, too left brained a suppose. I have already figured out I could set up an employee list with a link to a contact page specifically designed for them...but that’s seems like overkill. this will also go a long way in helping with my last question as I would include an upload file field in this form.

3. I have already found an extra for uploading files, but let’s say a client wanted a specific area of the site to list the downloads for a specific employee, how could I go about doing that? I kind of feel that jot and ditto in someway may hold the answer in conjunction with the file upload extra but really for the life of me can’t figure out how to implement it.

thanks to all who have mercy on my soul

anyone?

my main two goals are trying to set up employee specific areas in the front end where uploaded files can be listed for them and also setting up a single email for several different people...

don’t tell me how to do it, just help me finding the resources.

For number 1, take a look at the files that come with TXnewsletters. If there is a language directory (I don’t know offhand), you can just translate the language file there and tell the snippet which file to use.

For number 2, take a look at SPForm. It’s easy to configure with a drop-down list, is fairly spam-proof, and it hides the email addresses from spam-bots. It does have a language file.

http://bobsguides.com/spform-tutorial.html

It’s a pretty simple form. If you need a more complex form, look at eForm -- not as easy to get working, but much more flexible and powerful.

I’m not sure exactly what you want for #3, but you might be able to do it using MODx permissions and just restrict users to certain pages containing the downloads. http://bobsguides.com/permissions.html

Hope this helps.

Bob

thanks BobRay!

One other question I do have though; is it possible to set the manager up to be a kind of basic CRM? instead of having specific pages on the site for certain users, could I set the manager up with a TV to have mail and attachments listed there for individual employees? For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to have the email copied to the mail area of the manager, it works fine as far as sending out email to the address indicated but I can’t figure out how to have eform send it to the manager as well. Also is it possible to have the upload form appear only for authenticated users while visitors looking at the same page only see the basic form?...I am off to investigate your suggestions...

Second question first, you can control access to the upload form in a variety of ways. The simplest is to use the Personalize snippet, which will show one chunk to logged-in users and another to non-logged-in users.

Also, a simple custom snippet can forward unauthorized users to some other page.

Finally, you can create a web user group and a web document group (with the upload page in it). When you tie those two together, only logged-in users in that user group will be able to access the upload page.

On the message system: TBH, I’ve never used it. I suspect that it is not an email system at all, but a PM system. There is probably a way to have eForm plug the messages into it but someone else will have to help you there.

that’s it!! thanks so very much...I guess I really am just making huge problems out of things which have simple solutions

Glad to help. I won’t guarantee that there’s a simple way of connecting eForm and the Manager message system (though there may be -- it’s an interesting question and I wish I had time to look into it), but the rest should be relatively easy.