Giving modx a chance?

12 Posts

area7 Reply #1, 17 years, 2 months ago

I have been using Mambo/Joomla for years - I used to develop in plain html then decided to go with CMS as my sites were getting quite big. After hearing about MODx when I was playing in my server under simple scripts, I decided to check it out, did a bunch of research on it and finally installed it 4 days ago. It sounded like everything I totally needed and I was SOLD on how simple it was to use. NOW - in the last 4 days, I have been so freeking confused with the backend structure, the terminilogy and STILL havent been able to produce even a template for my site as I’ve had to keep looking at tutorials, searching sites for help. Then going back in the manager and trying to copy paste script. So far I am quite unhappy with the learning curve after being used to Joomla for so many years. It is NOT a simple transition but I really want to learn this. A joomla site I can have up and running within the same day with logo’s graphics, structure.....everything. What does everyone suggest? Do I keep trying to learn modx? Did it take anybody this long to get nowhere? So far its been 4 days of research and installation, then 4 days of trying to get something up and running with no results.

I’m not computarded and my learning ability USUALLY is quick with CMS systems. This one is the most confusing one by far to learn.

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872 Posts

lossendae Reply #2, 17 years, 2 months ago

MODx is really good if you know php and html.

PHP to make your own script, HTML because templates are basically HTML with MODx tags.
The thing that i’ve found harder in MODx are templates variables. But you don’t need them to start a basic website.

Have you tried the demo site installed with MODx?
It can be a good start to learn the MODx terminology in real context.

Honestly, the learning curve might be different for each peoples. Before MODx, I tried Joomla (several times, several releases),SPIP, Dotclear and Wordpress.

While it’s true that i could make a website in minutes with Joomla, it was a real nightmare to personalize the websites, thay all look the same. That’s when my interest for HTML rise up and when i discovered also MODx.
It took me one week to get a basic understanding of MODx, it is not a "click and go" tools.

I don’t know if have visited those two websites who are great resources for beginners:

You should also post an example of codes that gives you issues.

2,314 Posts

anonymized-26931 Reply #3, 17 years, 2 months ago

Hi,

here’s another great tutorial: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/other/working-with-a-content-management-framework-modx/

1,390 Posts

kongondo Reply #4, 17 years, 2 months ago

area7,

I used joomla myself for a number of years. My experience is that MODx itself isn’t hard to learn. The hardest part I found was "unlearning" the way I used to do things in other CMSs. Yes, the terminology needs getting used to, but hey, in Joomla, you had terminology too, right? Having said that, MODx is not a point and click system. On the other hand, you do get a lot of flexibility with MODx.

With your knowledge of HTML and CSS you will find it quite easy to prepare a MODx template. Don’t give up now; once you get it with MODx, you really get it. I find that knowledge of PHP is not a requirement but an added bonus. I know next to nothing about PHP and here I am using MODx

Anyway, let’s take this step by step. You will find the community very helpful.

1. Which tutorial’s have you looked at?
bob’s guides, mary’s coding pad, modx wiki?

2. When you talk about scripts which type are you referring to?

3. You will most likely find making a MODx template the easiest part. Any html template will do. All you need to do is insert modx document tags and you are ready to go.

I guess I am a bit generic in this post but paste your template code here (preferably in within code tags) and we can take it from there. Or paste a screenshot of what you want to do.

cheers/k

Wayfinder Lessons: The (almost) Complete Guide to Creating Menus in MODx Using Wayfinder

12 Posts

area7 Reply #5, 17 years, 2 months ago

thanks for your reply - I am good at html and php - Profficient actually. Been designing for 10 years now.I guess I will give modx a few more days to learn, but anything after that, I might have to give up and go old school.

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24,524 Posts

sottwell Reply #6, 17 years, 2 months ago

Ah, in that case, you might find these useful as well. http://www.sottwell.com/modx-from-the-inside.html

Studying MODX in the desert - http://sottwell.com
Tips and Tricks from the MODX Forums and Slack Channels - http://modxcookbook.com
Join the Slack Community - http://modx.org

12 Posts

area7 Reply #7, 17 years, 2 months ago

quote: 3. You will most likely find making a MODx template the easiest part. Any html template will do. All you need to do is insert modx document tags and you are ready to go.

modx document tags Hmmmm. Sounds like alot of work for something you want with a simple output.

1,390 Posts

kongondo Reply #8, 17 years, 2 months ago

Quote from: area7 at Aug 15, 2009, 01:00 PM

quote: 3. You will most likely find making a MODx template the easiest part. Any html template will do. All you need to do is insert modx document tags and you are ready to go.

modx document tags Hmmmm. Sounds like alot of work for something you want with a simple output.

Here’s an example template from the wiki with MODx tags (e.g. it needs to know where to insert the content) and some "snippet calls".

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
 <html>
   <head>
      <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
      <base href="[(site_url)]"></base>
      <title> [*pagetitle*] | [(site_name)]</title>

      <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="[(base_url)]assets/templates/tutorial/css/style.css" />

      </head>

      <body>

      <div id="branding">

      </div> <!-- end of branding -->
       
      <div id="menu"> <!-- Horizontal menu at top of branding. -->

      [!Wayfinder?startId=`0` &level=`1`!]

      </div>

      <div id="content-main">

      [*content*]

      </div> <!-- end content-main -->

      <div id="content-sub">

      <div id="navigation"> <!-- vertical menu – it's all done with the CSS -->

      [!Wayfinder?startId=`0`!]

      </div><!-- end of navigation -->
  
      </div> <!-- end content-sub -->

      <div id="site-info">

      {{cixfooter}}

      </div> <!-- end of site-info -->

     </body>

cheers/k

Wayfinder Lessons: The (almost) Complete Guide to Creating Menus in MODx Using Wayfinder

12 Posts

area7 Reply #9, 17 years, 2 months ago

I know there is a total redesign of modx (Revolution) will it be easier to learn than evolution? I have tried to install it on my server but halted on installation stating: memory_limit needs be higher than 32mb. I have extensivly gone through all the steps to change that setting with my server support specialist and still didnt change - took me 2 days to try to install revolution. Evolution installed in a snap with the built in simple scripts. Anyway back to the question, should I be using Revolution?

1,390 Posts

kongondo Reply #10, 17 years, 2 months ago

Quote from: area7 at Aug 15, 2009, 01:12 PM

Anyway back to the question, should I be using Revolution?

If you have a pressing project then no...because there isn’t a whole lot components (snippets, etc) for this version yet. Then again, it is beta, though it does work well (like on modxcms.com)...

/k

Wayfinder Lessons: The (almost) Complete Guide to Creating Menus in MODx Using Wayfinder