From ExpressionEngine to MODx

I’m converting myself to MODx, coming from ExpressionEngine.

Using templates, chunks and snippets is no problem for me with this new CMS.

However (Sorry, if this sounds like a complete newbie), I have to ask for some help:

In ExpressionEngine one creates dynamic sites by implementing multiple "weblogs" (or "sections") in a page. (Multiple parts on a page are manageable with "weblogs" or "sections".)

Can someone point me in the right direction how this is done in MODx? Do I have to use Ditto for such tasks?

Welcome aboard!

I am not familiar enough with EE to tell you.

But, ditto is quite useful, in fact I don’t think I could have done a site in MODx without it.

Documentation is a bit hard to find right now, but check out this site http://ditto.modxcms.com/
It should give you a few ideas of what you can do.

You can download the Ditto documentation to your computer here

I’m not too familiar with ditto, but as far as managing multiple sections in one page at least one way would be with Template Variables. However, if each section needs a WYSIWYG editor you could create a document with children and then have each child correspond to a section on a page (This would enable you to use the WYSYWIG from each document since TV’s don’t have a WYSIWYG editor).

So, if the parent document is "My MultiSection Page" you might have three children placed under this resource "Section 1", "Section 2", etc. In the template for this page in the editable area for section 1 you would write a snippet that gets the content from the resource with the id that you want. Or, if you wanted to have the documents populate underneath each other, you could just write a snippet that grabs all the children and inserts their content successively on the page.

Here’s an example of just that on a modx site that I created. http://www.reasonablefaithdallas.com/index.php?id=2. Whenever the client wants to create a new event they simply create a new document under the "event" folder and all the event documents are then sorted by date and populated. Now, for this particular page I used Template variables rather than the WYSIWYG editor, but the principal would be the same.

However, if each section needs a WYSIWYG editor you could create a document with children and then have each child correspond to a section on a page (This would enable you to use the WYSYWIG from each document since TV’s don’t have a WYSIWYG editor).

sure they do choose "Input Type: Rich Text"

Quote from: cipa at Sep 18, 2009, 01:14 PM

You can download the Ditto documentation to your computer here

I found this http://www.pogwatch.com/ditto.html by far to be the quickest way to get up to speed with Ditto.

Quote from: sharkbait at Sep 18, 2009, 11:32 PM

sure they do choose "Input Type: Rich Text"

Cool! Even better. I’ll have to experiment with that.

Welcome to MODx. Yes, EE thinks of pretty much everything as a weblog... that’s probably a strength somehow, but personally it drove me completely crazy... too one-track minded for me.

MODx’s "document" structure really emulates a static site with folders and documents. When you say that you want to make a dynamic site (page?) I think what you mean is how do you have a page that automatically updates, e.g. shows the most recent items. In MODx you’d have another "document", and within that document you’d put in Snippets. These Snippets are calls to PHP code... frequently for a front page (or any "dynamic" page), your Snippets will be things like code that selects the most recent documents, or show all the contents of a folder. Ditto is one such Snippet. WayFinder is another, but it’s designed for generating menus. In technical terms, both are selecting records from the database and formatting the results.

For me, EE was completely backwards in how it worked with templates... I can’t explain it very well, but I felt like it was pulling when I wanted to push. The end result on the page was the same, but the EE way just grated on my braincells... so I can understand if you are coming from EE, the MODx way might seem like the polarity switched. Hopefully you can look at some examples and it will make sense to you.

Good luck!

Quote from: rx2 at Sep 19, 2009, 12:16 AM

Quote from: cipa at Sep 18, 2009, 01:14 PM

You can download the Ditto documentation to your computer here

I found this http://www.pogwatch.com/ditto.html by far to be the quickest way to get up to speed with Ditto.

I agree. Pogwatch is the absolute best reference that I’ve found as well. It’s setup with examples and really easy explanations.

Thank you all for your help. I’m starting to love the system.