Understanding MODx / Getting Started

From my (possibly now changed) forum signature:

MODx is ideal for web professionals that need an easy-to-customize application framework. It allows them to turn over sites to end-users for daily maintenance—without worrying.

We appreciate thoughtful participation and questions from everyone. Before requesting help please read the wiki, Google search the forums, learn a bit of PHP and CSS, examine the parameters in the snippet code, and then ask. (We’ll offer a more “newbie-friendly” release and author better documentation in the future. Our immediate focus is on core improvements.)

This forum is a hopeful answer to addressing that second paragraph. MODx is in a big transition stage that will ultimately make it both much more robust and capable, and at the same time more simple. But the core team needs time to focus on that (and while it’s happening the entire core is being documented in full).

MODx is completely different than most other CMSes/CMFs out there. It’s incredibly flexible and doesn’t force you into any strict building patterns. This is a blessing, or it’s a curse, depending on what makes you tick. There’s probably 3-4 ways to reach the same end result for almost any typical web site/app building task.

MODx is also not about being "YAPS" (Yet Another Portal System). There’s tons of questions about "can MODx do X or Y" and the answer is invariably "yes" but with the caveat of you need to spend a bit of time working through some custom coding. With that disclaimer though, there’s a suprising amount of resources available.

Finally, keep in mind that in the spirit of trying to be flexible, our resources tend to be able to used for a variety of tasks by simply changing up their output templates. For example, Ditto can be used to make blogs, PR archives, News/Article repository, bio listings, FAQ listings, full-blown Ajax-effects driven galleries, shopping cart catalogs and more.

Some things you should really look at first:

• The MODx Documentation—while it may be a bit out of date and the screen shots may not quite match, there’s a wealth of information in there including how to install, how to move servers, how templates work, etc.
• The wiki—especially the Installation and Upgrades and the FAQ. It all deserves a look honestly, and if you figure something out, please post it there. If it’s not 100% clear don’t worry as the wiki is editable and correctable by a variety of people that would love to see it grow and flourish.

Thanks for your time. Enjoy your stay here. (Have a bit of patience please!) And welcome to MODx.

You might also want to get into more of the esoteric idiosyncrasies for insight into what makes the project tick:

• Rethinking MODx—a long meandering thread that shows a lot about the thoughts we’ve gone through.
• Thoughts on "folder" vs. "containers"—yet another long one that shows we pay attention to really small details. We may not always get it right or make everyone happy, but we do take a lot into consideration from top to bottom.

Have more candidates for this list? Please note them in this thread and we’ll add them for new folks that come around. Thanks again!

And finally, to duplicate a post that bears repeating in this thread:

When making support requests, please make sure to provide information about your web server and your client machine:

Web Server:

• PHP version and how it’s running (suexec, mod_php, CGI, etc.)
• Apache or IIS version
• Operating System and version

Database:

• MySQL version
• List of any tables over 1MB in size

MODx:

• Version
• Any changes you’ve made
• Any snippets you’re running on the page that is not working properly
• Any plugins you’re running

Browser/Client:

• Browser name and version
• Operating System and version

This will go a long way towards being able to quickly resolve or duplicate and bugs as applicable, and should result in a better overall support experience.

Further, if you’re seeing problems with snippets not seeming to work right, make sure you’re enclosing parameters in back-tics, not single-quotes. On US-English keyboards that’s the key typically found at the top-left of the number row: `

Thanks!