Is MODx appropriate for me?

I apologize if this is in the incorrect forum I’m not entire sure where else it might go. My topic is pretty self-explanatory. I’m pretty new to this whole CMS thing. It’s always been a great idea that I’ve never needed. Now I’ve been tasked with taking over the website for my church. I’m trying to find a CMS to manage it and I started at drupal but after reading some of the comments on the demo page, I thought I might be more interested in MODx (thanks teks). You guys have been praised with having a community which is "absolutely outstanding".

Right now the website is pretty basic. The pastor has a ’blog’ but it’s really just a single page he updates by editing a text file. I’d like to give him something more like a real blog he wants community feedback and would like comments on his entries. I put a google calendar on there and I think it will work pretty fine for what he needs but if I can find something better with MODx I wouldn’t say no. I need to be able to update an Events and News section. For some reason that didn’t occur to me earlier those don’t necessarily need to be two columns. We’re not that busy. I’d like to be able to put up a photo gallery. There are various ministries that will have their own small snippets. That part will probably be pretty static.
The pastor would like this website to become a sort of social networking hub for the church and it’s members. So while I don’t think we want to turn it into a web portal I’d like to get some things like an RSS feed, a podcast, a live video feed, and (and this part is rather sketchy in my head) a community resource section. I’ve been using NowLive for the video feed and worst case scenario as long as I can embed that the results have been very satisfactory. The podcast I might be able to take care of in a similar way but I’d like to have a way for people to send a message directly to the pastor.

I don’t mind investing the time and energy require to learn how to use the system but I’m wary of implementing a system that’s .. well let’s just say I don’t want to try to sway my fly with a machine gun. I’ve been looking at Drupal, MODx, and Website Baker so far, but I figure who else better to gauge whether the solution fits my needs than the community. If there are other popular systems that would work better for me I’m open to your suggestions.

Hello,

You should be able to accomplish that without too much trouble.

Ditto will allow you to take pages and combine them to make a news page and/or blog. It also handles creating RSS feeds. Jot will allow you to have comments/guestbook feeback. You can use Newspublisher and weblogin to allow posting of news without needing to login to the manager. This is good if you don’t want the pastor to be using the manager or you have someone that just needs to post news. WebloginPE would allow you to create more of a community section as it’s an enhanced version of weblogin.

This should get you going on podcasting and such: http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Attach_Audio_/_Podcasting_/_Vidcasting_/_Image_casting

You can use maxigallery to handle your gallery functions, and there is a GoogleEvents item that would let you display a google calendar on your site. If you wanted a modx solution easyevents will likely be a good solution.

The best place to start would just be to setup modx and install install the sample site data. That will give you a working blog system to start with (webuser login, rss feed, comments, and adding news from the website (vs manager)).

Hope that helps,
AMDbuilder

hey wolfkin,

do you know anything about html/css? or what’s your proficiency with web stuff?

Does there need to be any custom design or is a basic website what you’re looking for?

(btw - modx can handle the things you mentioned - some may take more customization than you want. hence the above questions.)

On the podcasting/blog side you might want to check out http://ditto.modxcms.com/ too.

Is MODx appropriate for me?

Yes

Everything you describe can be accomplished in MODx pretty much out of te box (minus the social networking). MODx is a hands-on CMS in the sense that you get the parts but there is still "some assembly required". In exchange you get much more freedom and control over the complete environment. If, on the other hand, you want less control and more plug-n-play, Drupal will work well (I guess it would work, i have never really used it).

Quote from: ChuckTrukk at Jan 15, 2009, 11:23 PM

hey wolfkin,

do you know anything about html/css? or what’s your proficiency with web stuff?

I wouldn’t call myself an expert by any means but I consider myself moderately proficient and as a plus I know how to read instructions if I can find them.

well thanks everyone. I guess it’s MODx for me. when I get it finished maybe I’ll share the site here for review/critique.