Blog Tutorial Questions

I’ve recently discovered Shaun McCormick’s detailed tutorial on creating a blog using ModX Revolution and after seeing it in action on his own site, I became interested in applying it on a site I’m building. The tutorial, if you’re interested, is located here:

http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Creating+a+Blog+in+MODx+Revolution

Now, please keep in mind that I am a complete newbie with ModX (working with it for a few days). I’ve followed the tutorial to the letter, with the exception of differing id numbers, which I adjusted in the correct places. Unfortunately, all I get is a blank screen where there should be at least one blog posting.

After looking around for where I went wrong, I noticed something that I don’t know if it can be the cause of my problem, and that is where I’m asking your help:

There are a few parts in the tutorial that call for creating a new resource and then adding some code in the content area (for instance, the part on ’Creating the Sections’ and/or ’Setting Up Your Blog Home’). I go to the Resources tab in the left-hand side, click on the ’Create Resource’ button and in the content area, I use the html editor to paste the code. When I add the code, either by copy/pasting or by manually typing it in, using either the html editor or the content area, all of the ampersands come out as the HTML name code ...not the glyph character itself. No matter what I do, after I make the change and save/update the page, the resulting code still shows the ampersand as the named code.

In other words, sample code comes out looking like:



Instead of:



Is that normal or is that enough to sabotage the project?

Thank you in advance.

Try turning off the Rich Text Editor, its the RTE which is changing & to &

Thanks for responding! At the risk of sounding stupid... how do you switch it off? Do I just uninstall tinymce?

There will be a checkbox for using the rich text editor when editing the resource; it will be in one of its settings tabs.

Thank you, Susan. I found it.

Well, I’ve switched off the rich text editor and cleaned up the code but still no dice. I still get a blank screen.

Has anyone out there followed Shaun’s blog tutorial? The one located here:

http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Creating+a+Blog+in+MODx+Revolution

Can anyone out there confirm that the tutorial is workable? I assume that it is but I’m confident I’ve followed it to the letter as it is written. I would like to know what it is that I’m doing wrong, if for no other reason than to learn from it.

Thank you.

I cannot even get as far as you. Sounds like I may be more of a beginner as I’m getting stuck partway down the tutorial. I sent Shaun an request via his website asking for help but haven’t heard anything. Could be a fantastic tutorial with a little more work and I certainly appreciate the time it took to post.

Basically, I don’t feel that tutorial is really for absolute beginners. I noticed a few places where some more instruction or a screen capture would be helpful. I’m caught up at "Setting up the blogPost Chunk". I don’t understand where I’m to put that code.

Somewhat aside: it would be GREAT If there was a way to make basic packages that could easily be downloaded and deployed. For instance, what if all the resources, TVs, extras, etc could be downloaded and unpacked in one fell swoop as pretty much an example site with instructions as to changing the sections and tweeking the layout. I’d love to download and deploy a working blog infrastructure for which I only need to edit parts; no reason for us all to follow the exact same steps to get to the same point.

But, back to the problem at hand: can someone help the two of us make this work?

I can confirm that it is possible to produce a blog from the said tutorial.

However I would admit it could be hard for a complete beginner to follow.

@danj

I’m caught up at "Setting up the blogPost Chunk". I don’t understand where I’m to put that code.

Goto Elements > Chunks {right click} Create New Chunk.
Title = blogPost

Paste copied Code into Code window and save.
(I find it easier to {click} view plain and copy that as it does not have line no’s)

You will also have to create a Resource title "Reply to Thread" (no inverted commas) and copy following code(got from Quip Documentation)


You must also change two lines of code to reflect your Resource id’s

Base Template Line 28

to reflect the id of your Reply To Thread id (the no next to Resource in Tree)

Home Page (Resource id 1) in content Line 05


To reflect the id’s of your two Container Resources (Personal & Technology)

I also created two chunks
Title = pageFooter


Title = pageHeader


This will not produce a stunning page layout but will get you started.

Hope this gets you on way.(not the best style tutorial)

And Welcome to MODx THE REVOLUTION