Flexibility and Separation of Content and Presentation

Hi all

I’m trying MODx as my first CMS and am having some questions about the quote "Build sites exactly as you want them".

The website I’m trying to make has a standard left, right and center column (left: menu, center: content, right: other) and also a header and a footer. But what kind of bothers me, is that when i want to (for example) have different content in my right column on a certain page (different than what’s in the right column on the other pages), I have to create a new template (copy original template and adjust it). I would like to be able to have more than one content field in the manager, so I can put this content field in the right column. Is this possible?

I’m also having questions about template variables when using them for content (like images or something), since they are only to be used in a template, when you switch template (presentation) you loose content (template variables).

Am I just being taught wrong and are there ways to manage content and presentation more separately and flexible?

Thx in advance.
Greetings, Kenny.

Quote from: K?! at Nov 03, 2009, 01:49 AM

Am I just being taught wrong and are there ways to manage content and presentation more separately and flexible?

You need a single template with a couple of TVs inside: [*leftcolumn*] [*rightcolumn*]

And those TV’s can be a file with html? could it be a chunk too, without messing around with code like here: http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Create_TV-Based_Chunks?

Quote from: K?! at Nov 03, 2009, 02:28 AM

And those TV’s can be a file with html?

Yes, anything - richtext area, images, @bindings, URLs... just look at the all included widgets.

could it be a chunk too, without messing around with code like here: http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Create_TV-Based_Chunks?

Sure, {{chunkName}} will do. You can also set default value of a TV to be predefined chunk with the same syntax...

ok, superb thx.
I’ll be trying that out.

I have one more question, if I make a TV (template variable) available to different templates and, for example, I put a picture in it, when I switch the template, will the used picture be available, of will I have to put the picture into the TV again?

Ps: no real need to answer this, I could test it later myself, but if anyone already knows it that would come in handy ;-).

Greetings and thanks for the useful answer
Kenny