per page configuration

Hello,

I’m currently in a trial phase, trying to figure out whether modx is a good idea for our purposes (which are multiple (6 right now) enterprise sized websites in 4 languages and a lot of special adaptations) and i ran into a couple of things regarding templates which i’d like to see denied or confirmed.

1. I need a very flexible template system. Now i hear modx is flexible, but I’m having my doubts. For example if I configure the Wayfinder plugin *in* the template (the startid page) does that mean I need a new template for every page where the startid is different? With 4 languages to publish in, this would mean 4 times as much templates. Typo3 solves this problem using a templaterecord tree layed over the page tree. I hate typo3 but just to clarify the problem.

2. Secondly, is it correct that I can specify only 1 column of main content in a template and the rest is going to have to be chunks? I am having to go to deal with text writers, and I really cannot ask them to bother with too many things to learn for them. Our site uses multiple areas where content is placed and i cannot explain to them why this part is edited by clicking the page and that part in the chunk manager part.

3. Is it correct that there is no way to separate content on a single page based on the paragraph? so that when somebody screws up the page not everything is gone, and which also allows for hiding of parts of the page?

These are 3 questions that come to my mind right now, any feedback is really appreciated. Modx looks beautiful so far but I’m not so sure its fitted for enterprise applications right now.

thanks!

1. There are a number of methods to handle multiple languages in MODx. If you are using the "language subfolder" method, where each language is a subfolder from the root. You could use Wayfinder in tandem with UltimateParent. Searching these forums will give you this solution in greater detail.

2. You’re answer here is going to be in Template Variables (TVs). For instance, I have a TV named sidebar that contains the navigation menu for my website. Individual uses will vary. I also use TVs for Job Application forms, and keeping track of basic information about schools (one school per page). You can further aggregate this information using the Ditto Snippet.

3. Content Versioning is on the roadmap for MODx, but not until 1.0. Could you provide some example applications that satisfy this requirement for you?

Hi and thanks for your reply!

1. Its not just a multi-language issue. We are using a lot of different page layouts with the same menu and I would like to define that menu in only one place. Maybe a pageid key of like ’-1’ for the parent page of the current page would satisfy my needs. I’ll look into your suggestion though.

Maybe what i need would be something like a way to plug an *instance* of a module into the template, and a way to configure that instance, instead of pluggin in the module itself and configure it in the template.

2. That is exactly what I meant. How am i going to explain to my textwriters that this part of the page needs to be edited by clicking the page and clicking edit, and that part by going to resources->TV and picking one of the hundreds (literally) TV’s that’s going to be there? Besides, it doesn’t make sense in the first place because a lot of those TV’s are associated only with 1 page so I really don’t want a list of all of them. I want to be able to edit them when I click a page.

The approach modx takes is perfect for simple websites, but take a look at this: http://www.topdesk.com/ There are 4 columns there which all are more or less the same. They all appear only on this page. How would i do this without using a table in the rte itself?

3. Content versioning would be very nice but its not exactly what i mean. What i mean is related to the issue above. In bigger companies, things break and/or become outdated. Text will need to be rewritten but in the meantime you would like to hide that text for the time being. This feature is used a lot in our company. Look at this: http://www.topdesk.com/en/home/downloads/introduction/ , for example if the ’topdesk demo version’ becomes temporarely unavailable I would like to hide that paragraph.

Other CMS’s solve this problem by dividing the content in blocks that can be edited separately, moved, hidden etc.

Regarding 2 and 3, allow me to show you an example from typo3. I attached a screenshot. I don’t like this system and the interface is messy, but bear with me. You see 4 columns that correspond with different parts, columns or whatever on a page. Each column can be divided further by blocks that are displayed under each other and can be manipulated separately. This is exactly what we want.

Thanks!

Hello Erik,

what you describe is exactly the one thing I’m missing with modX. The possibility of dividing the page content into a variable number of blocks (of different type). This would make it much easier to delete or edit just one paragraph. Or to control the date/time when a paragraph resp. a content block should be visible to the front end user.

But I like modX so much that I put up with that. sirlancelot already explained that much can be done with TVs. And that certainly is true. But it is difficult (if possible at all) to achieve your/our goal.

Martin

2. That is exactly what I meant. How am i going to explain to my textwriters that this part of the page needs to be edited by clicking the page and clicking edit, and that part by going to resources->TV and picking one of the hundreds (literally) TV’s that’s going to be there? Besides, it doesn’t make sense in the first place because a lot of those TV’s are associated only with 1 page so I really don’t want a list of all of them. I want to be able to edit them when I click a page.

The approach modx takes is perfect for simple websites, but take a look at this: http://www.topdesk.com/ There are 4 columns there which all are more or less the same. They all appear only on this page. How would i do this without using a table in the rte itself?

I think you’ve misunderstood how TV’s work. Text-writers would not have to go to the resources section at all. TV’s are assigned to templates and then appear on the edit page. All the text-writer would have to do is, on the edit page, choose the appropriate template. For TOPdesk for instance I can see 3 different templates of which the 2 templates with the 3 columns can share TV’s (assigned as RTE’s). TV’s are (or can be) exactly like the main content area. That is entirely up to you.

I’d like to clarify the use of TVs even more because it took me a long time to grasp their realistic use as well. It’s easy to misunderstand what they are and the next version of MODx will be changing what they are called to relieve some confusion.

Template Variables can more easily be referred to as Custom Content Values. The only relation they have to templates in a MODx sense is that in order for a TV to be used on a MODx document, you have to be using the template that the TV is assigned to.

After taking a quick look at your website I see really only 2 different templates, and I would name them like this: "Topdesk Home" & "Topdesk page". The homepage would be used only as many times as you have available languages, and the other template is for all of your other pages.

Attached is an image of your home page with what I think would be a good way to divide your homepage in to TVs. Those 4 columns I chose to merge because each box links to pages that are all in the same folder ("solutions/"), this leads me to believe that your solution would be in the Ditto snippet.

The footer TV, since it is available throughout the each page on the site would be available on both templates with a default value of "@INHERIT", this will allow you to cascade any change you make to the top level TV down to all of your pages.

Personally, I see this as a somewhat simple setup for MODx. I’d definitely read the documentation about MODx Template Variables. In regard to being able to "hide" certain paragraphs or "chunks" of content on your site, check out adding chunks.

Great site design by the way!