Creating content management capabilities for non-technical clients

Hello,

I’m becoming comfortable with integrating a website into MODx (templates, TVs, snippets, chunks, etc).

However, I’m trying to determine the best methods of actually creating a CMS for my clients vs. creating a CMS for myself. There are a lot of "how to" instructions, but I haven’t found anything that ties it all together.

For example, I have a list of items on a webpage. The list makes use of a script that opens to reveal more content when the link is selected. For an example, take a look at http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex17/animatedcollapse.htm

Imagine a page of collapsible divs, all of them as list items in an unordered list (see http://dynastyconcierge.com/services.html).

If I want to give my client the ability to add new items to the list, how best to go about this ’the MODx way’? It’s straightforward enough for me to create a nice re-usable snippet/chunk, but I’m not sure how to provide a simple interface for a non-technical user. I don’t think the TinyMCE editor would suffice when there is a lot of JS under the hood, but I could very well be missing something.

Thanks in advance.

Hi thissideup,

...this could help, see the demo at the bottom: http://modxrules.com/articles/creating-a-simple-faq-section

I can think of several ways...

You can use ManagerManager to configure the back-end so it
includes icons, shortcuts and forms (and hide all the other
stuff that makes it look like a CMS for developers)

You can use QuickManager so that the user can enter content
from the front end easily.

You can use a lot of the jQuery plugins to implement javascript
fuctionality, like the ones you indicated in your links. The
client will fill a form field (actually a template variable) with
their info and that gets added to the content and jQuery does its
magic.

You can also try FDM(Front Document Manager) or create your own forms with eform that on submit will change the TV values or properties of the some documents.
An example here.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

A couple of newbie questions:

Where do I get the Front Document Manager and the Quick Manager? Are there demos of how they work?

Secondly, my hope was to give my client access to the resource page for each document, but to somehow customize the page for each resource. So, in the Services page that I have developed, have a way for them to add a new div by just entering a heading, description, and a unique string, hit ’add’, and presto they can make use of the save, preview, and cancel buttons that are already provided. They can also see all of the existing entries they have made, and choose to delete or modify each one. Obviously, I would have to implement the ability to do this.

I believe there is a disconnect in the way that I thought this was going to be accomplished and the way it actually will be. I’m trying to figure out the latter.

Quote from: thissideup at Nov 27, 2009, 11:41 PM

Where do I get the Front Document Manager and the Quick Manager?

QuickManager+ comes with MODx default installation. Just preview your site while logged in manager and hover your mouse at the top of the page.

There’s a lot configuration options in QM+ so you can easily add your own buttons to QM+ toolbar. Read more instructions: assets/plugins/qm/readme.html.

Front Document Manager is here: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,14977.0.html