what is your workflow in doing CMS site?

I have done 6 sites in CMSc and finally realized that I am not very productive, one of the reason I think is because I am still not familiar with the 3 CMSs I have the sites developed, thus many learning curve; on the other hand I am so used to making static sites and therefor still can’t get rid of the habit.

My workflow follows these: wireframe --> mockup --> CSS /xhtml coding for static page --> when everything works as expected for all browsers, I then create template(s) for the CMSs, after that I add chunks, snippets and plugins. I wonder anybody is so good who can skip coding first for the static page, and jump directly to template coding for CMS. I tried for one of the sites I did last month but couldn’t get very far despite that I know what the layout looks like from the mockup, I can’t really work without making sure everything works in static page first. Sometimes it’s 2 or 3 days works I am talking

tgp

I do exactly the same thing, and it seems like a decent workflow to me. I use filler content while coding the static mock-up and then I just replace it with the snippets and variables that I need to use to make it into a MODx template. I used to make the templates right away and skip the static mock-up, but I find it’s easier/quicker to make changes to a static page and view it locally rather than working on the server at that stage.

I create static pages for the templates in Dreamweaver >> Test in Browsers >> Then I use MAMP to build the web site using MODx locally >> Save the local MODx database and take the web site live

I pretty much do he same as the first post. What i find a drag is when I go from original css/html template to modX template since in order to get the menus to work you need to build the pages first which is a twist from my traditional method of building the master page then all the other pages as needed and modifying the links to accommodate the new pages. It would be cool to have a one step site structure builder where you could set up multiple pages and containers in one step (there might be such a feature and I have just not found it yet, I would not be surprised).

1) Built standard templates
2) Build site structure in ModX
3) ModXify the template
4) Add content

1. Sketch out on paper general website design concept/structure.
2. Design layout in Photoshop.
3. Translate to a static XHTML page.
4. Make it cross-browser compliant.
5. Import into MODx.
6. Create structure (all pages) of site in MODx.
7. Go back and insert content into site.
8. Add snippets/etc to necessary pages.

Has anyone got any tips or good organization methods with chunks and templates and all things that generally sit in MODx?

For example I would divide my pages code into header, footers etc and for example put my <div="footer"><p>footer</p></div> code in a chunk named ’Footer’ in a category ’Footer’.. At the moment that way of organizing my chunks works but I feel it could be tighter and more intuitive. Although I do feel I should be using template variables more but I don’t fully understand how fit in my workflow.

For example a set of related links. At the moment I’m using variations of the same template calling variations of the same chunk, but I’m sure it could be done with template variables!>?

I feel I’m being picky but I just want my basic site structure to be more streamline and make my CMS’in a breeze. Any tips would be appreciated.





maybe future version of MODx needs a hierarchy tree system for chunks

• Content Analysis
• Layout Designs in Fireworks
• Text Edit static, valid HTML/CSS in e-Text editor, based on Combination of Self Made Framework and Base HTML site templates
• Browser Testing
• XAMPP install of MODx site for client
• Place static files including template images, CSS and template specific scripts into the /assets/templates/client_template
• Copy Static HTML pages into first MODx template
• Place various snippet calls into the template
• Strip out common sections of Template and place into Chunks
• Create Sub-Templates
• Insert Content
• Editorial Review
• Final validation
• 2nd Browser Review with live content
• Backup DB and upload to Production server
• Place all other files on production server

Personally I think that this could be alot faster if the templating could be done via import using a module. Say drop all files into the templates folder and then run a snippet to migrate them into the db. I don’t think that this would be all that hard--just a formatted structure for the files and then using standard naming to label the chunks, templates and snippets and their categories.

As it stands now, the most time consuming part of production of a MODx site is cutting the templates into chunks and then placing the chunk references back into the templates. If you had 10 or 15 chunks for your template you need to have 3 or four tabs open all the time to jump between to do the templating. It is far too slow to have to do this. When I was developing my own php templates or uses WordPress becuase the template files are not in the DB I can edit them live in my editor of choice without having to switch between editor and manager and save and refreshing.

I would say that this is in fact my only real complaint with MODx is the manager is slow--never mind the clumsy two level navigation. If anything could speed production by 20-30% this would be it--fixing the manager to make it easier to move between first level management screens more quickly and more intuitively.

thanks for you reply smashingred my general workflow is very similar. Thankfully because I do a lot of 3D design I have a 2 monitor setup so I can have templates and chunks on either screen which speeds things up.

I have to agree my slow down is working and the overall organisation of my chunks in the manager. With my site-wide chunks I would like to be able to put all my headers, footer, meta chunk in a folder and collapse it away from view. Then do that for the rest of my chunks... where I’m going with this is too be able to collapse away each of the resources to free up screen estate.

Anyway I’m sure this has been discussed by the dev team so hopefully the revamp of the manager in .97 will enhance the creation and organisation of sites in MODx .

Quote from: smashingred at Aug 20, 2007, 11:33 AM

[...]
When I was developing my own php templates or uses WordPress becuase the template files are not in the DB I can edit them live in my editor of choice without having to switch between editor and manager and save and refreshing.
[...]

If you experience the sourcecode being in the datbase as a barrier then maybe this is yor you: You can use the following snippet to include a file from the filesystem, you can use it to load a file into a chunk, template or a snippet.


On a sidenote: When developing you should call it in the uncached fashion or you’ll end up wondering.
On a second sidenote: I don’t know to whom credits are due for this snippet, i found it in the mollio package from the repo. Could have done it myself though but the idea never came to my mind until i saw this

@MrDutchy Thanks for that. That may be of help but it would be nice to be able to have a listener script of some sort to automatically see common files in the template or in a given folder. I will however give it a whirl. Thanks.