Experienced CMS users and website developers - Advice needed!

Hi.

I am about to commit some serious time and effort to learning a new tool and I would really like to hear some honest advice from those with broad CMS and website development experience.

I am trying to select a CMS or blogging software to help me build a series of small websites and MODx interests me. I know xhtml and I can hack css files to get the basics done, but I have not learned PHP (I could). I have some experience installing and running Wordpress-based sites, but I have not really learned to hack Wordpress or work in its template system.

I want to choose the best CMS or blogging software to help me quickly create an ongoing series of small websites (approx 1 a month) that will consist of: a main page, a series of static article pages built around keywords (maybe 4-5), some static landing pages (for PPC) and a blog-like or articles page. I say "blog-like" because I want a simple backend system for posting stories every few days, but I do not care about comments and trackbacks. The ability to create custom forms for sidebars and landing pages is also very important. Compliant code and strong SEO features are at the top of my list.

I have looked at Drupal, Joomla and Expression Engine. Drupal and Joomla seem overwhelming to me and are probably more than I need. I haven’t put much time into EE, but it also seems to be more than I need (the cost aspect does not bother me). I was going to commit to learning how to hack Wordpress when I ran across MODx. The ease of incorporating xhtml/css sites into its templating system is really enticing. But I am concerned about the lack of learning materials for beginners, such as good books, video training, etc.

Is MODx for someone like me??

Thank you.
Bill

I’m not exactly neutral, but it sounds like MODx might be a very good fit for you. It’s hard to beat WordPress for blogging, but it can be very frustrating if you want to go beyond blogging, especially if you don’t need all its bells and whistles.

I’d advise you to play around with MODx a little. Check out the site in my sig and there are some very good tutorials for beginners elsewhere. Here are couple:

http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Beginner’s_Guide_to_MODx
http://codingpad.maryspad.com/2009/03/28/building-a-website-with-modx-for-newbies-part-1-introduction/

I’d say modx might not be the best thing here, and spending some additional time with Wordpress might be a better way to go.

If you don’t already know a basic amount of php, you’ll have a hard time creating custom features, in comparison to WP, where you just grab the plug-in that someone already developed, and there’s a lot to chose from.

And as far as blogging goes, modx is not the best choice for that either. I think making modx blog is not as difficult as getting WP look like a regular website.

but if you’re willing to get your hands a bit dirty and spend some time playing with chunks, snippets and TVs - you will find that modx is very rewarding.

I haven’t had enough experience with ModX to give you an opinion on its suitability, but I suggest you look at Website Baker which is great for simple sites and is very easy to learn and administer.

I am looking at ModX for use on more complex sites where I believe it will be better than WB.

ExpressionEngine isn’t a bad choice... you can use their free version, but the UI is a bit overly blog focused in my opinion and the URL structures have limitations, but at least it doesn’t restrict your templates as heavily as Drupal.

I’m gonna echo what the others are saying: from how you described your requirements and your background, MODx sounds perfect for you. If you know HTML and CSS a bit, I have yet to see a better system for implementing designs than MODx, and in my opinion, MODx is the best system available for smaller sites that focus more on "static" type content (say 100-1000 pages). Drupal is handy for some tasks, but has a poor interface in my opinion and is needlessly complicated and totally inflexible in some situations. Wordpress is a great blogging tool, but the niche you described is exactly where MODx outshines them all in my opinion.

Hope that helps.

Everett has put it very well. Let me mention something about PHP. Many of us knew no PHP when we first learned MODx. Inevitably, you’ll pick some up as you go along but you can make quite a nice MODx site without using any PHP.

To really make MODx sing, you’ll want to learn some PHP (and MODx provides a nice platform to learn it in), but you can do quite a lot with MODx without knowing any PHP at all, especially in MODx Revolution where the snippets and plugins will install themselves.