Hi guys,
I’m just trying to gather some information and ideas as to the differences between using Modx to generate a blog for my site or just running an install of Wordpress, and what the differences/benefits/advantages/disadvantages of either one may be.
I tried to query this before asking in the forum, but all I got were references to ’webloginpe’ and stuff like that.
Thanks for any comments!
Cris
Here’s my 2c. If all you want is a blog, use Wordpress.
If what you want is primarily a website with a blog component, you can do one of two things: you can build your complete website and blog in MODx, use Ditto and Jot for the blog, plus there are other snippets you can use to get the blog functionality working perfectly in MODx. Otherwise, integrate MODx with Wordpress. There are quite a few posts about that on the forums too.
Wordpress is the perfect blogging engine, and is powerful for that purpose. MODx is a powerful and flexible CMS/F that you can use to build whatever you want, including a blog. That said, you have to weigh what you need to create versus the effort involved in the creation process. MODx is not as plug and play as some of the more common CMSs out there but then that allows you more flexibility and versatility in what you can create. SO really it all comes down to what you want to do and what is the most optimal way to get there. For my blogs that are primarily blogs with a couple of non-blog pages I use Wordpress, but if I’m building a website that’s NOT primarily a blog, I would opt for MODx or something else. But there are instances where I WOULD use MODx for a blog if I anticipated it growing into something else, because that would give me lots of latitude and room for future growth.
Hope this helps somewhat.
Great post Mary!
My $.02 is this. I tried around 12 CMS platforms before deciding to focus on MODx and Wordpress (to a lesser extent.)
Wordpress is a killer blog tool. If you are OK with picking a theme, maybe swapping a banner image and need to focus on blogging then go with Wordpress. If your site is going to have several components, multiple managers, editors etc and want 100% CONTROL over the design and template then pick MODx.
Designing a custom layout and design is much easier than Wordpress. As another post recently stated "its easier to get MODx to blog than it is to get Wordpress to look like a real website." Or words to that effect. Chris at CSS-TRICKS has a great video tutorial on how to build a custom them for Wordpress from the ground up. He is great a presenting ideas but I was blown away how much more complicated this process is than MODx. You really have to thread your design elements around all the Wordpress code a lot more carefully.
MODx is a designers dream CMS in my book. Wordpress has a lot more plug and play pieces and is WAY better documented than MODx though.
Thanks to both of you! Mary, your input pretty much made it clear for me. My site is much more than the blog, so I’ll do it via modx.
Now... any ideas for the forum? I understand that modx has a bridge module to work with the simple machines forum. Would this maybe be the best way to go? I had thought of going with vbulletin, but from what I’ve read the two don’t play well together.
Again, any comments are very welcome!
Cris
Depends on how much integration you’re looking for. If your website will have membership and you want that shared with the forum, then you’d need to integrate pretty tightly, using a bridge. For Evo, the SMF bridge is one option, but I know people have had trouble with it. There’s a vanilla forum integration somewhere in the forums too, just do a search. Revolution has an inbuilt forum - Discuss, which is in alpha but worth a try.
If you don’t have user membership as part of your site, so only in the forums, then it’s easier, you can just frame the forum in the MODx website, which I think is how the MODx forums are integrated. Just skin the forum to resemble your site template.
