A rant about design and CMS

Any more thoughts on this subject? Lots of interesting things coming down the pike and we’d like to know what the current pulse is like ...

We really, really need a better search feature for the forums.

Maybe even a custom script to provide something like an A-Z listing of keywords that would offer links to posts/topics using the keywords (ordered by most-use-of-keyword) - just a vague idea that has crossed my mind from time to time.

Here are my thoughts about it
- Search feature: as Susan said, the forum doesn’t work very well, when new users try to use it and find topics 5 years old might think that the project is no longer supported and say goodbye to MODx.
- Documentation: the documentation is scattered here and there. Due to many contributors, the documentation is often written with different layout/format.
- Evolution / Revolution: often Evo/Revo documentation is mixed, there should be a clear distinction.

Quote from: microcipcip at Jun 23, 2010, 02:34 PM

- Evolution / Revolution: often Evo/Revo documentation is mixed, there should be a clear distinction.

Evolution Documentation: http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/display/Evo1/

Revolution Documentation: http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/display/revolution/

My issue with most CMS systems is that they try to hard to make it easy for developers. Most hard core developers already have a fully functioning set of tools and they simply need a framework to build into. Any "assistance" outside of their tools, is only seen as a nuisance.

I love MODx simply because it simply handles my resource and user ACLs while staying completely out of my way to develop as I see fit.

I agree MODx has a learning curve -- but frankly you only need to learn what you want to. As your needs and skill-set grow, you will not find yourself at a dead end -- you will simply find another door waiting to be opened.

My only thought in regards to supplying "tools" would be to allow the client to edit their own resources if they should want to. Most of my clients only want a professional working on their site and would not think of touching it. If I had a need in this area, I would simply have the user log in, check their group and drop in jQuery and Ajax connectors directly from the page -- if they had permission to do so.

I have not had the need to build a custom back end in Revo, but will have to soon. At that time I will look into more on this topic.

Currently, happiness would be a direct plug-in from eclipse directly into the Revo database as I edit and add snippets -- treating each snippet as a "virtual" document.