should I leap?

Well I wouldn’t move a client from Joomla to modx so it would always be new clients.

It’s clearly possible for a web developer to build and maintain a site using modx, but can he then pass on maintenance to his customer? This I suppose is another reason for my considering other CMS’s, Joomla is quite daunting and allows too much access.

I build news systems for PR companies with simple(block content) maintenance so my next question is do I/can I build the front end in modx and create my own simple maintenance system for the customer?

Sort of "To edit the copy in the right panel click here..." a few of these links on a page and he’d love it and it would be less of a headache for me trying to explain the Joomla Section/Category paradigm.

Still drawn by the SEO friendly thing with modx so I’d like to explore it properly.

Yes, try ManagerManager to customize the manager. You can find the documentation in your MODx Folder on assets/plugins/managermanager/docs/index.htm

Brill!

I’ll have a mess, thanks

Not a MODx expert but most seem to think client hand holding is much less than other CMS’s.

I do both.

Loaded Joo... Dru... and many others read pages upon pages and seemed to get nowhere.

Loaded MODx read 2 or 3 tutorials and was able to make template from html css template.
2 hours more and site up and running on localhost. Transfered to live site by longhand. (cut & paste) No problem.

Maybe it’s just me.

It takes time to learn MODx.

The main add-ons of MODx (evo)
Ditto - let you use chunk tpl’s (snippet templates) and your own code for listings.
Wayfinder - let you use chunk tpl’s (snippet templates) and your own code for menus.
AjaxSearch - let you use chunk tpl’s (snippet templates) and your own code for results and forms.
eForm - let you use chunk tpl’s (snippet templates) and your own code for e-mails and forms.
Jot - let you use chunk tpl’s (snippet templates) and your own code for comments and forms.
WebLogin - let you use chunk tpl’s (snippet templates) for forms and logged in menu.

I offer my clients to edit data through:
- inside MODx Manager restricted with ManagerManager using custom UI messages, welcome page etc.
- QuickManager from the front-end.
- HTML forms with jQuery using NewsEditor snippet. pkBlog is another one.
- E-mail(!) A snippet is reading the latest e-mail of an inbox using a coded title.
Quote from: ganeshXL

...// use this snippet inside a page that is only accessed once a day, e.g. google-sitemap xml doc = poor man’s crontab

This to store the content to a MODx placeholder
- Using files and include them by TV bindings or an include snippet.

Then in template having snippets/plugins/PHx show HTML if fields not empty, language placeholder match etc.
I can set up documentation and help sections inside MODx Manager or on unpublished pages (only visible for managers).
Using Google Waves rock.

The best MODx documentation: http://www.w3schools.com/
The reason why MODx let you have killer SEO is because
you are sending your code and your URL’s. All thanks to MODx freedom.

There might be many templates for Joomla. But there is way more free CSS templates.
Copy/paste into MODx, edit paths and have them running in seconds.

Once you start with MODx you will never go back.

Thanks guys I’ll stick at it.

I’m also testing concrete5 amazed at how quick you can have it running. Built a site from scratch 1 hour never touched C5 before. How does it compare to modx?

Hi Tony

Well for what it’s worth here’s my $0.02 worth... I think you can make the back-end admin very friendly for your clients (ManagerManager add-on) plus in MODx Evolution you can use the front-end editor to view and edit a site as you go. So for example a client can navigate round their site and simply choose to edit any bit of content from the display pages.

There’s a lot less ’ready-built’ stuff for MODx but it’s designed very much so you can build-your own and the advantage of that is you hopefully end up with precisely what you needed for a client rather than a close approximation that you can often get with other systems. Certainly getting the user interface just how you want should be a lot easier than Joomla. The add-ons that are available for MODx are usually very high standard in my opinion - plus a fair bit of work has been done to integrate ’best of breed’ solutions from other projects plus cloud-based services.

MODx Revolution promises to make sharing code even easier and it’ll be better for slowly building up packages of resources you can move from project to project for rapid development. Plus I think the whole architecture is far more forward-looking than many other CMS.

Finally, this is one of the best communities you’ll find on any project - which I think counts for a lot especially if you’re plunging into a new system.

I’ve had a quick look at Concrete5 - so can’t comment in depth but from what I saw some nice ideas, and they take the merging of front-end back-end editing into the heart of the way it works. Overall I still felt MODx had more to offer me but it’s always personal with these things and depends a lot on how you work, your skill-set and what you’re trying to achieve.

Rgds

Quote from: TonySwaby at May 02, 2010, 03:17 PM

Thanks guys I’ll stick at it.

I’m also testing concrete5 amazed at how quick you can have it running. Built a site from scratch 1 hour never touched C5 before. How does it compare to modx?

Just finished my first site with c5 and I love it. Although it is not modx and modx has powerful features, but with power comes responsibility... concrete5 has front-end in-context editing that reminds me of why I liked playing with legos as a kid... I’m still a kid. My wife was editing the concrete5 site without any instructions (she never would edit a modx site no matter how many times I enthusiastically showed her how). I was able to achieve everything the design called for and the end result is way more intuitive to edit than modx. I actually think modx evolution is a bit easier and still a lot faster than the new modx revolution (in terms of backend editing). But I will still use modx, even if the back end is fugly

Once you understand the power of Template Variables and Form Customization you can have a site running in minutes if you have templates already done, for example I made a custom form that populates all of the clients data, address, email, phone, services offered, brand names etc.

So when the client enters the information it populates the site from the form the client fills out, they can even upload their logo and it will be placed on the template, the site can also display products by brand based on the brand the client selects from a drop down menu.

Here are some screenshots so you can see how simple it is for a user to enter the content for a website.







MODx is powerful and flexible but it requires you to do some work.

I’ve simplified a four-language site using YAMS so there’s only one resource for all four languages. There are two features of the site that use Ditto to display a list of items but no links to the individual item pages with accordion-type displays, one for a client base and the other for employee bios and photos. I’ve added items to the QM menu for adding new items, and inline buttons for editing existing ones. A client quotes list that doesn’t need the multi-language feature is managed on one page using Jot, with a link to that page in the QM menu. A custom snippet pulls out random quotes for display. Between Jot, Ditto, QM and MM there isn’t much that can’t be done on the front-end.