My initial thoughts after looking into MODx

About me:

I’m a newbie making sites, only made one public site, spending lots of time learning php, css, mysql and all that (and struggling with Mambo).

Don’t know if anybody is interested in what I think (or even can understand my English) but maybe some one in my situation can be helped by reading this.

So here I go! My random initial thoughts after looking into MODx:

My over all impression of MODx after looking into it for two days (mostly reading documentation and installing MODx) is:

Fantastic! I used Mambo before, and comparing to Mambo, MODx is like having a new Ferrari instead of a Trabant (old east european car) from the 1972! The MODx manager feels more like a local application than a html page on a server on the net. Again: Fantastic!

What I have been looking for is a system to use as a start for building sites, not a ready done solution. I don’t want to start a new site by setting up document handling, user handling and security and such. I want to concentrate on adding contents, functionality and stuff without being locked to... anything! MODx seems perfect, I have not yet found one single thing that wouldn’t be possible to create and/or integrate to MODx. With Mambo I had to give up lots of ideas just because it was either impossible or to complex with the need to hack the core.

And there are lots of MODx documentation to read, but I still think it’s really hard to understand all about how snippets, chunks, modules, TVs and all that fits together.

Templating is incredible easy! At least the steps required to set up a small test template, I used my old template from Mambo, and it took only 10 minutes to port it to MODx!

- - -
There was (only) one bug when installing MODx, but that one made my installation taking hours instead for minutes: I used a administratorlog in name with 20 letters, but in the database the max chars is set to 15. Nothing in the installation told me that 20 chars user name would give me problems, so the install went on without problems. But logging in to the manager was impossible! Just telling me "bad user name/pass." I was 100 percent sure that I used the correct login/pass. Reinstalled three times with same result.

After looking into the database table for users I saw it only stored the first 15 chars of my log in name. When trying to log in to manager with the first 15 chars of my log in name: Success!

I think there should be a check when installing to not let me use a log in name with more than 15 chars as it will be truncated without warning.

- - -
So far I been able to to set up MODx, creating a few pages, installing and making some changes to the andreas000 template. I also have set up user comments, but since there is no way to log in tofront end yet, only anonymous comments can be made.

And now when trying to set up user log in and registration I’m lost!

I didn’t install sample content when installing MODx, because I want to learn every step setting up a MODx site to have full control. And trying to set up user log in and registration isn’t that easy since I don’t understand how everything is connected and what steps are required.

There is a tutorial on the documentations section, but it doesn’t seem to be for the current version of MODx, or maybe I’m just to old andstupid to understand it!

Well well, still, my over all impression of MODx is that it is without doubt the best foundation to build sites on right now. You can make a small site pretty easily and there seems to be no limits on how complex and advanced sites you can build!

If I could make a wish it would be that the developers of MODx concentrate more of making current MODx even better, instead of adding more and more new things to it. And also making even better documentation! Up to date tutorials and walkthroughs will make MODx the choice for more people, more than adding more functions to it! And the version number should not be 0.x, the product is ready and stable! (Instead I think Mambo should set their version number to 0.1.5 or so...)

Now I have to stop writing, I have to go back to the documentation and read it from the beginning (again) so I maybe can add userlog in and registration to my test site!

Hope that someone thinking of using MODx can be helped by initial (newbie) thoughts.

If not, go for MODx anyway, I’m convinced it’s the best!

Thanks for reading!

Thank you for taking your time to write extensive feedback! Much appreciated!

Quote from: Uncle68 at Sep 06, 2006, 05:36 AM

...I used a administratorlog in name with 20 letters, but in the database the max chars is set to 15...

I think there should be a check when installing to not let me use a log in name with more than 15 chars as it will be truncated without warning.

Yes definitely, please make a bug report in the bugtracker if it’s not there yet..

Quote from: Uncle68 at Sep 06, 2006, 05:36 AM

And now when trying to set up user log in and registration I’m lost!

I didn’t install sample content when installing MODx, because I want to learn every step setting up a MODx site to have full control. And trying to set up user log in and registration isn’t that easy since I don’t understand how everything is connected and what steps are required.

There is a tutorial on the documentations section, but it doesn’t seem to be for the current version of MODx, or maybe I’m just to old andstupid to understand it!

The sample site is good to have as an example from where you can take a look how to setup things.. It has many core snippets setuped. But unfortunatly, some of the snippets are outdated allready, they will be updated in the next release though. But even if you haven’t installed the sample site, all is not lost. I would suggest that you go to the MODx online demo (link also at the top of forums) and take a look how the login and registration snippets are setuped there..

Quote from: Uncle68 at Sep 06, 2006, 05:36 AM

If I could make a wish it would be that the developers of MODx concentrate more of making current MODx even better, instead of adding more and more new things to it. And also making even better documentation! Up to date tutorials and walkthroughs will make MODx the choice for more people, more than adding more functions to it! And the version number should not be 0.x, the product is ready and stable! (Instead I think Mambo should set their version number to 0.1.5 or so...)

MODx becomes better and better with every release. Unfortunately at this time, MODx is more aimed to web developers and advanced users than beginners and the documentation lacks of some beginners tutorials etc. The next version will be released quite soon and there will be a extensive developers documentation to go with it.. The totally rewrite version 1.0, free of etomite legacy is also being written as we speak. The pace of developement has been so fast at the early stages and the documentation has not quite followed that speed. Even thought the project is still in early developement stage, the product itself is really stable and quite mature. Better documentation, tutorials and walkthroughs will follow as the user base gets larger and team has more time and resources to concentrate on new users..

The community of MODx is very helpfull and you get fast and good support here in forums if you need. Don’t be afraid to ask.

Have a happy time MODxxing!

Quote from: doze at Sep 06, 2006, 06:07 AM

The sample site is good to have as an example from where you can take a look how to setup things.. It has many core snippets setuped. But unfortunatly, some of the snippets are outdated allready, they will be updated in the next release though. But even if you haven’t installed the sample site, all is not lost. I would suggest that you go to the MODx online demo (link also at the top of forums) and take a look how the login and registration snippets are setuped there..

I did set up another installation with all the examples, but on my testing site I don’t want to have the sample data. My way of working is to start with a clean install and add stuff and functions one and one. It would of course be easier to use the samples and customize them, but that way I will not learn every step that is needed to get it working. My way is slower, but by doing it this way I know exactly what’s happening "behind the scenes" and also I can use this knowlage when building or customizing other functions.

But being a newbie it isn’t that easy to make it work, I must do some "reverse enginering"

Quote from: doze at Sep 06, 2006, 06:07 AM

...Unfortunately at this time, MODx is more aimed to web developers and advanced users than beginners and the documentation lacks of some beginners tutorials etc... ...The pace of developement has been so fast at the early stages and the documentation has not quite followed that speed... ... Better documentation, tutorials and walkthroughs will follow as the user base gets larger and team has more time and resources to concentrate on new users..

Don’t get me wrong, I think the documentation is very good! But everything can get better. Tutorials, walkthroughs, best practice, concepts and FAQs will be the thing that makes MODx the best choice for every one

Btw, I recommend newbies to read the documenation several times experimenting in MODx in between, everytime it’s getting clearer and clearer how it all fits together each time you read the documentation! Don’t give up!

And maybe MODx is "more aimed to web developers and advanced users than beginners". But I have no choice but to use MODx already now, because there is no other system as flexible as MODx! No other system I tried can do all that I want to do!

I have lots of idéas for sites, and I’m prepared to spend lots of time learning MODx to be able to create all that sites . I will not always be a newbie
Quote from: doze at Sep 06, 2006, 06:07 AM

The community of MODx is very helpfull and you get fast and good support here in forums if you need. Don’t be afraid to ask.

Have a happy time MODxxing!

I will, thanks

I imagine lots of users share your sentiments Uncle68 - certainly I do. I’ve been struggling with it, but it’s great that I’ve replaced the template and got some sort of basic document structure in place whilst being able to produce standards-compliant pages! My previous attempt in Joomla (whilst easier in some ways) was completely different.

Great community here as well.

I’ve got a few tutorial articles up...

http://www.loripsum.co.uk/animetor-dev.html

Thanks Uncle68 for your testimony !

Yes, it does help understanding our users, and it sure helps having someone point out the remaining inconsistencies (great catch about the login name !).

I sure am bookmarking this thread to add to our collection of testimonies... again, thanks !