The New MODx Demo Site

first, let me say how much i like the new demo site, and all the snazzy new features in the latest modx! please don’t forget how much i like it as you scroll down to read my (perhaps overly) verbose criticisms.

the first thing is that as a user the "Login" link is very confusing to me. i think one of the *most* killer-app things about modx over the other cms’s out there is it’s front end editor. quickedit is the single most whizbang feature that i’ve used to blow people’s minds when showing them modx. because of this, and because of the new totally cool features like the floating pallet thing, i assumed that the "Login" nav item was a login for the front end editor. i had to be frustrated at it’s "not working" for a while before realizing, that, no, actually that login was for the Blog users and had nothing to do with quickedit. i think that’s a real missed opportunity. people need to see the quickedit feature as soon as they take modx out for a test drive.

so, my recommendation for the Login on the nav would be this:
• move the "Login" link that’s there now, underneath the "Blog" link in the nav, as a sub-nav item. that would clear up what it’s for.
• then there should be added a new nav item for "Front-end Editor" that should be lower, slightly removed from the other nav items, by a row. when you click it, it would go to a page that briefly explained what the front-end editor’s capabilities are (said that you shouldn’t have a public link to it like this for you site, and perhaps even explained the risks associated with it, if there are any) and then user/pass fields to login.


oh, and so long as i’ve got the ear of ye smart people who make this amazing thing called modx, i have a couple of other unsolicited suggestions.

i think the floating quickedit pallet is insanely cool. but i have some ideas about what would make it even cooler:

first, using the manager i should be able to customize the options that are on it. mostly, i just want to be able to turn things off, so that my less-than-savvy clients can’t get to things i don’t want them to. like, for instance, the manager! or the ability to change a page’s alias, or whatever.

second, and i have no idea how hard this would be, or what it would entail, but i think it’d be awesome, if you could add more options on the pallet. notably: the ability to add pages. perhaps there could be a menu item to "add page >" and when you rollover it, a submenu pops out with options as to where it would be, like "add page here >", "add page at root >", "add directory here >", and "add directory at root >" (or better yet if it could show you the tree structure of your site, and let you indicate where you want the page added) and then when you rolled over one of those, it would pop out one last menu for "using template >" and then let you choose the template...

i know, i know, that’d be a LOT of sub-menus. but for several sites i’ve set up, the ONLY task the client has to go to the manager for is adding pages, and teaching them how to do that adds a lot to the curve for them to understand everything. if they could just go a friendly login page i make for them, and then use the standard quickedit functions (as they all do, and think is great), but then ALSO be able to add pages as needed, that would be really ideal.

oh, and before i stop making crazy requests, i have an easy one. the default popup window size for the quickedit editor is too small. with forum pal Mark’s help i was able to figure out where to go to change that default setting, but it seems to me that it should just come already set to the right size. which i recall being like 650px X 500px (but i’m not positive, it’s been a while). the default now is far too small, and requires the user to expand the window every time they click the "edit content" button in order to see the whole field.

ok. that’s really it. sorry to type such a longwinded post. i’m sure that’s annoying. but i just had to get all that off my chest.

thanks again for the incredible new version, and keep up all the good work!!

Ryan?

Hi,

The problem is : "MOdx is too rich"
Many functionalities, advanced possibilities of personalization ...

A demonstration cannot be complete, and can express only one personal vision of Modx.
I think that Wompedy gives us his vision with its wishes.

it would be an extraordinary opportunity for the modx community, if peoples give us his demo of Modx (blog, intranet, community website ... ) and perhaps put them in downlaod to test, why not? (and the how-to of the demo because I didn’t understand all on Modx)

Modx is a tool, your imagination the limit of Modx!

Aour

LOL... what would be really great is if we were paid for working on MODx.

Quote from: rthrash at Oct 30, 2005, 12:09 AM

LOL... what would be really great is if we were paid for working on MODx.

Heh heh! Yeah, and at a pay rate of even just $10 an hour you’d probably be a millionaire by now! LOL!

Hi,

Perhaps We can send you a Lottery ticket

Aour

Quote from: rthrash at Oct 30, 2005, 12:09 AM

LOL... what would be really great is if we were paid for working on MODx.

You will be, Ryan, Raymond et al. You will be.

In all seriuosness, though, wompedy has some really good ideas in there. All taken under advisement.

The manager configurable settings are a bit more work than it’s worth diverting develoment resources from right now. If you need to customize it, there’s the output.class.php file to hack.

Adding a page is a great idea. And I think one which should be doable. And the QE Window size could be a bit larger too, I agree.