User Guide version 1 available for comment

109 Posts

ricardosanX Reply #1, 19 years ago

Hi Dudes/Dudettes,

I have prepared a User Guide, that covers the basics for newbies at

All documentation is now online, please see
Online Documentation at MODx main site.

It does not attempt to deal with more complex issues such as user managment, workflow, secure area, TVs etc as these have already been documented. I’d like to consolidate these items into a second manual for the website administrator.

Please report any suggestion, typos etc on this forum.

I’d like to move to an Online Manual. Does anyone have a better suggestion than a wiki? I recall seeing some online manuals that allow comments, but are better structured and more screenshot friendly....

Cheers

Richard
PS: I have released this under a CC licence. You are free to copy and share with attribution. When we move to online documentation the licence will be more open.

________
Richard
web2grow: cms web design sydney australia

577 Posts

Carsten Reply #2, 19 years ago

Thanks :!:

I too haven't been very found of wiki formats.

Tangent-Warrior

109 Posts

ricardosanX Reply #3, 19 years ago

Ohayo!

Seems we are in close time zones

I lived in Jp a few years back...

Richard

________
Richard
web2grow: cms web design sydney australia

MODX Staff
10,725 Posts

opengeek Reply #4, 19 years ago

Thanks :!:

I too haven't been very found of wiki formats.

Carsten, can you or others please describe what about the Wiki documentation format you don't like? I for one want to have documentation that is actually used and read, and until recently, I really disliked Wiki docs, too. However, the WordPress Codec is a great piece of documentation that I use daily for working with WordPress projects. And not to mention WikiPedia, which I use all the time, as well.

I'm just trying to get to the heart of what kind of help expectations this community has in regards to documentation efforts. Any ideas out their are appreciated.

Jason Coward
Chief Architect @ MODX
http://www.jasoncoward.com | http://twitter.com/drumshaman | https://github.com/opengeek

577 Posts

Carsten Reply #5, 19 years ago

To be honest, I am not completely sure what it is that makes me steer away from wikis.

It could just plain be that I am resisting change and have a long ingrained habit of leaning towards the old BBS way of life.

hehe, can't teach an old dog new tricks some might say.

I was hoping that if a really useful system was brough about or mentioned then my comment would have done it's job.

In a sense I try to prod for something different just to see what others can come up with. For example, the branding issue here. In the past few days, quite a few interesting names have come up and I really am glad about that.

Would you mind posting a link? I promise to take a look! Maybe, I'll learn something new! I know that in the past 2 weeks here I've basically picked up "1" new thing a day almost and really really thank all of you here for that!!!

Tangent-Warrior

109 Posts

ricardosanX Reply #6, 19 years ago

My issues with wikis are:
* The are very text based - I'd prefer something that would be easier to format and spice up which leads me to...
* Visual design - I want the User Manuals to be "slick". These are tools I want professional client to see and say "Ah, just like a professional manual"

Maybe we need to distinguish between the collaborative tools we use for knowledge sharing (like Wiki) and the Manuals for End Users.

Ideally the Online Manual would:
a. have full range of formatting tools like HTMLarea
b. be easily exportable to other formats
c. allow for creative graphical elements eg. Callouts, Ideas, Reminders etc
d. have a user friendly navigation system that new users understand (eg DHTML tree menu)

Some Manuals from Commercial CMS and software>>
http://manual.soholaunch.com/
http://www.miro.com.au/Docs/MamboCMS/index.html (commercial Mambo manual)

Do you know of documentation tools (including wikis) with this kind of functionality?

Regards

Richard

________
Richard
web2grow: cms web design sydney australia

56 Posts

eko40 Reply #7, 19 years ago

My main problems is that many of the wikis are dominated by singular interpretations and often alterations moderated out if not inline with the views of the moderator. Just try a subject that you are very familiar with and you'll notice how often the information is incomplete or incorrect. The danger is that it could be viewed as authorative rather than subjective.

577 Posts

Carsten Reply #8, 19 years ago

hmmm, the online manual for Mambo looks like it is being done with Mambo itself.

So, why don't we put our money were our mouth is and just use MODx?

Be able to build a few snippets at the same time and will have that much more internal development progess occur at the same time.

Kill 2 birds with 1 stone as some would say.

Tangent-Warrior

MODX Staff
10,725 Posts

opengeek Reply #9, 19 years ago

* The are very text based - I'd prefer something that would be easier to format and spice up which leads me to...
* Visual design - I want the User Manuals to be "slick". These are tools I want professional client to see and say "Ah, just like a professional manual"

Maybe we need to distinguish between the collaborative tools we use for knowledge sharing (like Wiki) and the Manuals for End Users.

Absolutely. And with the simplicity and flexibility I envision as the future of this CMS / framework, End User Manuals might be best left to those that want to offer value-added commercial development and support services. Charge for your slick end-user documentation. This is what free-software based business models are all about.

Ideally the Online Manual would:
a. have full range of formatting tools like HTMLarea
b. be easily exportable to other formats
c. allow for creative graphical elements eg. Callouts, Ideas, Reminders etc
d. have a user friendly navigation system that new users understand (eg DHTML tree menu)

Some Manuals from Commercial CMS and software>>
http://manual.soholaunch.com/
http://www.miro.com.au/Docs/MamboCMS/index.html (commercial Mambo manual)

Do you know of documentation tools (including wikis) with this kind of functionality?

Not yet, but that is exactly why I am asking. At a minimum, I'd like to have this be a MODx based system, that does indeed allow different input/formatting tools, be it a WYSIWYG, wiki style, and/or potentially something like Textile (see http://textism.com/tools/textile/ and http://www.textpattern.com/), which just looks like an alternate Wiki-style input syntax.

Thanks for the input so far guys; this will help shape the development of core and extended documentation and product features.

Jason Coward
Chief Architect @ MODX
http://www.jasoncoward.com | http://twitter.com/drumshaman | https://github.com/opengeek

1,495 Posts

wendy Reply #10, 18 years, 5 months ago

Guys,

I like the idea of having a graphical documentation for modX. One thing that find it hard to use wiki, there is no end to it, and every new people who need to read the documentation will give up, even before trying to understand the modX system itself.

I know this is an old forum post, but from what I can see now, so far the docs is awesome, I can get use to the whole modX idea in a few hours. Two thumbs up for the gull graphical explanation in each documentation pages. Keep up the good work guys.

I’m looking forwad for the next release of TP4, which is going to have a full documentation of the API itself. I’m currently have a stack load of project that I’m planning to implement them in modX.

Hope my post can encourage the core members for this script. Glad to have this wonderfull community and developers.

Regards,
Wendy Novianto

Wendy Novianto
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