About
FootballFilter is a "Popurls" type of feed aggregation site that is aimed at Football Fans (Soccer). The current site is made with static PHP files, the excellent SimplePie library, and lots of jQuery.
http://www.footballfilter.com
The site has been running for about 10 Months and has a good set of loyal users who spend along time on the site. You can read more about our big plans for the site on the "About" page -
http://blog.footballfilter.com/about/
I am in the process of converting the site to use MODx as we want to expand the number of team pages, ease the management of the site and add some extra functionality. I have made some progress (See "Background and Issues" below) but I am now looking for some professional help to complete the project. All work completed can be contributed back to the community as new or updated snippets / plugins.
Main Goals of Project
- Quicker page load times (Caching of feeds and pages)
- Better handling of audio, video, and images based RSS feeds
- Some basic user voting of Sources
We would also like to make the site with MODx revolution if possible as we are worried about the 5,000 page limit of the current MODx version.
Job Details
Note. All the following terms are negotiable!
Anticipated start time - ASAP but willing to wait for a good developer.
Anticipated job duration - Please give me an estimate of how long it might take you based on details below. The Project can be Hourly or "Fixed Price".
Budget Constraints - None
Payment terms - Any payment method can be worked out.
If Hourly project - payment will be at end of each week. If "Fixed Price" project payment will be at completion of project.
Scope of work - Mainly fixing and modifying 3 MODx snippets and getting the site up and running, see "Background and Issues" below
IP ownership constraints (e.g., can the work be donated back to the community) - Of course! Most of the work will be fixing and improving existing Snippets/Plugins. In fact we would like to document as much of the site as possible to allow others to learn about MODx , and build similar types of sites.
Background and Issues
I have some knowledge of MODx having built a few sites with the framework. You can see my current MODx implementaion by going to
http://beta.footballfilter.com/index.php?id=840 however the page load is very slow as its on a cheap dreamhost account (we are in the process of moving it to a VS at Slicehost) so i have made a screenshot of the page with notes on some of the issues i am having.
http://www.quicksnapper.com/mjmurphy/image/team-page-web
Definition : A "Source" can be - An RSS feed (Audio, Video, Images or Text) or a static link (URL)
The current development site was built with lots of different templates (Rows, Columns and Sources) so the site manager can easily arrange the site layout in MODx.
This screenshot showing the document tree of a "Team page" should explain how these templates are used:
http://www.quicksnapper.com/mjmurphy/image/team-page-tree
We are using the following plugins and snippets. I have added the Issues that we are currently having with each one (only 3 of them really)
PieX - (0.7 but slightly modified)
Used for aggregating all the feeds
Issues -
Need more Speed! Would like the ability make a cron job of all the feeds in the site, which could be triggered in the background every 30 minutes. The main page would load accessing the cache of the feeds (SimplePie caches the feeds)
Better Caching (using cron jobs should help)
Poor handling of media feeds.
Cannot handle special characters like ? & = in Template Variables (maybe its a problem with MODx?)
Some feeds are failing - not sure why (they work with current version of simple pie)
Ditto - (2.1)
Handles the display of sources, rows and columns.
PHx is also used for adding some logic to the Ditto and PieX templates.
Issues : None really, apart from any speed improvements!
ManagerManager (0.3.2.1)
To modify the admin area for simpler interface when managing the sources
Issues : None
automaticTpl (0.4)
Sets the child template so adding Sources is easier for the editor. When adding a new page under rows, it defaults to Sources template.
Issues : None
anythingRating (1.0)
http://www.modx.wangba.fr/index.php?id=100
Used for rating Sources
Issues : Not working as expected - We would like to allow site users to vote on any of the Sources that they like or use. We just want single "one star" voting similar to how iusethis.com voting works.
WebLoginPE 1.3.1
We want a simple registration - users email, team supported, and password. This will be needed for voting and submitting of Sources. We would really like to implement an open login/registration solution like RPX - rpxnow.com, but if it’s too much effort we might leave it till next version.
Issues : not implemented.
I hope that gives you a basic Idea of what we have done and what needs to be done. Please let me know if anything is not clear.
Note. I’m new to MODx so I’m very open to other ideas of how the site could be built better (even if it means starting again!)
What I need from you:
Please send me background on your development experience including examples of MODx projects you have worked on, and what you did. Experience with MODx Revolution would be a bonus.
Please give me an estimate on :
when you can start :
How long it might take :
And tell me your hourly rate or if you prefer a "fixed price" project.
If you have any questions please contact me via the messaging system on this forum. I am also available via Phone, Skype and Instant Messenger to discuss in more detail.
Thanks,
Michael
