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    • 4095
    • 372 Posts
      Hi from New Zealand smiley

      I have been trying out various free, standards compliant, Open Source CMS to help someone develop a website for a rescue services training institute although I am new to CMS’s

      I had installed and trialled E107, Etomite, Drupal, Mambo, Netdoc, Webgui, Egroupware (with sitemgr), Plone and Typo3 and now I have found MODx TP3 which is my final choice.

      Heres what I am hoping to accomplish with it

      The site will have both public and secure sections which I can brand (template / skin) so that all sections look part of the same site.
      [EDIT: Website branded, just not backend]


      Public:

      [list]
    • FAQs
    [EDIT: Done, used NeatFAQ, but had issues with the first FAQ not displaying correctly. Chnaged idea to use page anchors instead, more accessible as well]

    • Downloadable documents (PDF’s which can be indexed and returns matches when site searched)
    [EDIT: Downloadable documnets, justneed to make them searchable now.

    • Static info like organisation details etc
    [EDIT: Done]

    • News (with front page teaser that automatically display the last X amount of articles like Typo3 does) News will also have images and files placed where the editor wants in the article.
    [EDIT: Done, chose not to use front page teaser, but could do it with NewsListing]

    • A Gallery with slide show. User can have pictures displayed based on categories and can choose multiple categories at the same time.
    [EDIT: Using EPG2, but does not yet have search or catagories

    • Calendar which users can search, list or browse events in the calender. They need to be able to search or list events based on categories, and again can select multiple categories

      Also want the calender to have different colours based on the categories so it is clear to see what type of event or course it is when viewing monthly or weekly etc.


    Secure section:

    • Web user logins to have an automatic activation and expiry date so they can be set up in advance. Prefer the expiry date to restrict access to only some parts of the site not remove account so they can still access test results (as per below)
    [EDIT: Have a secuere section, just not all the expiry options yet.

    • On line test / exams which have the results stored in a database and the user can view past results etc based on their login

    • Forums depending on what course they are on (permissions) where they can get help on assignments

    • Some form of statistics so they know what’s been used and what’s not. As well as auditing of authors (maybe even a roll-back revsion option)

    • On line payment would be good although not needed in the foreseeable future.

    • Possibly a separate calender for each course for students and tutors to place events related only to that course. Where the public one gives a list of all available courses / trainings etc.


    Think that’s all smiley

    Briggsy[/list]
      [img]http://www.emanz.ac.nz/assets/images/logo/emanz-icon_16x16.gif[/img] Emergency Management Academy of New Zealand [br] http://www.emanz.ac.nz[br][br]MODx Sandbox Login: sandbox Password: castle [br]
      Admin Sandbox Login: sandbox Password: castle
      • 18397
      • 3,250 Posts
      Quote from: briggsys at Jul 26, 2005, 09:34 PM

      The site will have both public and secure sections which I can brand (template / skin) so that all sections look part of the same site.

      See your other post



      Public:

      • FAQs

      • Downloadable documents (PDF’s which can be indexed and returns matches when site searched)

      • Static info like organisation details etc

      • News (with front page teaser that automatically display the last X amount of articles like Typo3 does) News will also have images and files placed where the editor wants in the article.

      • A Gallery with slide show. User can have pictures displayed based on categories and can choose multiple categories at the same time.



      Easily done with documents, snippets, and chunks.


      • Calendar which users can search, list or browse events in the calender. They need to be able to search or list events based on categories, and again can select multiple categories

        Also want the calender to have different colours based on the categories so it is clear to see what type of event or course it is when viewing monthly or weekly etc.


      This could be difficult within Modx. You could just use extcalendar2 for this though and write a plugin to synch users.


      Secure section:

      • Web user logins to have an automatic activation and expiry date so they can be set up in advance. Prefer the expiry date to restrict access to only some parts of the site not remove account so they can still access test results (as per below)

      • On line test / exams which have the results stored in a database and the user can view past results etc based on their login

      • Forums depending on what course they are on (permissions) where they can get help on assignments

      • Some form of statistics so they know what’s been used and what’s not. As well as auditing of authors (maybe even a roll-back revsion option)

      • On line payment would be good although not needed in the foreseeable future.

      • Possibly a separate calender for each course for students and tutors to place events related only to that course. Where the public one gives a list of all available courses / trainings etc.

      That could get complex. I will leave that to rthrash or xwisdom to answer those questions, but to my knowledge you would have to either use another script to do those things (like SMF for the forums which will be integrated soon) or write your own for some of the things on your list (not all).
        • 18397
        • 3,250 Posts

        Easily done with documents, snippets, and chunks.

        See the Etomite Snippet Library (Modx is based off this but it has many more features) until the Modx version is ready (at least I hope we will have a snippet library in the future).

        http://www.etomite.org/snippetlibrary.html
        • This is true regarding the snippet library. We should have a proper file repository solution in place in the near future with great resources to help you build sites (and killer documentation, too).

          Fortunately any snippet written for Etomite will work in MODx (but the reverse can’t always be said to be true due to MODx’s expanded API). We have taken pains though to try to ensure a seamless transition to MODx, and to maintains backwards compatibility. And we’d love it if they’d do the same, too, believe it or not! laugh
            Ryan Thrash, MODX Co-Founder
            Follow me on Twitter at @rthrash or catch my occasional unofficial thoughts at thrash.me
            • 33337
            • 3,975 Posts
            Hi Briggsys !

            Welcome to the community ! smiley

            Enjoy your stay with us !

            Best wishes and warm regards.... and good luck with your project smiley

            Sincerely,

            zi
              Zaigham R - MODX Professional | Skype | Email | Twitter

              Digging the interwebs for #MODX gems and bringing it to you. modx.link