Custom Manager Pages in 2.1 don't scroll content correctly

Being a MODx user since the start and creating over 100 sites in it - I can categorically say I will never use Revo until someone much cleverer than me creates a non ExtJS admin.

Clean HTML 5 with easy to edit CSS with a bit of Jquery and AJAX as the backend please.

I love MODx and the community, never, ever get me wrong about that. But trying to create a ’desktop’ like admin is overkill.

There I said it - I would even donate quite a lot IF you could find someone who could take the time to do this.

I don’t think that the team will ever make a manager not using extjs.

I love Ext, but i have to confess that i would love to see less Ext in the manager.

Maybe it should be used only for components that really make use of it (grids, trees, modal windows), but the layout and forms and some other places can work easier without Ext (not on the programmer side, even more true knowing that the manager is mostly developped by only one developper).

I too have the feeling that using ext everywhere is overkill, and as mark pointed, it make the modx manager not js agnostic which is not a good point for MODx.

But now that the framework is growing at a steady pace, it would be very complex to get away from ext.

A manager using less Ext would mean to redo lots of things. It’s not trivial...

Anyway, if there are people interested, i would participate to a community driven project for a manager using less Ext, and more user friendly.

I don’t know the details/progress, but stay tuned ...

I do think that the ExtJS based manager right now is great for productivity, and any alternative would need a lot of work to replicate that.

Quote from: Mark at Jun 09, 2011, 02:49 AM

I don’t know the details/progress, but stay tuned ...

About what ?
A new manager using less Ext ? Or are you talking about something else ?

Quote from: Mark at Jun 09, 2011, 02:49 AM

I do think that the ExtJS based manager right now is great for productivity, and any alternative would need a lot of work to replicate that.

I think so too.
But Ext should not be used for things that can be controlled with CSS.
As the issue pointed out here, it causes problem with CMP’s that are not using Ext.

Quote from: lossendae at Jun 09, 2011, 02:48 AM

Maybe it should be used only for components that really make use of it (grids, trees, modal windows), but the layout and forms and some other places can work easier without Ext (not on the programmer side, even more true knowing that the manager is mostly developped by only one developper).

I think this is definitely the way to go - being able to use an html layout and just insert extJs components where required would be really handy.

As it stands, extJs actually saves a lot of time when it comes to implementing more complex components. Eg. for grids: sorting, grouping, show/hide columns, even searching custom db fields works almost straight out of the box. To implement that from scratch would be a nightmare (for me anyway).

By the way, I’m new to extJs and had negative thoughts about it to begin with. It seemed very heavy and the code baffling at first. But after a little effort to understand how it works the good aspects far outweigh the bad in my opinion. If you don’t want to use it you can simply build your CMP using html instead - you might just have to be careful to avoid those css conflicts.
Quote from: Moondawgy at Jun 09, 2011, 02:13 AM

But trying to create a ’desktop’ like admin is overkill.

I disagree with this - those functions drawn from desktop applications enhance usability and save time. The right-click functions, quick update menus and keyboard shortcuts alone save me a huge amount of time working in Revo compared to Evo. I initially found the Revo manager cumbersome and preferred the Evo back end, but having persevered a little and with recent performance enhancements it’s now a joy to use, feels very snappy and my workflow seems twice as fast.

Quote from: lossendae at Jun 09, 2011, 03:03 AM

Quote from: Mark at Jun 09, 2011, 02:49 AM

I don’t know the details/progress, but stay tuned ...

About what ?
A new manager using less Ext ? Or are you talking about something else ?

Yeah. But don’t pin me down or start advertising it all over the place as I heard about it quite some time ago and I have no idea how it went from there. It could have been called off to focus on features for 2.2 or perhaps not even past an idea stage. I don’t know. But just thought I’d add it seeing the discussion here about it.

I think it wouldn’t be a replacement (ie the ExtJS manager would remain) but just an alternative. Pkg mgr install perhaps.

But yeah, don’t pin me or MODX down on that unless they chime in...

I heard that they want to convert the manager to use Extjs4 in half a year or so.
Maybe there are other changes that will come with it as well.

I heard this from before ExtJS 4 was released.

The actual words used were "dead simple".

Quote from: Mark at Jun 09, 2011, 06:03 AM

I heard this from before ExtJS 4 was released. The actual words used were "dead simple".

That was before Ext decided to completely re-architect their main framework, completely breaking 99% of existing structures. It made ’simple’ upgrades (such as Ext2 - Ext3 was) impossible.

Again, I’ve said it here before: we will be using ExtJS for the default manager interface for the foreseeable future. We are invested in it in terms of commitment, time, and the codebase. Anyone can feel free to design an alternative manager interface - it’s already easily doable in MODX by just creating a different theme (copy the manager/controllers/default/ and manager/templates/default/ directories to whatever name you want). But the default will continue to use ExtJS.

As for Ext4, again, this is a massive undertaking. The following would have to happen

* All the CSS would have to be redone
* All the MODExt classes would have to be redone
* We use quite a few 3rd Party extensions in Ext3; those would have to have Ext4 equivalents, or we’d have to make them
* We could only make the switch on a minor version (#.x) upgrade, because migrating to Ext4 would break all existing CMPs
* And no, we will not be including Ext3 as well as Ext4 on a page - that would make mgr loading slower

Just an idea, so feel free to shoot it down if you so desire...

If the MODX team (Shaun) will be re-writing the Manager to ExtJS4,
maybe there could be parallel efforts at the same time to write other
Managers and use his artistry and wisdom to guide the other efforts
(guide as in help, not as in work!).

I could see an ExtJS4 Manager but also a jQuery one, a QooXDoo one,
a PHP simple one, etc... so at the end we can have a few managers and
people and developers can choose which one to use and develop for...

like I said, just an idea...