Modx Revolution is very confusing

I’m beside myself with Modx Revolution, I’m not sure what to think of it. It’s certainly different from previous versions. I seem to have lost my bearings not sure what’s what goes where anymore. Modx Evolution I think is a far better manager layout then Revolution.

Is it just me or are the constant pop up ajax really annoying. On this new method of installing using Ajax, a popup window opens for every little thing, agree, read me, finished, are you sure your finished, etc I’m missing Modx already, I don’t recognize this beast.

I also notice there were no more pre-installed chunks, snippets, templates, apparently we have to install them via manager ? Is this only temporary or will this be the way it’s done ? I really liked having the pre-installed resources, I also liked the way it was layed out before with chunks, snipperts, templates and we just cut and paste.

Perhaps I just have to get use to it, but Revolution seems to be more developer friendly and not as friendly like before.

It appears the terminology changed also, it was easier to understand before now it’s very confusing and seems to be moving in the direction of Drupal with complicated wording, setup, etc.

How do we install templates, Chunks, Modules, etc ?

and the Package Retriever went blank on me after installing a few snippets, the ones I installed although worked appeared to have error messages with them. It confused me, how can a snippet be installed successful yet have error messages ?

Why does the entire Modx/root directory have to be changed to 777 to install, this doesn’t make sense to me. The install process was brutal.

Forgive my ranting, if this is the wrong area to post this feel free to move or delete.

Quote from: espirates at Jul 22, 2009, 02:00 PM

I’m beside myself with Modx Revolution, I’m not sure what to think of it. It’s certainly different from previous versions. I seem to have lost my bearings not sure what’s what goes where anymore. Modx Evolution I think is a far better manager layout then Revolution.

I’m sorry you feel that way; most users, however, have found Revolution to be far more productive in workflow. Also, the UI is not fully finalized and will likely be tweaked before final GA.

Is it just me or are the constant pop up ajax really annoying. On this new method of installing using Ajax, a popup window opens for every little thing, agree, read me, finished, are you sure your finished, etc I’m missing Modx already, I don’t recognize this beast.

What version are you using? In beta-2, this has been addressed, and the loading dialogs are significantly reduced.

I also notice there were no more pre-installed chunks, snippets, templates, apparently we have to install them via manager ? Is this only temporary or will this be the way it’s done ? I really liked having the pre-installed resources, I also liked the way it was layed out before with chunks, snipperts, templates and we just cut and paste.

There is no demo content in the beta versions of Revolution. We will likely be creating different types distributions for the GA release dependent on your need. However, the core is now separate from add-ons, to reduce cruft, prevent security issues and clearly distinguish the owners of such Extras. It’s also far easier to install Extras through Package Management.

It appears the terminology changed also, it was easier to understand before now it’s very confusing and seems to be moving in the direction of Drupal with complicated wording, setup, etc.

What specific terminology bothers you?

How do we install templates, Chunks, Modules, etc ?

Like normal. Click on the Element tree, and right click on the appropriate tree node to create any type of Element.

If you want to install 3rd Party Components, which can be snippets/chunks/templates/combination-of-all-the-above, go to Package Managment and click Download Extras. Then install them.

and the Package Retriever went blank on me after installing a few snippets, the ones I installed although worked appeared to have error messages with them. It confused me, how can a snippet be installed successful yet have error messages ?

You’ll have to be more specific for us to help you there.

Why does the entire Modx/root directory have to be changed to 777 to install, this doesn’t make sense to me. The install process was brutal.

This was a bug in beta1 that is being addressed for beta3.

and the Package Retriever went blank on me..

Currently experiencing the same with revo SVN (5474). Thought the provider was down so didn’t report. Will test again later and open a ticket if problem persists. It is blank as in there are no packages listed.

cheers/k

Quote from: kongondo at Jul 22, 2009, 03:05 PM

Currently experiencing the same with revo SVN (5474). Thought the provider was down so didn’t report. Will test again later and open a ticket if problem persists. It is blank as in there are no packages listed.

Apologies; this was due to a Provider issue on modxcms.com, not due to any Revo bugs. It should be working now.

It’s true that the approach of the new MODx Revolution is a little bit more complicated than MODx Evolution.

Many changes have gone underneath, and bring with them a lot of verbose new term which is not easy to apprehend for a non technical users.

The documentation is also very develloper oriented, and will requier an update on basic php knowledge for many people.

However, while playing with it, i did have a grasp what can/could be achieved with it. The quick update, the possibility given to check anything via the accordion while opening/creating another one at the same time is really powerful.

One day will not be enough (for me at least) to really understand everything, i’ll have to report frequently to the documentation, test, test,ask on the forum, test again, but so far, Revolution is really good.

Quote from: splittingred at Jul 22, 2009, 03:12 PM

Quote from: kongondo at Jul 22, 2009, 03:05 PM

Currently experiencing the same with revo SVN (5474). Thought the provider was down so didn’t report. Will test again later and open a ticket if problem persists. It is blank as in there are no packages listed.

Apologies; this was due to a Provider issue on modxcms.com, not due to any Revo bugs. It should be working now.

Cheers....now working fine.

/k

(ASIDE -> it says 19 packages available...thought there are 20 according to "extras" section on modxcms.com?)

Quote from: lossendae at Jul 22, 2009, 04:44 PM

It’s true that the approach of the new MODx Revolution is a little bit more complicated than MODx Evolution.

Many changes have gone underneath, and bring with them a lot of verbose new term which is not easy to apprehend for a non technical users.

However, while playing with it, i did have a grasp what can/could be achieved with it. The quick update, the possibility given to check anything via the accordion while opening/creating another one at the same time is really powerful.

One day will not be enough (for me at least) to really understand everything, i’ll have to report frequently to the documentation, test, test,ask on the forum, test again, but so far, Revolution is really good.

Interesting. These were my sentiments when I first started with MODx. I then got used to it. Then Revo came and again, these were my sentiments. Then I started playing with it and now am getting more and more used to it (I use the SVN version btw)..

I am now focusing on some components (Wayfinder, getResources, Quip and Login)..

cheers/k

In general, I’m a big fan of Revolution as it’s now already.
However, there are a few things that bother me:

1. The tree: In my humble opinion it’s really annoying that the tree keeps closing and re-opening on every page load. I also don’t think that for example the Web Resources part should automatically close, when I want to have a look at my Content Elements, because there will be times that I need information from both.
==> I did notice the improved speed of it in Bèta 2, over Bèta 1
2. Sudden crashes: For some unknown reason, the system crashes for me after the slightest change. Whether it’s simply adding a new CE, or changing a System Setting. At first nothing seems to be wrong, but when I log out and try to log in again, I don’t get past the login screen. To restore that, I have to completely re-install Revolution (I mentioned this in the FAQ topic, but it seems like my posts got lost after all the questions that followed).
3. Context cache: The main reason for me to use Revolution, is because I need a system where I can manage the content of several websites with the same layout and technical aspects, but with different texts (in different languages). But now, when I have two domains (domainA.com and domainB.com) with two contexts (domA and domB) I can edit both sites from 1 manager, BUT... I still need to have the manager on both domains. Because when my manager is on domainA.com, and I make an adjustment in domB, I still can’t see the changes on the site. If I also add the manager folder to domainB.com, and I edit it there, or clear the cache there, THEN I will see the changes. Now I’d asume that this is something that still needs to be fixed, but it would be nice if someone could confirm that for me.

In addition, there’s also one feature that I’d really like to see get slightly adjusted and that’s the function to duplicate web documents.
Right now, when you try to duplicate a document, it immediately makes a Duplicate of [name] (with the option to give a new name) in the same context.
What I’d prefer, is to also select which context you want to duplicate the document to. Then if you duplicate the document Home in domA, it can also be called Home in domB (as long as there isn’t a page called Home with the same parent).

If it goes like this, you don’t need to rename and move the document. So 1 step replaces 2. With a website like the one I’m supposed to have in Revolution, with over 1000 web documents, 1000 times 1 step is still a whole lot of steps.
==> I have written a simple script that allows me to duplicate an entire context, where all links are also modified automatically, so I don’t really need to duplicate 1000 web documents. It was just as an example, since not everyone will have such a script.

I would imagine the ability to clone an entire context would be a common requirement; I’m sure there will be such a feature if there isn’t already.