Improving MODx with fresh ideas from 2010 Packt Pub Awards...

Hi people,
I’ve taking a look to the most promising CMS award where Pimcore has been the winner. I did not know any of the candidates and some of them has some features so interesing and any other ideas not so fresh but really usefull:
- A/B testing features integrated in CMS.
- Google Analytics integrated in CMS.
- Versioning ( I know it is comming in future MODx releases ).
- RAD ( Rapid Application Development ) http://www.pimcore.org/products-and-solutions/web-content-management/objects
- Image Cropping.
- Layout editor ( interesing but not for MODx ).
- Multilanguage ( Babbel addon for MODx has recently launched ).
- Integrated comment system.

Link: http://www.pimcore.org/products-and-solutions/web-content-management
Link: http://www.tomatocms.com/en/features.html

I know some of this features can be done using addons ( Quip, Babel, Gallery ... ) but it will be great to see some of this features included in MODx by default.
I think TomacoCMS is more oriented to final user and I don’t like what I’ve seen so much, it is more like Joomla or Wordpress. But Pimcore has some interesting features that I think will be so interesting to have in MODx and both are so simmilar ( CMF, ExtJS, API... ). I think at this moment MODx is better and so much powerfull than Pimcore and we have the best community out there, while Pimcore is so new and I have not tested it, only see its features. But I think they are on a good way and we should take a look to some of the new project ideas.

I’ve said and read some times that MODx has to focus a little bit more in final users and not only in developers, but keeping its flexibility. If we take a look to Wordpress or Magento we can see some good UI/UX practises. Revo is doing it so well, but I think with some improvements it could be better.

In two days we will see the Open Source CMS winner and I’m sure MODx is going to win, but it could be improved so much, and I’m sure it is gonna be New addons are being released everyday, we have the best community and best dev team

EDIT: it’s me or some Pimcore ideas has been taken from MODx? :S

Dear mIDO,

I totally understand your point of view.
But i’ll give a short list of why i would prefer some functionalities to stay outside of MODx:

- Google Analytics integrated in CMS. It should stay as an external plugin.
Even if Google is the leader, there are lot of alternatives, internal or not. The CMS should not guide the choise of site tracker.

- Integrated comment system. MODx is not a blogging platform and all websites don’t require a commenting system. I think having the comment outside of the core is better. It’s even more easier to provide update for the comment system without having to update all the CMS core.

- Multilanguage. Same as comment sytem. MODx provide facilities, but actual Multilingual system and procedure is better out of the core.

Quote from: mIDO at Nov 17, 2010, 12:00 PM

- Google Analytics integrated in CMS.

This should remain as an addon.

- Image Cropping.

A more powerful media management solution is in the Roadmap, probably around 2.2/2.3.

- Integrated comment system.

See Quip. Not every site needs comments, and it’s trivial to install Quip.

EDIT: it’s me or some Pimcore ideas has been taken from MODx? :S

No comment.

mIDO, a lot depends on what you mean by "integrated in CMS." If you mean available for installation through the Package Manager, those are great ideas. If you mean installed as part of the MODx core, a lot of those ideas just don’t fit with what MODx is all about.

The whole MODx philosophy is to provide a framework on which you can build *any* conceivable site. In general, things don’t go in the core unless almost everyone building any site would need them. So versioning and image management make the cut, but most of the other ideas don’t.

Thanks, though, for taking the time to suggest the potential improvements, even if they’re likely to come in the form of add-on components. The A/B testing idea is particularly interesting and should be easy to implement as a snippet.

Thanks for your replys.
I understand MODx philosophy and it is really one of the things that I love from it. You initially have only what is needed, and not a lot of "modules" we are not going to use. I understand that some things cannot be in the core, but there are some addons that I think a lot of people will use and giving it bundled will be great. I have an idea, not new because it is used in Evo, but usefull anyway.
Why not giving the option in the MODx installer to choose the most popular addons to install over-the-air? Evo had something simmilar but with bundled addons.
It can have also some "packages" depending on what users needs:
- Blog: Quip, Analytics....
- Community: Quip, Forum, ...
- eCommerce: FoxyCart/VisionCart...

Or select addons individually like in Evo.

In this way, user chose what to do: install a clean MODx or chose intial addons to install instead of install each one after MODx setup. EVO do something simmilar, why not Revo?
What do you think?

I think someone (maybe you ) will create a single Transport Package that gives the user a set of checkboxes for packages to add during its installation. It’s relatively easy to do.

I’m afraid! I’ve never contributed to the core before and I’m not sure if I’m going to do it so good. But I’m going to try it!