Creating a bespoke cms with-in modx

Hi all,

I am new to modx, and have had a play and like what I see... A lot... It give me a lot of flexibility.
What i want to know is if it would be worth using modx for a site I want to build, where users can login, (access given by administrator) and control data already controlled on a database (simple text) This data feeds into other applications that each user uses, adn i need a way that they can update it. My normal way would be to build my own bespoke cms, but was wondering is modx might have a few tricks that i could use to help simplify the process?

any help, thoughts questions more than welcome...

what do you mean exactly with ’feeds into other applications that each user uses’ ?
which kind of applications, which kind of data?

Sorry, I wasn’t very clear...

Right, I have a MySQL database that holds information, (basic stuff like, title, category, content, user) this information is used by some external applications, website, apps etc where the data is pulled in via xml, this part is fine.
What i want to build is a site, where a user can login and alter/add the content that has been set up for them via forms.

I would normally build the whole thing via php and start from scratch, but I thought this might be a chance to have another play with modx.

No problem. Just create the forms you need to access the database tables in question. Season with AJAX to taste, if desired. It’s even easier if these custom tables are in the same database as the MODx tables, but it’s not really necessary. MODx is like a circus horse, it just trots around the ring doing its own thing and doesn’t care what the rider on its back is doing.

Sounds like good news to me...
It also looks like there are login snippets that can plug into modx too, which could make life even easier....

Also, I have just been thinking how this would work. All the pages will have something different on them, in the way of forms which talk to the database, so there will be query’s at the top, depending on what is selected, who this mean hundreds of snippets, or can you pop code on the pages?

Hope that makes some sense...

MODx is like a circus horse, it just trots around the ring doing its own thing and doesn’t care what the rider on its back is doing.

Nicely said, sottwell!

No, you cannot put PHP code in resource content. However, a single snippet can act as a "switchboard", including .php files as needed depending on some criteria, such as document ID, username or group, or anything else you would want. Snippets (and any included .php files) can be mixed HTML and PHP. MODx is nothing if not flexible.

Even with Revolution this sounds very doable using existing snippets:-

Login - for your logging in to system.
Formit - for your Forms
Formit To DB - for getting data in the database.
DB to formit - for getting data out back into forms.

Seems like a lot of work is already done.
See Revo Docks for more info;- http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Home
And for snippets:- http://rtfm.modx.com/display/ADDON/Home

All is also very possible using Evolution.

Hope this helps.