Using Revolution or Evolution.

Hi

I barely touched Modx (very lightly) this fall and enjoyed what I saw and have eagerly been awaiting Revolution, but now that it is in beta I am wondering what I should do.

For me it seems I have these chooses:

Download and use Evolution which has more docs, tutorials etc available. So when I get stuck it will be a lot easier figuring things out because there are multiple sites that have tutorials.
Or
Download and figure out Revolution with much less docs, tutorials etc available. It seems it will be more difficult getting into Revolution because of the lack of tutorials (I do know about the one docs page http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/display/revolution/MODx+Revolution). I also like the chance to help out from my beginner perspective.

Any thoughts?
Should I chance Revolution and come back here and ask you guys my beginner questions? Or go with Evolution?

Have a great day!

Paal Joachim
From Oslo, Norway.

Either way! If you’re looking for more pre-baked add-ons then you’ll likely find Evo a bit easier going.

I’m on my way with Revolution. Going through installation errors and finding ways to correct them.....

I’m not an expert on MODx, but I’ve gotten some decent experience with it over the past few weeks. I’m going to say Evolution. Here’s why.

For one thing, when Revolution is out, it will reportedly convert an Evolution site to a Revolution site no problem. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s what I’ve heard.

That said, the main problem I ran into when I attempted to get into Revolution at this stage was that it currently lacks a few essential features through addons. Ditto, for one, is not quite ready yet (although there is a getResources snippet that’s worth looking into), and I find that I’m going to need it in just about every project. There definitely aren’t as many addons converted over yet, but there’s still enough to get going, I suppose.

For me, I might use Revolution a little in the beta to get used to it, but I’m going to stick with Evolution for any projects until Revolution has all the features (and more!) of Evolution.

Not to discredit Revolution, though. I love it. I just don’t think it’s quite ready.

Quote from: Compeek at Jul 08, 2009, 11:51 AM

For me, I might use Revolution a little in the beta to get used to it, but I’m going to stick with Evolution for any projects until Revolution has all the features (and more!) of Evolution.
Not to discredit Revolution, though. I love it. I just don’t think it’s quite ready.

I think it’s more than ready for power users; users expecting everything pre-packaged might need some guidance.

The problem we’re running into is too many people saying "It’s not ready", which scares off the very developers we need to get those 3rd Party Components written so we can have it "ready." The core of Revolution is quite ready. It just needs some love, not wariness, from the community. It needs people who are willing to commit to it, write components for it, and ask questions.

So let’s give Revolution some love.

If you are a developer, I’d say Revolution definitely. There are basic resources available to get you going (getResources, login, commenting, etc.) and you can easily implement more yourself and/or extend current ones.

But if you are more like a web designer (css / html experience only), I’d say stick with Evolution for now. It has most probably all the resources already that you will need and you don’t have to go to look at sources.

But I say it again, if you know your way around PHP, start using Revolution asap and maybe you could help with contributing some resources/documentation/tutorials that you’ll possibly develop during your projects.

If i was starting today I would definitely use Revolution! Avoid getting into Evo habits and go for the future. It’s like learning HTML and doing layouts in tables rather than using css...unfortunately i am an old dog so I have to re-learn and kill old habits.

The problem we’re running into is too many people saying "It’s not ready", which scares off the very developers we need to get those 3rd Party Components written so we can have it "ready."

I had no idea that there was a commenting resource for Revo...maybe add the new resource list to the newsletter to keep us informed of what is new with Revo resources (I don’t login to my Revo install very often so I don’t see the what’s new feed). If it has commenting I can migrate my blog to Revo!!!

So let’s give Revolution some love.

Revo rocks!!!

Also...I would suggest starting a dedicated Revo forum...posting in MODx Next gives the impression that it is not ready now (since it is Next)!

I recently tried out both Evolution and Revolution, I have to say Evolution is nice with better layout and more responsive then Revolution. In using Revolution I get the feel it’s not ready also, but maybe I need to get use to it. The system settings page has way too much information on it, very intimidating. At fist glance, it would appear Revolution has taken away the simplicity from earlier layouts and now it is more confusing to me. I find it difficult to get my bearings in the Manager area. I like Evolution the best.

They are really two different applications. Revolution is an advanced application framework that comes with the MODx CMS installed by default. So it is, by nature, much more complex. You could use Revolution without the CMS installed if you wanted it for some other purpose.

Evolution is simply the next step in the ...er, evolution of the MODx CMS. So it will be less complex than Revolution.

Which one you use will entirely depend on your purpose and your taste. I also prefer Evo (at this point; perhaps once I’m able to understand the Revo code I’ll switch my allegiance )

Quote from: espirates at Jul 08, 2009, 06:27 PM

I recently tried out both Evolution and Revolution, I have to say Evolution is nice with better layout and more responsive then Revolution. In using Revolution I get the feel it’s not ready also, but maybe I need to get use to it. The system settings page has way too much information on it, very intimidating. At fist glance, it would appear Revolution has taken away the simplicity from earlier layouts and now it is more confusing to me. I find it difficult to get my bearings in the Manager area. I like Evolution the best.

Remember that the system settings grid in Revolution has a search function. It looks for key words in both the name and description fields so if you have an idea what you’re looking for, it’s usually easier to find (for me anyway) than it was in Evolution.