[Q] About widgets, plugins, snippets etc. (newcomer)

Hi everybody,

I’ve setup a local website on my computer and everything is alright, perfect and so simple to use that I just forgot about the idea of making my own CMS to fit my needs. Anyway, it seems to be possible to customize MODx in a way that it WILL fit my needs anyway.

So I started looking into the documentation to see how to customize it through a custom template, and custom snippets and/or plugins. So here are my questions :

• I want to have a bulletin board included in my website. I’ve seen the viewport widget and it seems the perfect thing if I don’t want to build my own forum system. This way I could just install something like phpBB and display it with my own TV. The thing is that there is nothing about the way we can load an external page inside the viewport widget. The question is : How can I load an external page inside a viewport?
• If I finally decide to go with my own forum system coded inside MODx... It’s sure I’m gonna need some database table created to store messages, thread information etc. Do I have to create the tables manually with phpMyAdmin (or anything else) or there is a way of creating a configuration script for it?
• If I create that forum system or anything like that (image gallery, scheduler, etc.), do I have to put all of it in a single snippet or plug-in?
• What is the clear distinction between a plug-in and a snippet? If I’m right, the snippet is used to add some ’special’ content to a page while a plug-in is something like a script always running in the background to catch events.
• This is not a question, I just want to say thank you in advance for your help

Bye,

Blaise Bernier

Quote from: grunt_lord at Oct 26, 2005, 07:08 PM

I want to have a bulletin board included in my website.  I’ve seen the viewport widget and it seems the perfect thing if I don’t want to build my own forum system.  This way I could just install something like phpBB and display it with my own TV.  The thing is that there is nothing about the way we can load an external page inside the viewport widget.  The question is : How can I load an external page inside a viewport?

A better way would be to integrate the entire logins via a module that truly ties the seperate applications together. We’ll hopefully be releasing an SMF module to do exactly that very soon.

If I finally decide to go with my own forum system coded inside MODx...  It’s sure I’m gonna need some database table created to store messages, thread information etc.  Do I have to create the tables manually with phpMyAdmin (or anything else) or there is a way of creating a configuration script for it?

How intense are your posting/commenting needs? A creative use of newslisting with usercomments with the immeninent 3.3 release may suffice.

If I create that forum system or anything like that (image gallery, scheduler, etc.), do I have to put all of it in a single snippet or plug-in?

It will probably involve several of those. Check out the QuickEdit module for an example... it uses a module and a plugin to do it’s thing. We’ll also be releasing a Gallery2 module for yet another example to follow.

What is the clear distinction between a plug-in and a snippet?  If I’m right, the snippet is used to add some ’special’ content to a page while a plug-in is something like a script always running in the background to catch events.

That’s pretty close... I’ll let Raymond and company fill in more of the details here.

This is not a question, I just want to say thank you in advance for your help 

Thank you! I’m really looking forward to seeing what you do with MODx!

Sorry about the duplicate post but Ryan submitted his seconds before mine.

Quote from: grunt_lord at Oct 26, 2005, 07:08 PM

I want to have a bulletin board included in my website.  I’ve seen the viewport widget and it seems the perfect thing if I don’t want to build my own forum system.  This way I could just install something like phpBB and display it with my own TV.  The thing is that there is nothing about the way we can load an external page inside the viewport widget.  The question is : How can I load an external page inside a viewport?

Well, first of all SMF (the system that runs this board) is integrated via a module (in the testing stage) so when that comes out you could use it.

But, the wrapper snippet (I believe it is still on the Etomite forums) will do what you describe.

Quote from: grunt_lord at Oct 26, 2005, 07:08 PM

• If I finally decide to go with my own forum system coded inside MODx...  It’s sure I’m gonna need some database table created to store messages, thread information etc.  Do I have to create the tables manually with phpMyAdmin (or anything else) or there is a way of creating a configuration script for it?

Two words: DB API

Quote from: grunt_lord at Oct 26, 2005, 07:08 PM

• If I create that forum system or anything like that (image gallery, scheduler, etc.), do I have to put all of it in a single snippet or plug-in?

No, you can use a module to tie everything together so they share parameters or just use multiple snippets/plugins to accomplish differant tasks.

Quote from: grunt_lord at Oct 26, 2005, 07:08 PM

• What is the clear distinction between a plug-in and a snippet?  If I’m right, the snippet is used to add some ’special’ content to a page while a plug-in is something like a script always running in the background to catch events.

Essentially you are correct. Plugins are based on system events that occur within the cms such as RTE’s and page generation where as snippets cover everything that only runs on a specific page or template.

Quote from: grunt_lord at Oct 26, 2005, 07:08 PM

• This is not a question, I just want to say thank you in advance for your help  ;)

Your welcome!]

There is also a wrapper display control for Template Variables. Check the documentation here for more info: http://modxcms.com/creating-a-template-variable.html