Feedback on searching for extras

I am not having much success with the search facility in the ’extras’ section of the new website. Take, for example, someone that knows the names of the extras they want, AjaxSearch and DocFinder for example, and who wants to get the latest versions.

Searching for AjaxSearch from the extras page only finds one version of AjaxSearch, which it says is version 1.0. However, strangely, when you click through you get to a page about AjaxSearch version 1.8.2b. I guess then that users are always directed to a page containing the latest version of the resource, but how can they be sure..?

Searching for DocFinder only finds one version of DocFinder, which it says is version 1.0. Clicking through brings you to a page about DocFinder 1.0. So DocFinder 1.0 must be the most recent version right? Wrong. I think it’s 1.5.2-final. I know 1.0 is not the most recent, so how can I find the most recent version. Doing a general website search for DocFinder rather than an extras search doesn’t find it either. In the end I had to do a Google search with MODx and DocFinder to find it... and once I was on the 1.5.2-final page I had know way of knowing whether this was the most recent version (apart from the -final hint in the version, but most extras don’t have this).

I did notice that if you go to the extras page, then click through to the add-ons page there was a link to show all MODx add-ons. However this is paginated and contains what 75 pages of add-ons in apparent random order. So even this would be pretty useless for someone trying find an add-on by name.

Organising data and allowing you to browse and search it easily is the kind of thing MODx should and can be good at. The new website looks and feels great. I think that these are teething problems that could probably be sorted out quite easily. It would be great if someone on the MODx team could look into the problems I encountered.

Thanks.

To let you know, those fixes have been noted and we are working daily at fixing issues with the site.

The ’Extras’ section was completely rebuilt from scratch from the old site, and now uses a Revolution component we call, ’ReleaseMe’. There is still a lot of kinks to work out in it, and we are doing so as fast as we can.

Right now we’re working on automating the Made in MODx section to be sort of a online portfolio for site designers. As soon as that’s done, our next priority is to fix the search and filtering features in Extras. I personally will attend to that, so you can be assured it will be fixed.

We are also in the works at coming up with a new design for the Package view of the Extras section (the view you get when you view a specific extra). We hope to make it a little less cluttered and a lot less confusing.

Thanks for your feedback; it is very much appreciated.

Add Wayfinder to the list.

Extras search just turns up Beta and 1.0.

I still find the extras search really unreliable.

For example, I was looking for 'UltimateParent', Evo version. Searched for 'ultimateparent', 'UltimateParent', 'ultimate parent', 'ultimate', and 'parent' but it does not come up in any of those results for Evo extras.

Now, UltimateParent is a standard package that can be installed with Evo, but what if you don't add it during installation? Where can I find it? Do I have to know that it is part of the installer package and then go back and run the installer again? I don't think this should be the case.

UltimateParent does come up if you search in Revo extras, but this marked as 'Requires Revo 2.0.x or greater' - and this appears is for *whatever* version you look at in the 'previous versions' tab. Should'nt the 'requires' part update depending on the version? Or at least that information is available somewhere in the previous version information (another column?)
I have to go back to v1.3 to find one that is not a Revo package.
Confusingly, if you add UltimateParent to Evo when running the installer, you get version 2.0 beta.

This is not the only extra that I have had trouble finding using the modx.com extras search. I normally just do a search via google eg "ultimateparent site:modx.com" to find what I'm looking for, but that's not a good way to have newcomers have to discover the extras!