MODx and "CCK" Concept?

Hello Everyone,
I’ve been a member here for a while now, reading all about MODx, but this is my first post.

I’m a long-time Joomla user. Recently, I’ve started a Web design business. As my sites become more complex, I’m finding myself increasingly frustrated by having to "undo" various elements of Joomla templates to fir them into my design concepts.

Even more important, some of my new sites need to collect front-end material from site visitors and generate pages ("articles") with a particular layout and design, then give people the option to see what they have submitted and edit if necessary. In Joomla, this is handled with what is referred to as a "CCK." Unfortunately, I’ve found the process in Joomla rather unwieldy, as I’m essentially working with two layers of templates -- the base template and the CCK template.

I really like the way MODx handles allows designers to use open "templates" of our own design. That’s the direction I’m heading!

But what about this whole "CCK" idea? From what I can gather, it seems that MODx has CCK capabilities built into it. Am I correct in this?

Thanks,
Matthew

Not sure what CCK means, but yes, there are a number of front-end editing methods. Not built-in, no, but add-ons that allow a logged-in user to create and edit their own content. After all, it’s all in the database, so it’s just a matter of forms and some user validation checking.

If with CCK you mean custom fields for editors to fill out that show up on the website at pre-defined places (or is that the Drupal CCK?), check out Template Variables: http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Template+Variables

some of my new sites need to collect front-end material from site visitors and generate pages ("articles") with a particular layout and design, then give people the option to see what they have submitted and edit if necessary.

That sounds like some sort of commenting, or front-end content generation? You should be able to do that with FormIt and a FormIt-to-resource hook (I think there’s some code for that lingering around the forums, or perhaps even in the docs).

NewsPublisher might meet your needs if you can create a template with the proper CSS. You can add template variables if you need more than the standard resource fields. NP redirects the user to the newly created page by default.

Hello,
Thanks everyone for offering your insights here!

In a way, I’m glad that each of you responded with something like "not sure what you mean" or "if you mean..." The fact that you’s not sure about the CCK concept means that -- I hope -- it’s a built-in assumption with MODx.

But let me do a better job explaining what I mean...

I need to create forms that gather information from visitors. That information becomes the material for site content.

Here’s an example that pretty much illustrates the full range of what I need. I just took on a job for a real-estate site. For this site, agents need to log in, pull up a "listing form," and by filling in various fields generate a new listing for sale or rent. The data they enter in this form then appears on specific pages of the site. The listings that appear on the front end need to have a certain look (a main photo up top, some intro text below it, then the full description below that, a gallery of photos off to the right, technical information in a tabbed area, etc). The agents also need to be able to log in and edit their own listings (for example, change text, or move a listing from "pending" to "active" to "archive" category).

In Joomla, this is all possible by adding s CCK extension. But it creates multiple template layers that I am not that happy with. It seems the MODx approach to templates is more natural.

Anyway, I hope I have not been too confusing in my questions!

Thanks,
Matthew

I’m still reading more about MODx, but some opinions on how feasible this is would be terrific!

This is entirely possible to do any number of ways with MODX. Depending on the size and scope of the project you can have Template Variables for your custom fields associated with your data type —say for real estate listing. You could then either allow restricted access to a Manager space to edit or create listings or you could create a form using News Publisher (if you are using Evo) and have them login and post to the the front page. There are so many variables and since MODX is more framework-like than Joomla, it doesn’t dictate that you must do it this way or that. Gettting the content in various places is going to be a matter of using something like getResources to display whatever content you want in other places on the site.

Honestly, I’d provide more details about the scope of your project here rather than trying to create an analogy of CCK in the MODX paradigm; you will break your brain.

Best of luck.

Jay

Different from the approach Jay explains (resources with certain TVs), you could also develop (or soon make use of pre-developed addons - I am working on a property management tool due in a month or two, and I know RossCo is working on one as well that is in a further development stage) to provide a special section where properties can be managed which are then automatically pulled into the sites utilizing snippets (php code).


Using resources and specific template variables will be easier to set up, and you can pretty much customize the way the form looks using the built-in Form Customization. There’s plenty of info on that in the docs at rtfm.modx.com but let us know if you can’t find something specific.

Quote from: smashingred at Jun 01, 2011, 07:53 AM

...Honestly, I’d provide more details about the scope of your project here rather than trying to create an analogy of CCK in the MODX paradigm; you will break your brain.

Yes, I hear you! I guess this is what happens when one gets used to using a specific CMS for a long period of time. The terminology and manner of working in that CMS becomes your reference point. In Joomla (and in Drupal as well), all of this is "CCK" so that’s the way I entered it in MODx. But I see what you mean. Better to just talk about goals.

Quote from: Mark at Jun 01, 2011, 08:31 AM

I am working on a property management tool due in a month or two, and I know RossCo is working on one as well that is in a further development stage) to provide a special section where properties can be managed which are then automatically pulled into the sites utilizing snippets (php code).


Using resources and specific template variables will be easier to set up, and you can pretty much customize the way the form looks using the built-in Form Customization. There’s plenty of info on that in the docs at rtfm.modx.com but let us know if you can’t find something specific.

This all sounds very promising to me. I’m thinking that if I can get MODx to accomplish my goals with the real-estate site, it would be a great "proof" of the general capability of MODx for me in general.

Generally, I am looking to move away from a CMS like Joomla. The two front-runners in my mind right now are MODx and ExpressionEngine. Can’t quite specify all the reasons, but from my preliminary look, the two systems feel very similar.

Thanks for the terrific help. I really like the community here.

Matthew

What you need to do is use form customization in conjunction with template variables, the forms will have the TV data and then you can output the TV values to your site either in a template, a chunk or you can use getResourceField plugin to get each TV individually.

For example I made this custom form and when the page is saved it displays the information on the website like this

If this is what you mean then yes it’s possible with MODx.

benmarte,
Yes, that for you showed, and the resulting page output, is essentially what I’m talking about when referring to "CCK." The only other thing is to output a new page every time someone uses the form.
But this is definitely what I mean.
Thanks,
Matthew