I'm so confused what to choose

Hello everyone!

Month ago I found MODX a decent one CMS/CMF for building my future project. I’m a web-designer myself, not a hardcore programmer. So I was looking for a solution like MODX, but recently stopped at a simple php framework (CodeIgniter). I know that these are the different things (MODX / CI), but I need your opinion, or maybe an advice, on what to choose. I’m ready to learn MODX or CI, but, of course, I assume that the learning curve of MODX would be much easier than of CodeIgniter.

Take a look at something I’m very excited with: http://rottentomatoes.com/

Okay, please, don’t talk about how utopic my idea is to do this alone or something. I just need a complete experts’ advice: is it worth working with MODX and its plugins/core/etc. to build such a huge website, or it would be better to stick with php framework?

Thanks in advance!

I can’t see anything on this page, what is impossible to do with modx.

I’m sure everything is possible, but the question is does it worth learning all this MODX stuff or better to start with a php framework and write only those things I need from the start? Cause it’s probably be much more headache dealing with MODX plugins (as well as developing own plugins)?

Well, it depends a lot on your skills with php framework and with cms, and also on how much time you have...

Personally I’d choose MODX...but I think it doesn’t help you as long as I use MODX for almost everything...

Remember also that you can easily integrate MODX with other application...

Good luck!

MODX is also a php application framework. Or a content management platform. Or......

I don’t have the first hand experience with CodeIgniter, but what I see by just clicking through a few pages of its user guide, the main asset of codeigniter is the presence of a number of classes to help you out with common tasks, like sessions, email, form validation etc.

While that’s all great and would probably help you get the job done, here’s one thing you said..
Quote from: vadimyer at Jun 14, 2011, 03:39 PM

I’m a web-designer myself, not a hardcore programmer.

CodeIgniter requires you to write the actual functionality of your website ground up (of course with some help from those classes).

Now look at MODX. There’s plenty of very versatile snippets that can do most of what I see on that site as well. There’s a few things you’d need to think about on how to deal with, such as those rotten tomato percentages - do you (or the client) fill in all these manually, or are they being automatically derived from somewhere? That can be a major factor to decide on how to tackle it in MODX.

Once you learned MODX, you’ll also know how to deliver easier sites with an easy to use CMS for your other clients.


Just to make sure: you did have a look at how templating works in MODX? Just pasting the html in, and adding tags where you want dynamic content? I would think that’s a designers’ dream

Quote from: Mark at Jun 15, 2011, 03:37 AM

MODX is also a php application framework. Or a content management platform. Or......

I don’t have the first hand experience with CodeIgniter, but what I see by just clicking through a few pages of its user guide, the main asset of codeigniter is the presence of a number of classes to help you out with common tasks, like sessions, email, form validation etc.

While that’s all great and would probably help you get the job done, here’s one thing you said..
Quote from: vadimyer at Jun 14, 2011, 03:39 PM

I’m a web-designer myself, not a hardcore programmer.

CodeIgniter requires you to write the actual functionality of your website ground up (of course with some help from those classes).

Now look at MODX. There’s plenty of very versatile snippets that can do most of what I see on that site as well. There’s a few things you’d need to think about on how to deal with, such as those rotten tomato percentages - do you (or the client) fill in all these manually, or are they being automatically derived from somewhere? That can be a major factor to decide on how to tackle it in MODX.

Once you learned MODX, you’ll also know how to deliver easier sites with an easy to use CMS for your other clients.


Just to make sure: you did have a look at how templating works in MODX? Just pasting the html in, and adding tags where you want dynamic content? I would think that’s a designers’ dream

First, thanks Mark! And all other guys in who replied in this thread.

Surely, I was very happy to find MODX’s template system — it’s really a heaven for the designer!

As for rotten tomatoes, yea, well, the % rating would come automatically based on how users rate certain movie To be clear, I imagine how I would separate some dynamic content types from each other in MODX, and how I would manage it. But for know I can’t understand what tools can help me in building that "social" part of such a website. You know, users profiles (as well as one huge and powerful users admin front-end, as far as I know there’s a plugin called WebLoginPE for MODX, but I’m not sure if it can give me that bunch of sweet functions I need, e.g. likes (like in facebook), movie recommendations etc. etc.)

I tried to explain it easily. What I need is not just a good tool for managing the content, but a tool that maybe have not that much difficult features that can help me build some small yet very needed things on my website. In other words, I want to know if I can handle with MODX to build a social website, and if I need a feature, for example, that would allow every user to "like" the movie and this data would be written to DB, and then I can handle this data.

Sorry for many words.

Oh, by the way, if MODX is a php framework, so can you please recommend good screencasts or e-books explaining basics and essentials on how to build your own functions for a MODX website?

There’s two main parts where you can work with PHP, which are snippets and plugins. From there, you’re free to use any PHP you want. Heck, you could include CodeIgniter there!

What makes interacting with other systems convenient is the API. There’s PHPDocumenter docs for that at http://api.modxcms.com, and I guess the most used part is also on the rtfm: http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Class+Reference

If you need the information on what snippets/plugins are (I have no idea about your skill level with MODX), there’s info on snippets here: http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Snippets and on plugins here: http://rtfm.modx.com/display/revolution20/Plugins

There’s a book on Packt Publishing about MODX (there’s a first and second edition) that discusses basicly how to set up a website in MODX Evolution (1.x), but most of it would apply to Revolution (2.x). I don’t think it goes into much detail on creating snippets or plugins, but I honestly wouldn’t know as I never bought it. They also offer it as an ebook.



Now, all the above is about what you can do from within the manager - but you can also make Custom Manager Pages which are slightly more advanced, can consist of multiple pages (actions). Often build with the ExtJS framework, but you could just throw in some tables or whatever you want in there.


There’s a robust security system built into MODX that you can use, there’s also an addon (I think it’s called RPX, or now Engaged: https://github.com/opengeek/engaged) that hooks into JanRain Engaged to setup external auth such as facebook, twitter etc.

You could use Quip for your reviews (that can be linked to the user). For facebook "likes" there’s a real simple javascript code you can copy from the facebook site and put in your template.


If you have specifics you need some help with, that’s easier to help than a global idea like this.

Quote from: Mark at Jun 15, 2011, 08:08 AM

Heck, you could include CodeIgniter there!

That was on my mind reading this thread.

Install CodeIgniter and you see: Nothing.
Install MODx and you see: A website you can start to build up.

hi,

@pureppl
that’s not totally true, install CI and you also have a welcome page, it’s up to you to make the website grow afterwards and it’s not that difficult.

Working with both CI and MODx, depending on what i have to do, i would say the huge difference is when it comes to the CRUD functions for you client.
Working with a framework implies you’ll be in charge of creating them all, even with a framework like Yii that offers pretty awesome scaffolding features.
With CI (CI 2 has deprectacted its scaffolding functions), it will be enterely you job to write them.

For me, the choice depends on what kind of website you have to do, mainly a big application -> framework, more classical content and application(s) -> CMF = MODx

Have swing