Not too impressed

I’ve come to modx via a client who specified that he wanted his CMS based on it. Not normally a call that a non-technical client would make, but they pay the bills, so what they say goes.

Initial problems hit yesterday when I tried to download the Evo code (504 gateway error). I finally got it working and installed. DB installation procedure was very slick.

Following the link on the very front page of the site in the Evolution tab entitled "Getting Started with Evolution" and I get taken to http://modx.com/evolution/developer/getting-started/. Fine, but very first section on the page is "What is MODX Revolution". So, not Evolution. This may be why the variables are listed in the "[[*content]]" format as opposed to "[*content*]". It took me a bit of time to work out that it was the documentation I was reading that was wrong, and not something I’d done in my code. This long getting started page doesn’t even contain the word "htaccess", crucial for friendly urls. As something that would normally be taken care of during installation when you’re playing about with files and folder structure, it should probably be here.

Also, a small point, but what’s with the formatting of the code snippets? It cuts off the bottom of the line (in FF4 anyway), and selecting the code also selects the line numbers. There are countless of examples on the web where this is done better.

This isn’t going to stop my using modx, but I think more care should be put into this procedure that almost everyone approaching modx for the first time will follow. You may never hear from the users that have issues at the start, and end up thinking "my current CMS is better", or "skip this one, on to the next". If I’m honest, if it wasn’t for my client’s modx requirement, I would probably have been put off permanently.

Other than that, I’m looking forward to seeing what modx can offer!

Out of curiosity, why did you choose to go with Evolution as opposed to Revolution?

A few useful sites when working with MODx Evolution

http://rtfm.modx.com/display/Evo1/Home
http://www.pogwatch.com/ditto.html
http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,34176.msg207851.html#msg207851
http://sottwell.com/modx-from-the-inside.html

As far as automatic .htaccess/friendly URL installation, there are far too many possibilities to make this practical. MODx is designed to work on any web server that can accommodate PHP and MySQL; Revo even will work on IIS and MsSQL (other databases are in the works). Quite a few people are hosted on nginx or lighthttpd. These all require different rewrite functionality. Some servers already have the rewrite engine on, and repeating the directive can cause a 500 error. Better to leave it to the user to set up as needed or desired.

http://rtfm.modx.com/display/Evo1/Friendly+URL+Solutions
http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Friendly_URLs_on_lighttpd
http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php?topic=35708.0

The old wiki has a lot of useful information when using Evo as well.

http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Main_Page

Hi Ollyb

I understand your feeling, I’ve had the some issues with MODX Documentation.
Here are some resources that can help you getting started with MODX Evolution:

Tutorials:
http://codingpad.maryspad.com/2009/03/28/building-a-website-with-modx-for-newbies-part-1-introduction/
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/other/working-with-a-content-management-framework-modx/

Documentation:
http://rtfm.modx.com/display/Evo1/Home
http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Main_Page
http://bobsguides.com/modx.html
http://sottwell.com/modx-from-the-inside.html

Tips:
Use google to search in this forum, not the forum search form.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the responses.

My choise of Evolution over Revolution was basically down to the taglines of "classic codebase" vs "future of modx". Off the bat, that says to me that Revolution is a bit more betaish (ie, it’s for the future, not for the now) but I have since worked out that that’s not really the case. I’ll probably start afresh again when I’ve worked out exactly what I need doing.

Regarding the URL rewriting, I understand that there are loads of webservers out there. The install came with a file named ht.access in the directory, so it was simple enough to rename it. It just took me a few minutes to work out why friendly URLs weren’t working.

Thanks for the links as well, there’s certainly a lot of stuff out there, and some of it’s been of help already.

Cheers

hi,

when it comes to snippet (and chunks/templates formatting) you may have a look at editarea plugin that, even if not perfect (but who/what is ?) helps a lot coding inside MODx manager and, even if, as i often do, you code with your text editor and then copy/paste, helps keeping it readable in the manager

have swing

Hey folks. Some valid points here about confusing messaging. When we wrote the copy about Revo it was beta-ish. In fact it was not in RC. That being said, it’s the present and future of MODX and Evo is the past. While solid is not going to see any major development efforts.

If anyone finds specific pages on the site that require clarification, please feel free to file here: http://bugs.modx.com/projects/website

Off the bat, that says to me that Revolution is a bit more betaish (ie, it’s for the future, not for the now) but I have since worked out that that’s not really the case.

I would definitely go with Revo if you’re starting fresh. It’s plenty stable. I use it in production and have had no problems. If you start with Evo, you will probably end up attempting to switch at some point and that can be time-consuming. If you start with Revo you won’t have to re-learn various concepts and coding syntax when you make the switch.

Don’t let confusion in the documentation put you off, MODx is in transition and the online materials reflect that. Once you get used to it, I’m sure you’ll love the power and flexibility.

It might be worth revising some of the marketing copy, as this isn’t really an accurate first impression.

I am quite new to Modx and went with Evo because I got the feeling from the documentation that revo would be too cutting edge for me! So reading from this thread, the website is misleading. I still like Modx though.

Actually the first thing I have done when registering to the forum was asking evo or revo and the consensus was evo! http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,63364.msg358822.html#msg358822

I will probably look at revo sometimes soon, the packaging of plugin sounds better but babel doesn’t look as good as YAMS.

I started with Revo with my first MODX site in early 2011. I’ve got 10 live sites now and they’re all stable.

My thinking was, why learn something from the past (Evolution) and then have to make the transition.

However since I’m now into MODX I’ve acquired a large support contract for an Evolution site I didn’t build. Picking up Evolution after building my MODX skills on Revolution hasn’t been too painful.

I should also add that the after my experience so far of MODX "I’m impressed"