MODX vs joomla cms

I like the setup here, is MODx better then joomla or mambo ?

also i notice you use smf is this built into modx as a plugin or is it a standalone

modx vs joomla pros/cons ? ?

It all depends what you use MODx for. If you are building a portal site, then Joomla or Mambo might be better. But, if you are doing a site where you want to have control over the design and code output, MODx is for you.

SMF is installed separately and a module bridges the two logins and user bases (still not released)

I believe someone wrote a MODx vs Joomla article...... anyone wan’t to claim it?

I’ve used both, and if you’re interested here’s my take on the advantages of MODx over Joomla:

http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,1329.msg22592.html#msg22592

Duane

how would you define a portal site vs a site where we have more control over design and code

can’t you do that with a portal as well ?

I believe someone wrote a MODx vs Joomla article...... anyone wan’t to claim it?

Erm, yes. I also wrote something on my test-install of modx. Have to look where I have these (few) articles

how would you define a portal site vs a site where we have more control over design and code

can’t you do that with a portal as well ?

I won’t try to speak for Mark, but Joomla *does* try to force you into a multi-columnar design that is primarily a display page for articles, news stories, links and user login. If you are doing a portal type of site, like Yahoo, that structure and conceptual framework is great.

But, if you’re doing a site that doesn’t fit that columnar layout, you’ll be fighting Joomla’s nature. Most companies do not want to see a row of columns with "stories" stacked inside. They want a more "organic" sort of look that has eye appeal beyond just colors and the header.

MODx doesn’t fight me when I have an unusual layout. It just accepts my xhtml/css and smiles.

That’s the difference, as far as I’m concerned.

Duane

Additionally, Joomla doesn´t separate code and design.

Little example: If you take a usual (news-)article, you usually should be able to define where your pieces of output are (Like title itself, created on, created by, changed, print etc.). In modx you can define what you like in your template like

<div class="author">written by [*author*] on [*date*]</div>
<h1>[*pagetitle*]</h1>
[*content*]
<hr>

whereas in Joomla you ALWAYS have it like this:

<table>
<tr>
<td class="contentheading">YOUR TITLE</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="createdate">13.03.06</td>
</tr>
...
and so on. No flexibility even at the core functionalities like displaying news...

If you´d like to have a mainly content driven site with not so big eyes on individual designing and the output is okay for you (that is e.g. a portal site), then joomla can be okay for you. With all the community stuff (PM, Forum, Downlad components etc.) it´s easy to expand without any knowledge of PHP, HTML and CSS. But the result is often not satisfying because of the lack of consistency. All these extensions are also possible with modx, but here you have less out-of-the-box solutions, you rather have to put them together for your needs.

Greetz Marc

Here is my 0.02 cents,

The big difference is on the design. There is a give and take in here.
In MODx, you have greater control over design, but you cannot get all the fancy features such as blog and bla2 to be setup easily.
In Joomla, you have almost no control over design (unless you’re a css master), but you have all those fancy ceatures available that you can easily installed them on your site.

So if you’re a designer or advanced user, I might suggest you to try out MODx, but if you just want to get your site up and running without having to bother taking care of the design and etc, then go for Joomla.

In the end, it’s all depends on your needs. But believe me, in the next few months, we will have more features/addons added to MODx, so you can just easily install and use them

I’d spent a better part of my career looking for modX - and just recently found it.

The reasons I’m drawn to it are quite simple, valid content editable within xhtml css tableless layouts - you wouldn’t believe how many client’s I’ve come across who ask for a "table" to be put inside their ’beautiful’ tableless layouts because semantic markup with css is ’too hard’ for them to handle, or learn.

I mean, who else can say they’ve delivered valid (w3.org valid) xhtml css tableless sites to their client’s only to discover a week later it’s been transformed into a mutant of tables, errors, and layout components ’thumbing’ rendering issues and only working on IE6!

With modX, it offers a way to deliver layouts with a very easy logical means for client’s to manage content the way content inside css tableless layouts was intended to be manged -then there’s layout control, performed entirely via css and markup allowing the content to exist entirely seperate and primed for any css xhtml tableless layout.

But modX doesn’t stop there, it offers a lot more - chunks, snippets - the imagination runs wild!

I don’t think modX is an entry level cms, but then I wouldn’t call it ’just’ a cms . . . nor do I think it’s fair to measure joomla against it - joomla and mambo just aren’t in the same league.

well so far, I like what i’m hearing, however the admin manager is really something he he, not sure whats what or where to start.

the template process alone is odd in that from what i can tell you download a template with its folders filled with goodies, then you copy/past the html into new template in the admin, this is very foreign to me, whatever happen to the simple things in life like point-click-install.

the menu system is another interesting process from what I’ve been reading very tricky on setting up custom navigation
and snippets and chunks well that just makes my head spin lol

Modx definately has a unique way of doing things, I’m sure for the better but not easy or friendly for the user unless your a developer perhaps.