OK, what does ManagerManager actually do?

I see a lot of references to this snippet. I have never used ManagerManager before.

I looked at the "extras" area and this the blurb I see:

ManagerManager allows you to: Change field namesHide fields Change the help text for fields Rename tabs Hide tabs Create new tabs Move fields to different tabs Inherit field values from parent documents Prefill date values with customisable values Link fields together so their values always match Rename and move sections of the document editing page Add widgets to Manager fields - e.g. Del.icio.us-like tag interface, color picker, image preview All these features can be enabled for any manager role, any template, or any combination of these.

This is one long run on sentence that tells me very little- or at least fails to paint a mental picture of what it does and why it could be useful?

Does anyone have a live demo running or provide some insight into what this snippet actually does? A lot of snippets have this kind of description: might make sense to a programmer but to the rest of the world is less than cryptic... by the way the word "customisable" is spelt incorrectly...

With MM you can reorder you manager interface in document editing view. For example, you don`t need the longtitle in your document? Hide it. You want to use the description field but you want to call it "introduction"? Rename it. You want to create more than the default tabs like "images", "layout settings" and "security". Create them. You want to move some TVs and document variables to these new tabs? Go on.

All this is possible with MM. And some more functionalities like colorpickers for TVs or a nice tag view (list of tags, one click to activate).

by the way the word "customisable" is spelt incorrectly...

It depends where you come from ;-)

Thanks, I might give it a spin when I get a moment.

If you build sites for "normal" end users, ManagerManager is indispensible. It honestly took me a long time to believe in it, then we were forced to do so by a client. Now we’d not consider building a site without it

I glanced through the docs and the forum section.

Maybe I need to try installing it and see where I get. But all the documentation makes it look like activating MM is a complicated procedure. Is there a live demo site that shows what it does? Or some pics from a ManagerManager version of an altered/improved Manager? Something visual to show "to get this cool feature (shown here) working you need to do this" ??

I don’t want to seem silly or lazy but I would like to know what the specific benefits/rewards are before I jump in the deep end.

To my eye this is one of those classic MODx "it would be nice to have a well written introduction" that helps advertise/markets/explains the snippet that the developers have worked so hard to create...

Install the demo content with 1.0.2. While very minimal, you can see the tagging widget in place on the blog entries. And I think Summary/Introtext is rebadged just "Summary". It’s really simple to use honestly.

Thanks Ryan.

I forgot about that...

Thats easy for me to do with MAMP.

I too didn’t drink the Kool-Aid of ManagerManager until early this year.

Have you turned a site over to a client and said "So here you put your page title and just ignore this field and this one and this one and put your content in here. Oh, and you’ll never need to touch these either." If you have uttered any variation of those words and wished you could hide the unused fields so the client just enters and sees the fields they are meant to see. So if you have documents where all your client will ever do is enter a Pagetitle and the content, you can hide all the extraneous fields.

Another use case is to customize the fields for the content: If you have a small product catalogue you can customize the field names for the product. You could change Pagetitle to Product Name, Longtitle could be Short Description or SKU or price — you get it.

There is a lot more you can do and maybe it warrants some more examples but needless to say it is one of the most powerful elements of the current core release. Allowing you to create an entirely custom manager experience for your clients without hacking the core.

The configs are powerful and settings can be based on template, usergroup and if you know you php you can do conditionals to make all documents under a particular parent have the rules applied.

Even if you don’t want to go crazy with customization you can simply use it to add settings TVs to documents for you, the developer that you can then hide for anyone but the site admin. This adds tremendous power to what you can do and offers opportunity to use fewer templates where you can use additional overriding TVs that default to one value or @inherit. ManagerManager settings can also be loaded via default configs so on install of MODx you can install with your base MM config file and all is ready for to use.

On the issue of there not be adequate marketing materials it is the nature of programming that people attempt merely to present the functions and features vs use cases and benefits.

Thanks a ton!

That is real good insight. I am getting the idea of it now. This is really helpful.

I know its the nature of the arena but I often read the blurb that comes with snippets, plugins etc and what you often get is a list of functions and parameters. This can make you ask yourself "OK, what does thing actually do, why is it cool, and how do you activate it?" What usually happens next is some major digging around and experimentation which includes wading through many threads generated by other confused users.

The other day I installed Apple’s Final Cut Studio. While the installer was cranking away I read the "Exploring Final Cut Pro" booklet that came with the suite. FCP is major software title that does all kinds of cutting edge and complicated things. State of the art for sure. But that booklet is a thing of beauty. The language, diagrams and explanations is some of the best of its kind I have come across: thorough, very easy to read and comprehend. I have encountered many samples of software literature writing that makes you realize you are in for a long bumpy ride, usually by the time you get to page six. Obviously the comparison with a multi billion dollar company that is arguably the greatest thing going in the entire industry is unfair. But the principle is valid: Apple is great at putting products (hardware, software, widgets, apps etc) in front of people with a very simple methodology: "here is this super cool thing! This is what it does and this is why you want one..."

I agree with you entirely but many PHP Developers and script writers are either busy and release Addons as part of a work product vs creation for the masses. And in other cases many programmers and developers lack the ability to explain their products in terms of user benefit and use cases vs features and functions.

In everyone’s experience they’ve encountered some brilliant person who just can’t explain why or how on a subject without losing you in a sea of technical nonesuch. Not to say that our devs and contributors are that way but although great documentation seems easy to write it requires a greater understanding of both how to the thing works and how people learn and understand. Oh, and some people can’t write to save their life.

There are few people who can build great apps and write great user guides. Apple, for instance, has technical writing teams to develop comprehensive yet easy to understand documentation of its products. In the case of ManagerManager, a 3rd party developed app that was adopted into the core of MODx we have yet to work on creating a comprehensive user guide for it but users are always welcome to bring forward the fruits of there experimentation as How-tos, instructions or getting started guides.

Share your thoughts on writing better documentation. I think I am going to start a new thread on how to write better documentation for addons.