Dumbest noob questions ever...

I’ve read through the documentation, searched the forums, poked around the nooks and crannies of www.modxcms.com, etc. But I still have dumb questions. So MODx sets up its own MySQL database at installation -- and that when you add content through MODx, it automatically stores the content in its database. Okay, very cool.

Q1: But what if I want a specific schema for the MySQL database? Can I use that instead? Do I just point to my own database when installing MODx or upload my own database AFTER installation or what?

Q2: If I can use my own existing database -- do I continue adding content separately through MySQL or other client -- or does MODx provide a way to create a custom form for uploading content or what?

I told you they were dumb questions!
Thanks!!

Actually this question strikes at the heart of the CMF/CMS conundrum.

1: You *can* use your own database with MODx, however the bundled Content Manager, modules, snippets etc expect certain tables to be available and for certain fields to be available. So using your own schema "instead" is not completely practical. You can use your own schema "as well", and you can hack the manager’s API to use a different table structure.

So the short answer is that you can store content in whatever tables you want, but you’ll really need at least one document in the existing structure that loads in that content.

2: The more you move away from the MODx tables the less the Manager is going to be useful. The DB API does provide everything you need to create custom forms for creating content, and you can save to custom tables, but again more work is already done for you if you use the existing tables.

To be brutally frank, if you’re not going to use the bundled CMS side of MODx you’d be better off looking at CodeIgniter.

It would help here if you could suggest why you would want to use a different schema.

Paul,

Thanks for the quick reply. Much appreciated. I think I may not be properly grasping the true power of MODx. I’m going to continue investigating and learning. Thanks again!

As I always say: "There’s no such thing as dumb questions...just dumb people!" Heh heh! J/K!