Rethinking MODx

I think he just needed a pretense to place this fat altova link.

not interesting, nor appropriate...

Quote from: RussLipton at Nov 03, 2006, 02:31 PM

Ditto (excuse the expression) for understanding parameterization for snippets and such. For instance, what if there were a Ditto thread that encouraging posting of micro-examples from working code in the community, especially focusing on unusual use of parameters and/or Ditto combined with other features?

Russ,

This is exactly what I am thinking.

Here is an example that I did months back:
http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,6226.msg43984.html#msg43984

I am trying to compile more of these. These working examples will really help people understand and use the greatness and flexibility of MODx.

Chuck

hey are that prejudices or critics on my post? be eazy it was an idea, and I’m not promoting for altova or any other companies.

MODx already autogenerates some keywords for the meta tags and aliases for the documents right?
So, in the "future" (what ever that is) it would be cool if MODx did the job of creating semantics for the content instead of the user. (It’s a boring job to add semantics, machines should do that )

YOU don’t know what TIM BERNERS LEE said about the web??
Take a look -> http://www.semantic-web.at/36.84.84.article.tim-berners-lee-the-future-of-the-web.htm
^ In german ->http://de.theinquirer.net/2006/09/24/tim_bernerslee_verkuendet_das.html

Very important to Internet Freaks like us:
TIM BERNERS LEE IS TALKING ABOUT WEB AND FUTURE.
http://esw.w3.org/topic/SwigAtTp2006


Very interesting article about web, web2, and web3 from the geniuses at Dr. Web
->http://www.drweb.de/weblog/weblog/?p=623


O.K. here is more Information about "Semantic Web" (worth reading)
-> http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

Here are some technologies you should know about as "Semantical Developer".
Resource Description Framework (RDF)
http://www.w3.org/RDF/
RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF Schema
http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/
Web Ontology Language (OWL)
http://www.w3.org/2004/OWL/

Too many information I know. I recommend reading the book Computer Power and Human Reason by Joseph Weizenbaum its a classics for IT-Students. Here is a short review http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~palmquis/courses/reviews/amy.htm

I can not explain you in one post what semantic ai and web3 is and why it is so important to me to follow that "standards" as early as possible. So please read my post before and be patient, because reading that links and their links etc. takes time, but makes wiser I think.

regards .X4

Thanks for the links... adding to my reading list.

I assume your reading list must be enourmously big ;-)
hehe learning never ends..damn that sucks level /(revision 2106) and the game is still in the beginning..

Quote from: g5604 at Nov 13, 2006, 03:36 AM

I find it amazing that some people are suggesting modx is hard for new users to learn. put [*#content*] in your xhtml design and you are away - no hacking, no compromise of design, perfect. This is the first CMS I have used extensively and I have found the learning curve for the more advanced features very smooth.

Documentation can be hard to find, but the support forum is second to none and you are never left stranded.

g.

You obviously bring much more knowledge and a different background to the table than I do. I’m not amazed at all that some people find it hard to learn, since I am a newbie and am definitely feeling the pain. The home page 2nd paragraph proclamation of "child’s play" led me to believe I might have a chance at figuring this out in a reasonable amount of time, but later discovered that MODx is currently only recommended for those souls with XHTML/CSS backgrounds, brave enough or knowledgeable enough to explore the depths of PHP. A game of checkers I can handle, XHTML/CSS somewhat, but PHP I can not, at least not yet. I am a technically inclined guy with extensive background in digital pre-press in high-end, high volume printing facilities. Yet I’m struggling to understand the meaning of, the differences between, and how to combine a TV, chunk, snippet, @binding, widgets, plugins, modules, DBAPI, etc. and all of their subcategories. It is very overwhelming, and goes beyond just semantics. I had similar expressions of confusion when new production artists entered my department, seeing a whole new world of work flows and approaches to solving problems that were not used in their previous facilities or classrooms. I had to tutor them one step at a time into the new ways of thinking and I guess that kind of educational tool is what I desperately need here. I’m faced with the totality of MODx, with all its options at one time and don’t know where to start, regardless of my hours spent with the documentation and in the forums. There is lots of info but I guess what I need is some type of tutorial that walks me through the basics. Some will simply tell me to try it out until it works but I’ve messed around with this a bunch and screwed up and reinstalled at least a dozen times. I don’t want to bloat the forums with my flavor of the same old questions, asked a different way. It taxes the community of time better spent in other ways. Maybe I don’t know much about child’s play these days but this is not it.

All of my observations are made with the utmost respect for the countless hours spent by those of you who are making this one awesome CMS. This is an incredible community contributing to this effort. Most of this thread is way over my head but it is interesting none the less. Hopefully I can manage to get up to speed enough to likewise contribute beyond my newbies perspective from the outside looking in. Looks warm in there, hopefully I can find the door before I freeze to death out here. :’(

scandiman,

You are undertaking a serious task. Jumping into a single universe at once is difficult enough but simultaneously learning HTML, CSS, PHP and then learn to put them all together with another abstraction and no real map. Good luck!

I have been working with MODx for a couple of months and have only just scratched the surface in its potential. One thing I would strongly recommend though is getting an understanding of PHP and some of its structures, syntax, methods and functions. Things like includes, variables, arrays, defined functions and constants. I would do this separate from MODx and get your feet wet.

There are lots of great books out there and one of the best is PHP 5 Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP and MySQL by Kevin Yank, Sitepoint. While you may not be into MySQL yet (as I am a complete noob) it has very good examples of the basics of PHP. Another book is PHP A Visual Quick Start Guide by Larry Ullman, Peachpit Press. The reason I suggest this is because as I learned PHP (basics only) I was inadvertently developing my own PHP based framework to speed up development and deployment and when I saw how MODx could do all I wanted it to do, faster, better and with less work, I was sold.

I think that everyone in the MODx group acknowledge that documentation is here, there any everywhere or missing altogether. Ryan and others have pointed out that they are focusing on getting releases out and certainly all working toward the eagerly awaited 1.X. With a lightening of pressure on the team since the launch of 0.9.5 there will be likely some changes to the website, wiki and the forums. I will however bow to David, Ryan and Susan et al on that.

Hope you stick it out.

Jay

Quote from: scandiman at Dec 07, 2006, 08:04 PM

printing facilities. Yet I’m struggling to understand the meaning of, the differences between, and how to combine a TV, chunk, snippet, @binding, widgets, plugins, modules, DBAPI, etc. and all of their subcategories. It is very overwhelming, and goes beyond just semantics.

It *is* overwhelming if you try to understand them all at once...

What I am doing is working through one concept at a time, gradually learning new stuff as I need it, and trying to make sure I understand it fully before moving on. Meanwhile I am peppering the forums with queries all of which have been graciously answered, and in return I try to help as many people as I can in my own areas of expertise.

You only need a few key concepts to get started though..

Template = overall page structure
Chunk = named chunk of literal HTML
Snippet = piece of PHP code that produces some output

The snippets are mostly written for you by other kind souls, and although some of them take some learning, they don’t involve PHP - you would only need PHP if you want to write your own snippets. [Certainly it helps to be able to *read* a bit of PHP sometimes.]

My own site (still in infancy) started as follows:

(1) Install MODx

(2) Choose template - andreas01 - and modify for my needs

- involved fiddling with the HTML in the template and the CSS in the associated style file, but if you are happy with the default structure then you don’t need to do anything.

(3) Add Wayfinder snippet call to template for menus (no PHP needed, just learn Wayfinder which is well documented)

(4) Add Contact Me page using eForm snippet (again, need to learn eForm, but well documented)

(5) Add AjaxSearch snippet to template (so it appears on every page)

(6) Start adding content..

Next I will be learning about Ditto (for summarising pages), then Jot (for user comments), then working through the blog stuff... I still haven’t needed to explicitly use any widgets, plugins, modules, TVs etc.

HTH

Gordon

Scandiman,

I feel your frustration.

I agree with Jay and Gordon, that the key is to work on one small item at a time. It would be great for to put our how to’s and explanations in the wiki. The more examples we have of how this one item works, the better we can all put whole sites together.

Chuck

PS - Edit. I feel your frustration as in it is a whole lot to look at. However if you just want a simple site with Content Management, it pretty simple. Start with [*content*]. Then create a menu with WayFinder.

Start out with the sideblocks as plain HTML in the template , then move to chunks for the sideblocks, then (if client wants) move the sideblocks into the CMS as Template Variables.

PPS - Is there a thread where someone shows the best way to use the CMS and allow users to edit sideblocks per page via QuickEdit?

I guess this has been suggested before:

Build a set of "out-of-the-box" solutions for typical site-types. (Blog-oriented, company-site, news-site etc.)
The easy part is the adaption of the basic layout, but anything more difficult, like snippets for navigation etc. would be already set up with a reasonable configuration that could (and should) but MUST not be adapted. Trying to improve/modify a running system is a more satisfying way of learning than to try to get something running in the first place.

I learned a LOT from the sample site.

There should be more of them to be downloaded/installed directly from modxcms.com