Alternative types of content (link directories, other directories)?

MODx is fantastic for the normal style content pages, but I’m pushing that limit and need to find the best approach

I have a client that needs a link directory (2-3 groupings/categories, but all displayed on one page) and then a resources directory (a page for each organisation, a page listing all organisations, and then pages listing by category).

I could bend MODx and use certain fields from the pages (along with template variables) to store the data for these directories, but there’s no way to hide the other fields on the admin screens. This will become too confusing for people administering the site.

As there’s no MODx equivalent of Drupal’s CCK module, wriiting a frontend to a DB table is the alternative. However the drawback is that we cannot then use snippets to extract the latest items etc - these pages/data are totally separate from the MODx system. With users focused on the tree structure for everything else, this is going to add unintuitivness to the system.

If MODx had a way to integrate ’new’ content types it would gain many of the benefits of systems like Django, which make defining and editing new types of content a breeze, while still retaining the overall ease of use and integration.

One way of doing this would be to allow custom admin screens to be created and associated with a particular page template. This isn’t so ’pure’ as a separate table in terms of relational data, but would use TV’s to create new content types.

As no one’s said this is possible, before I start work on this I have one question: Is this planned in a release up to and including version 1? I don’t want to duplicate someone else’s work, or (if the admin area is going to feature code generation from a form library for example) have my work rendered void by future changes.

If someone can answer those questions, I’ll get started or work on a different project
And a link to a roadmap, if available, would be very helpful so I know what’s changing in 0.97 and beyond.

you can see the .9.7 roadmap here: http://modxcms.com/roadmap.html

This has been discussed in-depth in many threads from many different angles, the roadmap is here and covers some of this topic...but

Simply put, there are a number of ways to approach this already in MODx, and template variables fit the bill in most cases (it’s not difficult to hide fields on the admin screens, and TV’s are already assignable to specific templates which could be used to represent your custom document structure). Heavier lifting can be done by creating a snippet or plugin that acts as a custom controller for managing actions of a particular web app, form, or section.

Speaking to the roadmap, with 0.9.7, you can also extend the base modResource class (or any derivative, i.e. modDocument, modWebLink, modSymbolicLink, etc.) to customize the persistence or behavior of your "custom resource type" (NOTE: Resources in 0.9.7 terminology are commonly referred to currently as a MODx Document, MODx Folder/Container and/or MODx WebLink). Plus the manager will be even more extensible/customizable than it is now...

Quote from: OpenGeek at Jun 14, 2007, 12:07 PM

This has been discussed in-depth in many threads from many different angles, the roadmap is here and covers some of this topic...but

I did search both the forum and the site, but (with the words and phrases I associate with the topic) turned up nothing.

Simply put, there are a number of ways to approach this already in MODx, and template variables fit the bill in most cases (it’s not difficult to hide fields on the admin screens, and TV’s are already assignable to specific templates which could be used to represent your custom document structure).

To hide fields and relabel them, is the only way the plugin that uses Javascript?

Speaking to the roadmap, with 0.9.7, you can also extend the base modResource class (or any derivative, i.e. modDocument, modWebLink, modSymbolicLink, etc.) to customize the persistence or behavior of your "custom resource type" I like the look of the changes - looking forward to learning 0.9.7 when it arrives!

I should also ask - at what state is 0.9.7 in SVN? Is it ready to start being developed with, if one doesn’t mind bugs and code changes?

Quote from: pbowyer at Jun 15, 2007, 02:29 AM

I should also ask - at what state is 0.9.7 in SVN? Is it ready to start being developed with, if one doesn’t mind bugs and code changes?

Just about; I’m working late in the secret lab as I respond to this, testing and refining the new package installation process, especially in regards to installing the various directories to custom locations (i.e. install the mgr context to /modx/area51/ and the web context to /modx/roswell/, etc.)