Importing current site into ModX system.

Ive been looking at ModX for quite a while now, and Im pretty impressed with it and have been having a little play and things, but have yet to work out how I can use it to make a similar setup to what I have and then extend it some more. Im sure modX can do it but just dont know how at the moment.

I wonder if anyone could give me some advise on how i could implement some of the search features on my current site which are all hardcoded custom php modules for invision board.

I have a module which stores venue information and a module that stores gig information. Gigs being at the venues. Venues are also seperated into areas, and we also allow postcode search of gigs and venues using latitude and longitude UK postcode information.


I think I can just about get some of the content linked together using templates and TV’s... but I would like to know if anyone could give me any pointers or ideas to duplicate my current setup. The most important thing being the listing by area, venue name, and the latitude longitude using the postcode, all of which are currently just SQL queries.

I would like to if possible I think use the ModX document system I think for gigs and venues and move them out of custom tables. I would like to use the alias functionality of this as it would be a great improvement on the site. I could have venues with http://www.rebellionlive.co.uk/venuename


Also I would like to know is there a way I can import all my current data into the ModX system, is there a create document API or something so I could write a script to transfer. Im not sure how to do this...


Thanks for reading, hope people have some ideas and can help me out, as ModX looks really good and Im sure all this can be done quite easily, its just taking the first steps and finding out how.


My site address is:
http://www.rebellionlive.co.uk/


This is the address for the venues section:
http://www.rebellionlive.co.uk/Venues

And the gigs section:
http://www.rebellionlive.co.uk/Gigs

Gigs section is not as built up at the moment but it would be good to have similar search functions to venues. Use M1 6DD as postcode to see search on postcode.

Thanks Everyone.

Quote from: KiM at Jun 25, 2007, 04:24 PM

Also I would like to know is there a way I can import all my current data into the ModX system, is there a create document API or something so I could write a script to transfer. Im not sure how to do this...

MODx offers import capabilities via "Tools > Import HTML"

This generally is not a One step solution, but does get the ball rolling. I have used it several times and it is great for getting your content into the CMS, creating unique pages from the originals, and even pre-populating a few fields such as Pagetitle and Alias.

Once you get your site into the system, you can optionally use some crafty-SQL to parse out various sections of the content scriptomagically update/relocate the content, or create a custom module to recurse through the document hierarchy and perform some advanced Import methods, as needed.

Of course, this is not out-of-the-box with MODx, nor any other CMS, but is just one of the custom solutions I have used to find success in migrating existing setups to MODx...

On a side note, if your site today is NOT static and is currently dynamic (e.g. index.php?page=Home, index.php?page=About, etc) You can use a program such ass "Offline Explorer" or other to recursive download your entire site to the local system, as static files. Rename them all to .HTML and place them in "/assets/import" prior to running the "Import HTML" section of MODx...it will save you A LOT of time compared to Copy old content > Create new page > Paste old content > Save > Repeat.

Good luck with your move!