MODx for corporate/manufacturer site?

Hello all,

First off - sorry for the length of this post!

I am evaluating the idea of moving my corporate site to a CMS rather than the manual Dreamweaver-based site I have now. There are a few catches that I’m not seeing whether MODx can handle based on the documentation / forums posts here, so I thought I would ask. There are a lot of things I’ll have to sort out how to do and I’m sure I will in due time, but there are a few key functions I’m hoping to get that I’m just not sure if they’re possible with MODx and I need to find that out before spending a lot of time getting up to speed on it.

First, my company manufactures a number of different products, and we have product detail pages for those. Fairly straight-forward how to do that, but I want to be able to associate files to a particular product. By files, I mean .pdf docs such as manuals, cut-sheets, etc. Also images and .zip files for public download. I See how to upload files to the /assets folder and how to create links to those on a page, but I want some automation on that. So here’s a scenario: A content editor in the company creates a new document having to do with a particular product. He uploads the .pdf of that doc to the site and associates it via metatext or some other means to a product. MODx then presents a link to that document on the product detail page without the content editor having to create the link.  Is this possible? If so, could someone direct me in general terms how I should approach that, what the general steps would be to set it up? I’m not asking for someone to program it for me, but just a jump-start on how to think it through.

It would also be really nice to have the product detail pages auto-generate based on pieces of content (this is just a nice-to-have, not a show-stopper). So a template knows that a photo of said product should go here, the blurb paragraph there, bullet points over here, and the links side-bar here and pulls that info from a database. Does that make sense? I am pretty sure I can get that database set up, but not sure how to think through how the interface to it would be accomplished in MODx. This is only a a nice-to-have, since my company doesn’t produce an enormous amount different products. I can manually manage the creation of the product detail pages if I have to. But the association of the /assets files to a product would be really nice because I have content writers/contributors all the time wanting me to upload a new cut-sheet, manual, etc, for them.

Also, I will have varying degrees of web access. I see how to establish all of that  with the user/document groups and links between them. Actually, this feature is one of the primary reasons I’m hoping MODx will work for me because I love how it is implemented here. But I also want that level of control over some associated files - again .pdfs, or spreadsheets, etc. I need to not only limit what pages a particular user can access, but also files that may be linked on those pages. Does that make sense?

Thanks for any and all help you can provide.

cvice

Hi cvice,

first of all warm welcome to MODx! by reading your post above, you seems to come to right place .

now i m going to write my responses below:

First, my company manufactures a number of different products, and we have product detail pages for those. Fairly straight-forward how to do that, but I want to be able to associate files to a particular product. By files, I mean .pdf docs such as manuals, cut-sheets, etc. Also images and .zip files for public download. I See how to upload files to the /assets folder and how to create links to those on a page, but I want some automation on that. So here’s a scenario: A content editor in the company creates a new document having to do with a particular product. He uploads the .pdf of that doc to the site and associates it via metatext or some other means to a product. MODx then presents a link to that document on the product detail page without the content editor having to create the link. Is this possible? If so, could someone direct me in general terms how I should approach that, what the general steps would be to set it up? I’m not asking for someone to program it for me, but just a jump-start on how to think it through.

Very simple, seriously. I assume you have MODx installed and working, now you have to create a MODx document, the default available "fields" will have something like this: http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Image:Create-document.jpg

This screen is pretty straightforward.

For the uploads to specific documents, you will need "Template Variables" aka TVs,

http://modxcms.com/what-are-template-variables1.html
http://modxcms.com/creating-a-template-variable.html

It would also be really nice to have the product detail pages auto-generate based on pieces of content (this is just a nice-to-have, not a show-stopper). So a template knows that a photo of said product should go here, the blurb paragraph there, bullet points over here, and the links side-bar here and pulls that info from a database. Does that make sense? I am pretty sure I can get that database set up, but not sure how to think through how the interface to it would be accomplished in MODx. This is only a a nice-to-have, since my company doesn’t produce an enormous amount different products. I can manually manage the creation of the product detail pages if I have to. But the association of the /assets files to a product would be really nice because I have content writers/contributors all the time wanting me to upload a new cut-sheet, manual, etc, for them.

The step I described above, was about adding content, now you have to present it to public.. right? For this, you will create Template and assign it to the documents. How to create templates? following links have pretty simple guides on this:

http://modxcms.com/template-basics.html
http://www.modxcms.com/adding-tags.html
http://modxcms.com/adding-chunks.html

Also, I will have varying degrees of web access. I see how to establish all of that with the user/document groups and links between them. Actually, this feature is one of the primary reasons I’m hoping MODx will work for me because I love how it is implemented here. But I also want that level of control over some associated files - again .pdfs, or spreadsheets, etc. I need to not only limit what pages a particular user can access, but also files that may be linked on those pages. Does that make sense?

For this please read these: (NOTE: few screenshots on those pages are old, but you can recognize them easily. for newer screenshots see: http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/MODx_0.9.5_in_screen_captures )

http://modxcms.com/why-manager-users.html
http://modxcms.com/manager-roles-groups.html
http://modxcms.com/why-web-users-and-web-groups.html
http://modxcms.com/creating-a-web-user-group-and-document-group.html
http://modxcms.com/creating-a-web-user-account.html

For dynamic menu generation: see "Wayfinder" snippet, and for listings etc see "Ditto" snippet. Remember, the search box is your friend.

Hope this will help you to jump start.

Goodluck.

I’ve worked for a couple of web design companies doing MODx development, and we’ve used MODx for quite a number of manufacturing, wholesalers and retail shops, as well as real estate companies. Between Ditto and MaxiGallery, the sites have been very successful.

Quote from: zi at Aug 21, 2007, 07:52 PM

For the uploads to specific documents, you will need "Template Variables" aka TVs,

http://modxcms.com/what-are-template-variables1.html
http://modxcms.com/creating-a-template-variable.html

Thank you zi for the kick-start. Reading your response and scratching my head a bit, it looks like the magic to do what I want with dynamically presenting the links to related files (pdfs, zips, etc.) is in TVs. I’ve read about that concept some, but will go back and delve into it more and let it soak in. I think that’s where it’s at.

I think I’m good, conceptually at least, with templating, and roles and groups. Ditto and Wayfinder seem very difficult to grasp right now, but I’ll work on it and I’ll get it I’m sure. My main thing right now was just to make sure this CMS would be able to handle the relationships I need between product pages and links to associated assets.

Thanks again!
cvice

Quote from: sottwell at Aug 22, 2007, 05:21 AM

I’ve worked for a couple of web design companies doing MODx development, and we’ve used MODx for quite a number of manufacturing, wholesalers and retail shops, as well as real estate companies. Between Ditto and MaxiGallery, the sites have been very successful.

Thanks sottwell, that’s good to know. I’ve browsed through a lot of sites people have posted, and been quite impressed with many, but haven’t really seen any similar to what I’m doing with that specific "related documents" requirement. Would you be willing to provide a link to an example site of a manufacturer with product pages, if you have one? It might give me some inspiration.

I’m afraid both of my employers didn’t want any of the sites linked to in forums such as this. However, I used the FileDownload snippet for presenting the .pdf and other downloadable files for them.