We are looking to switch CMS (from Dragonfly). I really like what I’ve seen from ModX but there is some functionality that I haven’t been able to find either in the CMS itself or in the add-ons.
A bit of background on our company... we write and sell software that many of you probably use. We have over 2 million customers and do the majority of our sales on our site - from need identification to deal transaction. Essentially our website is the face of our company and very, very important to our success.
Our current layout is okay, especially when compared against our competitors, but is a mix of CSS and tables and the CMS can be kind of clunky at times. Also, we’ve really started to bulk up on quality content so we’re looking for a more intuitive CMS to manage this.
So, we have a few needs that we are using as prerequisites and a few "nice-to-haves" which are bonuses when we evaluate CMS.
I have found that ModX meets our needs for the following:
Downloads Management (categorized) via add-on
SEO support (link rewriting, SEO/meta features)
RSS
Themeable
Backend Publishing
User Community (site membership)
Site Search
Screenshot management (add-on)
Here are a few things we’ll need that i haven’t been able to find.
1. Supplemental content management
We sell a few different shareware applications. When we’ve channeled a customer into a "More Features" funnel for Product X we want to be able to control the supplemental content such as specials, banners (no 3rd party ads), testimonials in the sidebar, etc.; specific to Product X and not Product Y or Product Z without manually changing the content for each Product X page. Would this be possible either via ModX core functionality or an extension?
2. Database-managed linking
Our current download module provides ability to point to a link and then redirect. Is this possible with ModX
3. Batch uploads
Available via add-on?
4. Change version numbers across entire site
We frequently release updates/hotfixes and new releases of our software. Is there anyway that we could use ModX to create some sort of module to where when it’s time to update our site with the new release, we simply change the version number and release date in a module, then this change is automatically cascaded across the site via includes (or something else)? I understand how this could be done with simple PHP (just set a variable) so I’m sure it could be done in ModX, just haven’t figured out how yet.
Thanks!
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MODX Staff
- 10,725 Posts
There definitely are not pre-developed add-ons currently available for all the features you are mentioning, but the framework in MODx should allow you to quickly construct those features in a way that best fits your needs, assuming you have the appropriate PHP/MySQL/HTML/CSS/JS skills or resources available.
Hopefully, some others will chime in on potential approaches to each one of the additional features you listed; they are all accomplishable. The downside of MODx’s flexibility and power is that it provides you more choices when making just about every decision in developing your site, which can be daunting at first. But ultimately, it leads to a feeling of freedom of choice that is the true trademark of the MODx framework.
Good luck with your evaluation.
Cheers
Thanks for your responses. ModX is definitely looking more promising than Joomla.
