newbie Q re is modx for me?

Hi all.

I am currently redesigning a classic car club website for the committee of the club (of which I am a member). The current host for the site (PagesGarden) looks like they are about to go belly up and I have been hunting around for a new host. Through various leads I have found a host here in Spain. It so happens that the guy who owns the company is a big fan of MODx, uses it to design his sites, and has the software plus all supporting kit, on his servers.

Here is my question:

I have just about finished designing my first website, coding it all by hand in order to learn html/css. I know a fair bit about computing but am only a few weeks into the mysteries of web design - in fact pretty well a newbie. What I want to know is - is it worth me investing what looks like a fair bit of time into learning how to use MODx in order to improve the look of the club’s website - given that it is mostly finished? The MODx fan said "you more or less just plug your code into MODx and away you go" .. Clearly he was exaggerating and it might be like that for him but is it possible for me to do?

I am off to do a bit of reading (found the MODHost site) but there doesn’t seem to be much else around aimed at anyone below programming expert standard.

I’d appreciate some views.

TIA

BTW here is a test site where i am working on the design. Go easy on me - I am really just dipping my toe at the moment... www.test.solclassiccarclub.net

Quote from: arjay at Sep 14, 2007, 01:22 PM

"you more or less just plug your code into MODx and away you go"

I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. MODx is the easiest CMS I’ve ever tried -- and I’ve tried them all. I highly recommend it to n00bs

Thanks for that - it sounds encouraging. I will start looking up some references tomorrow. I anyone has a good link to some "easy reading" it would be a help. I don’t think I really understand what a CMS like MODx is and can do. HHopefully that will come in the next few days.

Try this

http://wiki.modxcms.com/index.php/Beginner%27s_Guide_to_MODx

Believe me it’s so easy once you get to grips with the basics, I ma new also and although I have not got to grips with certain things to create a template and add your content is so easy so stick with it. Oh when you install it also install the sample site then you can see the code used for things like the search feature etc

Cheers

My biggest critique / criticism of MODx is the documentation. It is out-of-date, somewhat confusing, and lacking in coverage all that MODx can do. My recommendation is to tinker around with a local install, and come here when you have specific Qs.

Quote from: bpedigo at Sep 14, 2007, 06:12 PM

My biggest critique / criticism of MODx is the documentation. It is out-of-date, somewhat confusing, and lacking in coverage all that MODx can do. My recommendation is to tinker around with a local install, and come here when you have specific Qs.

Ah - I was going ask if it is possible to do a local install. I thought I would have to have too much supporting software (PHP, MySQL etc) that it would be too complicated to set up. I don’t yet know how to setup and use these other programs - they normally come pre-installed on your host’s servers!

There are a number of packages for installing apache/php/mysql. For Windows, there’s WAMP and XAMPP. I use MAMP on my Mac, although OSX comes with a default apache/php/mysql installation, I prefer MAMP.

As Susan Said there are a number of server stacks that you can used on your computer. My preferred windows stack is XAMPP. It is a one click install and is frequently updated and includes a php switcher for switching between php4 and php5.

Doing a local install with the default table data is immensely helpful in learning the basics.

Converting a HTML/CSS template is easy as pie though. All you have to to do is stick your template into the template field and place the content call in the template and you have a basic site.

That being said there is alot of information that can confuse.

MODx is easy to learn and hard to master. It is powerful and virtualy limitless in possibilities for websites.

The documentation will likely be updated after 0.9.7 and then on the road to 1.0. The forums are an excellent resource and the wiki is getting better and better.

Thanks for the info re software for trials on local machines. It will help others as well as me.

Unfortunately (well actually, I regard it as a good thing <g>) I only run linux on my network here at home. I am discounting win 2000 and win xp that I run on one machine just to check displays of my website in win browsers. Otherwise, I haven’t used windows for nearly 3 years - wouldn’t know where to start!

I’d have to find something equivalent to the windows stack - so now I know there’s a WAMP and a MAMP, but is there a LAMP?

Most Linux distros include everything you need for LAMP, but XAMPP is also available for Linux...