Attention MODX REVO Developers: Raising development productivity by connecting MODX with IDE

Hi, everyone

I'd like to know REVO developers' opinion about one idea. I want to raise productivity of development by connecting MODX with desktop text processor (Sublime Text is an option). There will be project files tree with Templates, Chunks, Snippets, Plugins and filesystem trees (just like in MODX administration panel). You edit what you want in a third party text processor and when you save changes - they automatically sync with remote website.

I represent a web development company, so I have enough resources for creation of such an addon. Since we have a lot of another work to do - development will not be free. Approximate cost of addon for end users will be about 20$.

What do you think about this kind of solution - accessing and editing MODX files and elements through desktop text processor?

Right now I'm trying to estimate public demand for this.

I'm actually already doing this with sublime text in combination with transmit (FTP Client) and ElementHelper (to re import the static files that were saved to the server by transmit after I edited them with SublimeText). But depending on what your Addon could do, this would be quite interesting =)!

I've been meaning to do this with PhpStorm, which has a built-in deployment system, but I never seem to get around to it.

I think it would be quite popular and that sounds like a reasonable price.

Quote from: exside at Oct 27, 2013, 07:14 PM

I'm actually already doing this with sublime text in combination with transmit (FTP Client) and ElementHelper (to re import the static files that were saved to the server by transmit after I edited them with SublimeText). But depending on what your Addon could do, this would be quite interesting =)!

Thanks for your reply. And first of all sorry for my English)) I think it is to much work to do when you use that way. You have to save all your snippets or other elements as static files, than download by ftp, edit them and upload back. And it is all manual work.

My vision is to do this things automatically, without static files, and without any third party ftp client. One software. Automatic syncing at saving. All your chunks, snippets, plugins and anything else in your favorite IDE.

Quote from: BobRay at Oct 27, 2013, 11:56 PM

I've been meaning to do this with PhpStorm, which has a built-in deployment system, but I never seem to get around to it.

I think it would be quite popular and that sounds like a reasonable price.

As far as I can remember PhpStorm's deployment system works through ftp. A lot of code in MODX stored in database. So there is only one way to work that way - to use static files. And usually it's pretty inconvenient for developers.

Many years ago Scotty Delicious wrote a working implementation of a desktop application for working with Evo for the Mac. It was really nice, and it was not all that difficult to do. Just database and file manipulation. Of course, this sort of thing would require that the site's database user is allowed to connect from external IP addresses, not just localhost.

On the other hand, maybe the desktop application can be coded to use the remote MODx class library, then it could use the MODx API.

Quote from: sottwell at Oct 28, 2013, 07:16 AM

On the other hand, maybe the desktop application can be coded to use the remote MODx class library, then it could use the MODx API.

That's what i'm talking about. External database access in most cases is a security violation. So we want to do this in other way. Work with remote server will be fully secured.

I think you're right about PhpStorm using FTP. Your system sounds great and I think it could be very popular, though I'm not sure how it could interface easily with PhpStorm running in Java on my local Windows machine.

Didn't find any negative comments, therefore it makes sense to implement.
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