MODx NOT USER FRIENDLY

modx is not for the light of heart, hell you gotta learn the structure of Ditto to get the most out of modx’s front end right now. And ditto’s not a simple beast, but far more flexible and useful than wordpress, and it will never require you to learn how to template. That’s another thing. Modx makes templating easy. it’s really the core component to the whole gig.

Make your site design in anything, golive, dreamweaver, notepad, whatever... Gut it and stick it in modx. It’s really a simple process and very fast. After doing it once you’ll see that modx is a cms for everyone at every level. If you want to build apps, you need to know php,javascript,ect. That will never change. Modx can’t even change that (yet). If you’ll stick it out and ask questions, this community will help.

From the front page of the website, first paragraph, in bold:

MODx is an open source PHP Application Framework that helps you take control of your online content. It empowers developers and advanced users to give as much control as desired to whomever they desire for day-to-day website content maintenance chores.

If that implies easy, I’d like to understand that better. I’ve never once stated anywhere that MODx is for inexperienced users, or at least those without patience and the ability to dig through mounds of forum topics and ask good questions (See my signature for further details).

The reasons MODx exists is because it was virtually impossible to get a decent amount of capability out of any CMS and have absolute control with minimal effort out of the box. If that’s not important to you and you just want a pretty template, go grab one from any of the other systems out there and have at it. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that approach at all. If you’re quasi-neurotic like me and get so fed up with the output and sometime lack of flexibility that you start an open source CMS as a result, then welcome aboard!

If you stick around and are banging your head against obstacles for 96 more hours, I REALLY advise you to ask in the forums. There’s lots of friendly, helpful folks here and in fact I’d say it’s one of MODx’s strengths! Even if they tell you to rtfm, they typically include the link to exactly WHERE to read!

Many a community member has started with similarly frustrating experiences only to finally let go of all the things they’ve learned from other systems – I call them bad habits – and finally let the flexibility that is MODx take over. And 8 out of 10 times (probably more) I’d say they wind up with a new CMS home.

I came to MODx because I could not get more out of "regular" CMS tools. I was trying to bend them to do things there were meant to do. I tried a "pure" framework, but the problem with those is you have to do all the work. I mean there was not even a standard login. That is what I like about MODx, it is a CMS framework, the best of both worlds.

However I would say the the admin portion is not the most user friendly for my clients. But that is why there are snippets like ManagerManager. It does a take a while to dumb down simplify the admin for clients. I wish it was built and more like EE or WordPress in that respect.

Lazy8,

I feel you. It took me awhile to get the hang of it too. But now it is so sweet. The problem is MODx does not confine you (to sections, categories, articles and modules and components- in the case of joomla). But that problem is also the answer to our design woes.

As an example, check out this thread from a few days ago on how MODx makes things easy: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,21721.0.html

Joomla is great if you’ve got a standard setup- but every client wants something modified and unique. Then you have to go into the actual php files and hack the component/module etc. (Then what happens when there’s an upgrade)?

MODx frees you from this as every database item is a puzzle piece (content, author, date, longtitle, tv1, tv2) and you can put them whereever you want.

It takes awhile to get the hang of it, but if you want something you can extend and customize, there’s nothing like it (maybe expression engine is a good competitor- but you’d have to learn their syntax then).

I’d say build a basic site and add some content first. Then go about using Ditto, etc. Here’s another good post on using Ditto to create a blog: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,22025.msg135931.html#msg135931

Hi Lazy8,

Did you install the default data? That installs a huge amount of functionality that you can learn from. Coming from a Joomla background, I didn’t do that thinking it would take a long time to clean up the way it does in Joomla.

It does take time to get your brain de-joomla-ized. Good luck in learning it. I can’t be much help here right now because I’m still learning it and yet the more I do, the better I am. Just remember this though: learning takes repetition during which you have to un-learn the out-of-the box stuff.

Peter

As someone else on this forum said to me: "I feel your pain..."

I am also a new user. My thoughts and frustrations pretty much echo yours. Look up my posts and you will see the same pattern:

"MODx looks very cool - I will try it - Wow - Wow, MODx is great - Yuck, MODx is frustrating - MODx sucks for newbies - Why did I waste all this time - I can’t get it to work - Slow down and think - Did some reading - Did some questioning - Got some great feedback - New day, lets try again - OK, solved that issue - Lets do some more - Hwmmm, I understand that now - Damn, new frustration - Lets repeat that - OK, big steps forward - Wow, that result is way cool - OK, getting the hang of it now- Time to stop considering other CMS systems - How about some more effort - Wow, more rewards - Abandon other CMS systems - Actually building pages with ease - I think I am addicted..."

Its not easy! But hang in there!!! If you want to build your own custom CSS sites with dynamic power then spending weeks fuming in frustration is worth it. MODx is that rewarding...

Best of luck and I hope you stick with it...

Max

"MODx looks very cool - I will try it - Wow - Wow, MODx is great - Yuck, MODx is frustrating - MODx sucks for newbies - Why did I waste all this time - I can’t get it to work - Slow down and think - Did some reading - Did some questioning - Got some great feedback - New day, lets try again - OK, solved that issue - Lets do some more - Hwmmm, I understand that now - Damn, new frustration - Lets repeat that - OK, big steps forward - Wow, that result is way cool - OK, getting the hang of it now- Time to stop considering other CMS systems - How about some more effort - Wow, more rewards - Abandon other CMS systems - Actually building pages with ease - I think I am addicted..."

LOL That sums it up well.

Really great way to sum it up for newcomers
A good laugh in the process, that can’t hurt

I’m going to interject my experience here.

I am not a programmer. I only used to have very basic knowledge of HTML and CSS. Then around a year ago I had to come up with a website for my company, and so I got myself a book on CSS. I found it was much simpler (apart from dealing with IE6!) than I had thought. I still fumble my way through things, but I am learning more and more.

I needed a way of keeping pages updated automatically without having to hand code HTML each time. A CMS was the answer.

I hadn’t a clue really what a CMS was, or how it operated. I tried Joomla, Mambo and a trial of Typo. I found that I couldn’t understand any of them. And besides I wanted to make CSS driven websites, and those CMS systems didn’t fully allow that.

Then I stumbled upon Modx. Contrary to the person that started this thread I clicked with it almost immediately. The tutorials on Wiki were a breeze to follow (and if you are a newbie, if you haven’t looked at those then you really, really need to. They’ll have you up and running with a basic website within minutes). Modx is by far the most logical, plain language CMS there is AFAIAC.