Require some website guidance

I have installed ModX Version: 2.2.14 using Hostmonster as my host server.


As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently using Yola.com to create and manage my website (www.mcran.com). I wanted to elabote more on what I need to do regarding my site.

- I am a single user when it comes to creating and maintaining my website. I may invite a co-worker of mine to my site later but for now, it's only me who creates and maintains my site.

- I want my site to be as simple as possible to create and maintain. I love a minimalist look.

- Here is a list of the pages that make up my site:

home page
interviews page (contains interviews I have done over the years)
Resources page (my favorite jazz links)
Playlists, Shows, Archives (This is where I am having issues deciding how to present this data) consists of the following pages:

I've Heard That Song Before
In Transition
In Transition Snippets
The Bennett Archives

That's it. What I like is consistency so the above four pages obviously lack that and for me that's an issue. I need and want visitors to my site to quickly find what they are looking for without having to constantly click their way to where they want to go.


You can see by viewing my site what I have tried to acheive. I am totally open to taking this into a whole new direction if need be.

Is ModX overkill for what I am trying to do? I love that ModX is free and if I decide to take the pluinge and use Modx full time, that would certainly meet my needs.

When I first started watching some of the ModX videos, I was really intimidated and thought that ModX is only for professional developers and not for someone like me.

I do know some CSS and HTML. I built the pages myself using tables when required to lay out my data properly and a bit of CSS for added functionality.

I am more interested in having a functional website than one that looks pretty if you know what I mean. I keep hearing how great the ModX community is and that's important to me so I am really looking forward to feedback as well as some guidance so that I can get going on what I hope to be a new adventure when it comes to my website.

If you know a little css and html, then you can use modx without a doubt. I have been running my business site for years already with modx, and upkeep is minimal. For me the big learning curve was the css and html, so that I could set up the template design my friend had made for me. Then a couple years later moving to a newer version of modx (we moved from Evolution to Revolution) and to a new template, that was a bit of work.

If you can get your template set up, that's really about it as far as the basics. Modx is a little harder to get started with for common users, but at your level it shouldn't be too tough. And the advantage of modx is less viruses and less known exploitable issues. Not as many quick plugins with modx, but those tend to come with security issues anyway.

For me personally, I wanted a system with a high ceiling, so I could develop the site over time, and that's why I chose modx. The learning curve was a challenge, but once that was overcome, the sky is the limit. My business site now looks quite professional and I definitely benefit from that (it's rayxi.com if you would like to have a look). I also wanted a lot of control and modx gave me that, it sounds like your needs are similar.

As you develop the site, of course there will be some difficulties, but the community is pretty good about giving support and feedback. I still remember the clueless questions I asked in the old forums, and people provided good suggestions as I mucked about trying to make sense of it all.

You might also find some cool tools for your site. I am not a tech person, but for instance a menu of links or whatever can be kept updated in real time. This lets a user just make a new page or upload a new mp3, and if it goes in the 'right' folder, the menu will automatically include the new item, no need to mess with making those links by hand.

Oh and by the way, these days we still do use tables (the anti-tables thing is so 2011) but think of them as little islands on the page, only used where appropriate. like lists of links and specific data, rather than page-wide things, where every little part has to fit.

My first MODX site (well, Etomite using the MODx extensions at that time) was based on the default Etomite template, and was table-based. I've moved away from that and now tend to base my templates on the HTML5 Responsive KickStart template, but whatever works is fine with MODX. It doesn't care what kind of HTML you use. You can even copy/paste the HTML from Word if you really want to.

I'd advise you to upgrade to 2.3.1, though, while you're still getting started. It's a lot nicer in many way, and in any case your version is vulnerable to some rather nasty hacking attacks. So at least upgrade to 2.2.15. You can do so very easily with this script - jut put the install.php file in your web root, and run it with your browser. Pick your version, and it'll download it and unzip it and forward you to the setup page. https://github.com/sottwell/installer

As you always should, backup your site first.

Thanks for the reply. Can I install the install.php file in my public_html
directory or for that matter /public.html/assets?

Then once finished installing, delete the install.php file?

The install.php file will be deleted automatically.

I think the site root commonly would just be / rather than in any directory off of that, but this is getting out of my area.

It will unzip everything into the same directory it is in. The "site root" is wherever your site is installed. The same place your assets, core, manger and connectors folders are/will be, and the main index.php file is/will be.

Usually this is the same as the web root, but if your site is to be in a subdirectory then it needs to be in that subdirectory. I use it a lot on my localhost for development and testing, so I always have it in the subdirectory where I'll be running my test installation.

I'm trying to install the latest Modx in Hostmonster and am running into a problem. The first picture is the extraction of files from the zip file. The second picture is where I am stuck. I have no idea where to go from here.

I really want to try out Modx because there are things that caught my eye while watching some videos that I am sure I could use for my particular website. As I stated before, I am currently using Yola.com to create my site and am running into some issues that I am sure Modx would be able to address.

Thanks so much for the assistance!!!

You need to create a database for MODX to use. If it's a CPanel control panel, you'll create a database, then a user, and connect the user to the database. Make sure to give the user all permissions to the database.

Then immediately go into the phpMyAdmin feature and change the charset and collation to utf-8.

More detail and screenshots here. http://cookbook.sottwell.modxcloud.com/installation/database/database-cpanel.html

Thanks Sottwell!

I will try that out and see how far I get. Much appreciated!