Clarification of modx workflow - local to live development?

Hi
As a web design student I have been trying and failing to get to grips with Wordpress, but found MODX a few days ago and think it looks brilliant. I have been going through the equally brilliant video tutorials by Jesse Showalter, but am confusions over just one thing - the MODX workflow. I am used to the idea of local development and migration to a live server, but looking over the web, this appears to be a complex process in MODX. Is this just how MODX is or is there some other workflow?

I came across a comment from one developer who said it was easier to work on the live site and hide everything save a holding page.

Look forward to hearing the community's views. Many thanks.

Su

Since most of MODX's dynamic content and functionality is stored in the database, it can be complex. There are a few solutions out there. Most of these resources and elements that are stored in the database can also be configured to use static files instead, so something like git can be used to provide the continuity.

The greatest advantage of MODX is its flexibility, the "createive freedom" if you will. At the same time, that is one of its greatest complexities - there is very rarely only one true way to do anything. It's a case of asking three different people and getting a dozen different opinions.

Quote from: sottwell at May 20, 2015, 05:29 PM

The greatest advantage of MODX is its flexibility, the "createive freedom" if you will. At the same time, that is one of its greatest complexities - there is very rarely only one true way to do anything. It's a case of asking three different people and getting a dozen different opinions.

So true.

Seriously, you get a LOT of people saying "this is how you do that" about one thing or another, and getting very testy about disagreement with their opinion. The right way is the way that works. I'll throw in with the comment you mentioned, if you've got a fast/stable ISP it's perfectly realistic to work on a live install, but MODX Cloud has kinda made this issue of "hiding" work in progress moot in a lot of ways because you can work on an obscured development cloud and then simply push the entire finished site to your live cloud via snapshot.

It can be pretty daunting to setup a local development environment with mySQL, PHP, Apache/nginx, etc., and then you've got to keep it updated to match your deployment environment. For some it's worth it, but I've found developing at the deployment server to require few sacrifices. This is especially true where SASS/Compass is also available on the server.

I have been using Vapor to take a snapshot of my dev site, then install it on my live site. That's a bit drastic, though, as it replaces the entire site with the Vapor installation. I haven't had the chance to look into it, although I've certainly nagged enough about it, but I believe the MODX Cloud snapshots can now be downloaded.

The officially approved way to make snapshots of any site is Teleport, a command-line utility that does much the same thing as Vapor, only a lot more robust and flexible.

Here are a few interesting suggestions
http://designfromwithin.com/blog/rapid-modx-workflow
https://github.com/modmore/Gitify

I usually use PhpStorm to test snippets and plugins locally, to write blog posts and new pages, and to test CSS. Then, I cut and paste to the live site. Generally, I don't have a local version of a whole site, just bits and pieces.

Someday, I'll write an extra that lets you upload updates with FTP from your Editor and automatically puts them in place (unless someone else does it first).