changing templates and styles doesnt work.

Ive just now done an install of the current version (manger not working in firefox3 threw me for about 2 hours).

So the first thing I want to do is see if any of the templates are usable.

So I went to the site (http://crumpchiro.com) and tried to change the templates and the styles from the template http://www.crumpchiro.com/index.php?id=39 page.

Unfortunately, nothing happens. I tried doing Control-refresh, changing browsers, etc - they have no effect. I can see that the pages are coming from the DB, not the chache (by the info at the bottom), so its not a caching problem.

So next I tried changing the template from the manager system configuration tab. (using IE6, not firefox 3 as it doesnt work).

I tried changing the "Default template" to "MODxCSS Wide" and others, each time checking the "reset all pages to use Default teamplate"

Again, it has no effect on any pages of the site.

If I go to say the home page in the manager, I see it uses template MODxHostWithComments, but there is no way to change or edit it. Im amazed that the manager doesnt have any wysiwyg editor, you just have to hand edit the html - worse than notepad.

i also see that by default everyone can edit pages right on the site in wiki fashion - How do I switch this all off? I cant find any options to do this in the System Configuration pages.

Fedora Core (uname -a doesnt tell me the version), mysql 4.1.20, php 5.0.4 (dont know how its being run), IE 6

S.

I think your best bet is to go check out the complete documentation before you jump to conclusions about how MODx works as this is not a run of the mill CMS system

http://modxcms.com/documentation.html

Well, the default websites template page is pretty explicit, it says:

"This page provides a simple way to explore alternate layouts and stylesheets. To change the overall template, use the first set of links. To alter the stylesheets, use the second set of options."
Change Layout Templates:
MODxHost
MODxCSS Wide
MODxCSS

Switch CSS Themes:
The CSS Themes can only be used on the MODxCSS and MODxCSSW Layouts
Trend (Default)
Trend (Alternate)
ZiX (Clean)
ZiX (Background)
Light
Light Green
Dark

Clicking on these (styles nor template) has no effect. If they do nothing, who would the page exist? Ive tried in IE6 and firefox 3.

Ive spent many happy hours reading the documation pages. It shows you the basics of creating a template from scratch (something I would never do - If I could do this I would not bother with modx, I would just create the site in dreamweaver!). I haven’t been able to find anything which expalains why all the options for changing templates have no effect.

In fact, the default installed site even has a templates drop down menu, with a list of templates in them. when you select one, absolutely nothing happens.

I have found only one way to change the templates - to edit the page in the magager, and change the template for the page in the template pull down there. Then this page has different template (and navigation etc) to all other pages, which is usless. I would only ever need to change all the templates to be the same single one, otherwise it would be impossible to make all the pages look the same. Or are templates like dreamweaver templates, and are hiearchical, the root having all the common navigation and headers/footers? I think not - the template editing guide seems to say you just past in raw html and thats your template.

S.

Go into the Manager and edit the three documents under the Template Examples document. Check their templates, and make sure each one is using the appropriate template; i.e. MODxCSSWide should be using that template and MODxCSS should be using that template.

If you do need to change the templates, make sure to save the document after the frame refreshes with the new template settings.

Nice idea. i check the 3 documents, each has the correct template. But I think its a bug - I notice that sometimes it works, and some times I get error on page, sometimes it does nothing, and sometimes it throws me back to the home page, when I select one of the default install template example pages, or one of the style pages.

If I select the MODxHost template example page, then try hitting any of the CSS themes below, it flashes up a page error at the bottom, then dumps me back at the home page.

For the moment, selecting a template example page works. About 10 minutes ago it didnt. I havent changed anthing. I know you have all heard that one before.

Im giving up at this point - modx is not for me - way too complicated, and I can only find about 5 templates in existance on the web - where as about 40 come with mambo out of the box and several hundred are easily available.

I read an obscure reference to a "repository". Could not find this in the modx documentation or user guides. Found it by googling "mdox repository". Then tried to find where templates might be. Went to "repository A to Z", but under T, there is no template category listed. Tried viewing all, trolled through many many pages and found 6 templates. Im AMAZED there are is no category/resource type browser. After a long time of trolling through the results, I eventually found by luck that the down arrow at the bottom of the page, is not next page, as I guessed it was, but actually opens up a filter system with templates as an option! Talk about hidden and unintuative. What a shame such great functionality is not on the resource home page, but hidden behind the "next page" icon.

Can’t imagine why it’s not working, it’s just links to separate pages each one with its own template, so there’s nothing there to not work. Possibly javascript issues? My Firebug doesn’t show any errors, and it all works just fine.

There is a big fat link to Resources in the upper right of this page; I’ll grant that it doesn’t say "Repository".

In the Repository site there is a link to a Tag Cloud right above the A-Z listing link. That has 75 listings for Site Templates, 58 for Templates.

Put "Templates" in the Google search bar on this page, and get four pages of templates in the Templates section of the forums.

Scan down the forum topics, under Add-ons, Extensions and Elements is the above mentioned Templates forum.

Check out the SkinGraft module. I use it extensively on my loripsum.co.uk site.
http://modxcms.com/SkinGraft-1146.html

Making your own template is a matter of copy/pasting the HTML code from any web page and replacing the content and menus with the relevant MODx tags (like [*content*] for where you want the document’s main content to show). If you want to use <insert favorite text editor here>, try Firefox and install the It’s All Text! extension.

I’m an uneducated grandmother and far from being psychic or a genius; if I can figure this out with little or no trouble, I’m sure you can do it even more easily. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it; we never claimed we were trying to please everybody.