MODx iPhone Manager

Another great discussion Adam. As Jay mentioned, in Revo this would be much easier to do as a native app. That said, the focus of a native app should probably be on running a site in its first iteration:

[*] Creating and editing Resources (including any attached TVs)
[*] Creating and editing Chunks
[*] Shortcut login buttons similar to what you could do with ManagerManager to create specific types of content in specific locations

Currently web-accesible APIs don’t allow accessing the camera or photo library, but it sounds like those may be coming.

I think designing for Mobile devices will require understanding how people might want to manage their site via a mobile device.

Yeah, I totally agree - I’ve personally not done any iPhone usability research... but has anybody else, or does anybody know some links?

I think the basis for creating a mobile experience will absolutely require a feature/task list for mobile users.

What do you mean by this?

I think rather than recreating the whole Manager, it would be better to consider the workflows people might undertake while on the move.

Yes, I absolutely agree with you on that; I only added icons for all of the tabs to my above mockup to demonstrate a possible layout - I thought the two main focuses might be the Resources and then the File Tree; resources being everything like Chunks, Snippets, etc and the file tree being all the Documents - but completely removing stuff like Reports from the iPhone version would probably make sense, a client or web designer can check those things when they’re using the desktop MODx Manager.

Some parts will be impossible (you can’t upload files from Mobile Safari, so file manager, or uploading new Image TVs won’t be feasible).

I didn’t know that. But now that you mention it it does make sense. That however could work in our advantage; we’d focus the MODx iPhone Manager of being on the move.

I also think that producing a skin for the Manager won’t give very satisfactory results - too much is hard coded for the big screen. It’s a bigger deal, but if I was going to do something designed specifically for mobile I’d look at starting from scratch, or at least taking all the manager actions and stripping out all the HTML from them and starting that from scratch!

I can see what you mean by this, Evo uses frames too, so a simple reskin would probably be too much hassle. The idea of starting from scratch is the most logical, but how would we go about doing that? It seems like a mammoth task, wouldn’t that essentially be the same as rebuilding and redesigning the whole Evo Manager from scratch?

As Jay mentioned, in Revo this would be much easier to do as a native app.

Well, I’ve just finished installing Revo Beta 5 (and posted some of my thoughts) and thinking about this; wouldn’t it be more beneficial in the long term to make a MODx iPhone Manager with the Revo manager?- although saying that, I’d really not have a clue how to hack Revo yet!

Currently web-accesible APIs don’t allow accessing the camera or photo library, but it sounds like those may be coming.

That’s a shame, so I’m guessing I’d not be able to snap some photos while on holiday and upload them to my blog all from the MODx iPhone Manager

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So overall, what would you guys say are the top things you’d need to do when on the move? - What things could we live without?

Quote from: Adam at Dec 16, 2009, 01:42 AM

Yeah, I totally agree - I’ve personally not done any iPhone usability research... but has anybody else, or does anybody know some links?

Apple has some really good guidance on their site - you can bet they’ve done their research:
http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/documentation/InternetWeb/Conceptual/iPhoneWebAppHIG/Introduction/Introduction.html


Quote from: Adam at Dec 16, 2009, 01:42 AM

I can see what you mean by this, Evo uses frames too, so a simple reskin would probably be too much hassle. The idea of starting from scratch is the most logical, but how would we go about doing that? It seems like a mammoth task, wouldn’t that essentially be the same as rebuilding and redesigning the whole Evo Manager from scratch?

As Jay mentioned, in Revo this would be much easier to do as a native app.

Well, I’ve just finished installing Revo Beta 5 (and posted some of my thoughts) and thinking about this; wouldn’t it be more beneficial in the long term to make a MODx iPhone Manager with the Revo manager?- although saying that, I’d really not have a clue how to hack Revo yet!

Well I would love to have a mobile manager in Evo, but it really is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Possible, but a lot of work. With a pragmatic hat on, perhaps concentrating on Revo (which with its API base is specifically designed for this) would be a better use of time?

I tend to agree with Nick: Revo brings so many advantages for an app like this that it’s very hard to justify basing it on Evo for the foreseeable future.

Hey guys!

I was looking for a solution to easily access the mangager with my mobile (Motorola Milestone/Droid). After countless hours of searching the web I finally came across this thread.

If there would be enough interest by modx administrators I would be willing to develop a native app at least for Android smartphones. Furthermore I’d really appreciate if anybody would feel in the mood of coding with me (especially somebody with an iphone ).

So, any comments on this idea?

Quote from: speedbird88 at May 11, 2010, 10:01 AM

If there would be enough interest by modx administrators I would be willing to develop a native app at least for Android smartphones. Furthermore I’d really appreciate if anybody would feel in the mood of coding with me (especially somebody with an iphone ).

So, any comments on this idea?

Are you thinking of basing on Revo (rather than Evo)?

I wonder whether a native app is the best route, or whether a mobile friendly HTML5 interface would be simpler to develop, and provide for both (all) platforms in one go?

Happy to test out anything on iPhone / iPad...

The basic idea would be an app that supports Evo AND Revo. I think that even if Revo comes to GA status, many people will still use their current Evo installations. At least I wouldn’t upgrade the modx installations (Evo) for my customers until they really want me to.

For Revo the thing is clear as the manager will be easier accesible from the outside thru the API. For Evo my idea would be to have some kind of connector snippet.

The best thing would be some kind of support by the modx core developers. Anyway, if anybody wants to join me and my idea feel free to drop me a pm or just reply to this topic.

@ncrossland: already listed you as a beta tester

Quote from: speedbird88 at May 11, 2010, 10:34 AM

The basic idea would be an app that supports Evo AND Revo. I think that even if Revo comes to GA status, many people will still use their current Evo installations. At least I wouldn’t upgrade the modx installations (Evo) for my customers until they really want me to.

Having spent a lot of development time on the Evo Manager interface, I would suggest that it will take at least 5 x longer to do anything for Evo than it will for Revo - every bit of server-side logic is painfully tied up with markup and inline JS - you’d have to consider if it’s worthwhile making this work.

Having said that, the CakeModx APIs have been developed since I originally posted on this thread which may help -- but it’s certainly far more than just a connector snippet (and it would be a module, since snippets are run in the front end, not manager )

if we run it as a snippet, we can lock down the frontend-access to manager users only. In the snippet we include the CakeModx calls.

I will probably give this Evo snippet idea a try. If it doesn’t work it was at least a good excercise

I’m happy to help in any way I can

I’ve been using the WordPress iPhone app to make quick changes to client’s sites while on the go and its proved to be very, very useful; every time I use it I just wish MODx had a similar app/web app.

There’s lots of good ideas for the code-side of things; I’m personally more interested in helping build the front-end of the app. I think a mobile friendly HTML5 interface is probably the way forward; and although more people are using Evo at present in the long term it would make sense to build this as a Revo interface.

I also think it’s probably best to only include some core features that people are going to need while on the move; what sort of things do you guys think should be included or left out?