Add your Newbie FAQs here, please...

Alistair,

Actually I think you are right on the money with your thoughtful observations. You are not the only on who has made these points though. Obviously there are all kinds of developments and improvements in the works. MODx is still a young system. In a way the development speed has exceeded the presentation of the documentation and examples.

There are a ton of users who really connect with MODx and find that it is a rewarding and flexible framework. However for many new users the quest for basic answers like "what do I need to do to get XYZ functionality?" can be an long search through search engines, sometimes vague or outdated documentation, user forums and a long list of confusing snippet parameter values. Some of the major snippets are amazing and have been generously developed by brilliant people, but the documentation presentation can be frustrating. There are countless threads asking basic questions that are often directed to technical answers/discussions that can seem like information overload. For some the quest ends with the practice of cutting and pasting code from responses in the forum without real understanding of what that code is doing.

I think some of the MODx crew expects that folks fully understand what it is that they are doing. That is understandable. MODx is not a simple plug and play system: the target audience is different from the iWeb crowd for example. The beauty of MODx is that its very flexible. However, not everyone has the time or desire to become totally knowledgeable with every nook and cranny of the system: sometimes you just want to activate a certain gismo and have it work. There is tons of great info available, its just that its not always obvious where to find it.

My view (and I am only speaking for myself) is that the geeks (I am using the term with admiration and affection here) are covered. They have the ability to easily connect with all that is going on and love to spend hours adding knowledge and resources into their heads. Then there are a lot of other folks who have different skills, like visually oriented designers for example, who would benefit from seeing more tutorials, examples, clear explanations and video screen casts. Basically stuff like "you want this then do that." I sense there is a grass root movement that is working on providing more of this kind of material.

My hunch is that at some point in the near future more of the design world will discover and embrace MODx. Right now most of these folks are in the Wordpress camp. But there is more chatter about choosing the best "CMS" and some of the posts in favor of MODx are very telling: they are well articulated and spell out some of the attractions of the system. The message is clear though; its like "you guys really should check out the is great flexible system". This would be good for MODx though: more attractive sites will only make the whole enterprise look more rewarding to those who are evaluating all the systems out there...

Max

First of all: I think the new MODx Revolution is goin to be great.
I’m working on an assignment to come up with a system for an online shop, where they can manage multiple sites with the same look, but different contents (in different languages). I’ve been able to achieve this with the Bèta version of MODx Revolution. However, there have been times that for some odd reason I could no longer log in, after I had logged out.
I didn’t join the forum earlier, but I just did because today I started with Bèta 2 and it occurred once again.

This time everything was going fine, until I tried to set the site_start for my second testing context.
I created a new Context Setting for the second context (key: site_start, value: 914 (the ID of my second context’s home page), and Lexicon area entry: site).
After this, my second test site did what it was supposed to do.
I logged out, to log in on a colleague’s PC to show him how the problem (of setting the site_start) was to be solved. From that point on, it was impossible to log in.
I’ve tried it a few times over (re-installing, etc.) and it kept repeating the issue, only after creating the Context Setting.
Deleting the setting from the database didn’t resolve the problem either.

Could it be me doing something wrong, or did I find a bug in Bèta 2?

In addition to the post above:
When I insert the same values into the modx_context_setting table, nothing seems to be wrong and I can still log in.
Could it be that saving a context setting does more than just storing the data in the database?

I wonder if the whole community Modx realize how big it is going to be Revolution.

paz: system for an online shop.
OpenGeek: Forum

And all with a light heart Modx / xPDO

My experience as a newbie (Spanish speaking, much more confused and disoriented)

I like an idea to make a chart, model, xml, etc. ..
But do not start because I do not know how to send data from one form to another table with a custom prefix.

Can you extend the add-ons page?

Ie next to each.
Example quip:

Brief explanation and examples of quip
Known Issues quip
You can post a link or a guide on aquí.ScreenCast, videos, podcast, videocast, etc. .. (can vote)
Tell us your secrets quip. alone or with other add-ons here (can vote)
Orders of more functionality. (can vote)
Post here any bugs on the version.
Forum quip

It’s just an idea.

Hi There,

I’m a complete dunce when it comes to web-design (but am really keen to learn the basics). I am currently in the process of updating my company’s website and at my wits end trying to use QuickEdit. I’ve searched this site, wiki and goodness knows how many other places recommended by google without much success.

My problem is that whenever I hit the QuickEdit button it takes me to the QuickEdit Documentation screen and not any of the pages I want to amend/update. When I’ve used the demo version it’s great and I can do exactly what I want as the toolbar and the edit content button appears on the page. I’m sure there’s a simple answer to this but, at the moment I really can’t see what I’m doing wrong. :’(

Where exactly is this QuickEdit button? It sounds like you are in the Modules menu. QuickEdit works on the front-end, not in the Manager.

Hi There

On my computer (just like the demo) it’s under resources link. However, when I click on the actual text in the document content box the "AA" symbol doesn’t show so I can’t edit like I can on the demo pages.

We’re using version 0.9.6.1 and the demo is 0.9.6.3. Does this make a difference?

OK I’m going to bite the bullet here! What do you mean by front-end? Seriously, this is my first time working with websites and I am enjoying it. I’m waiting to go on a proper web-design course which starts in September but, in the meantime I’m fumbling around google and here trying to grasp the basics. So apologies if my questions are very, very basic.

It might. That ancient version may also have some security issues. You really should upgrade.

In any case, you do not need to do anything in the Manager with QuickEdit. The QuickEdit buttons show up on each web page on the front-end when you are logged in as a manager user.

If you are using your own templates, you need to use [*#content*] for the content, [*#tvName*] for TVs and any other document variables such as [*#longtitle*] you want to have their own little Edit buttons.

It can also happen that if you have custom CSS or javascript they can conflict with QuickEdit, making it behave strangely or fail altogether.

Front-end is your website, like this is my front-end http://www.sottwell.com

Back-end is the Manager; this is my manager (well, the login page, anyway...) http://www.sottwell.com/manager

(don’t look for QuickEdit here; the new MODx 1.0 Evolution has a new front-end editor).