[Revo] Mobile Manager, anyone?

I’ve been playing with the idea of developing a mobile manager for MODX Revolution for a while, and as I’m only a poor student with a massive interest in MODX, but also a massive interest in paying off his car and saving up for a MacBook (:P) I sort of am looking for a way to fund developing this, as there will be quite a lot of work involved in getting this to work properly on so many different devices.

Last week I had a little chat with an agency I’ve been working with a lot lately and it seems he might have a client interested in paying for this functionality and he asked for a specification. Which is the reason for this topic.


With this topic, I’m hoping to get a bit of an idea of what people would use a manager interface on their smartphones for. What features should be supported?



This is what I’ve been thinking of and how I would like to see this get shape:

( Don’t let the following distort your own opinion - it may sound definite but it’s just my current vision and prone to changing )

• It’s not a mobile manager theme, but an actual replacement accessed on a different url (eg: sitename.com/mm/) but built on the MODX core.
• It’s going to be built up from three layers (according to web dev standards, but not as they are in the current manager ):
  [list][li]HTML: plain, simple html that makes sense without any of the other layers
• CSS: Improving the UX and general looks by applying basic CSS.
• JS: for those devices that support it, JS will be added to provide shortcuts and additional UX improvements

[/li]
[li]When logged in using MODX credentials a "welcome" screen will be shown, where quick links are added (eg: create new modDocument with tpl=5 under parent 12) which can be maintained through the MODX Manager -> Components -> Mobile Manager[/li]
[li]Resource listing in two modes:

• Folder browsing (so one container listed at a time)
• Complete list (all resources visible, perhaps a little bit indented to show the hierarchy)

[/li]
[li]On the listings there are shortcuts available to edit, (un)publish, delete or to create a new resource under the listed resource[/li]
[li]Resource create/modify respects FC rules (if at all possible)[/li]
[/list]

That’s where I’m at now. I’ve also been thinking about including the messaging system (does anyone use that?) and the MODX Feeds.

I’m not quite sure on the need to also include chunks and templates as those shouldn’t need to be added while on the road, so to speak.

This topic is interesting and also related: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,43346.20.html Also: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,31646.msg192637.html#msg192637


As I said, I’m still trying to figure out the specs (could use your help there!) and I wont start on this development yet.. But any input is greatly appreciated.

I would look into using jquerymobile and maybe lesscssframework I think it’s best to use something like lesscssframework which is less obtrusive and can be more customized to our liking.

Let me know if you need help I would love to work on something like this as a side project.

I’m a little hesistant to building a JS based solution, and would rather do a HTML+CSS+JS approach as that’s more accessible. I’ve regularly disabled JS on my phone to have bulky sites load faster / stop changing things when it finally loaded.. then again - my phone was never intended to go online (advertised as "smarter than a smartphone", Samsung wont deliver an app store for my Jet as it’s "not a smartphone", what a stupid buy that was.. ) and perhaps I’m just underestimating the capabilities of more modern devices..

Less Framework 4 looks nice to cross-media websites, but wouldn’t it be overkill to use it for something designed specifically for mobile devices?


Which makes me wonder about tablets too.. the difference is size between an iPad and an iPhone is so big it makes me wonder what to support: one, or both..

The way lesscssframework works is basically taking a site and making the css for the same site but at different resolutions so that’s why I said it’s the lease obtrusive since its just styling and showing and hiding elements of the page that are not needed using css media queries.

Go to http://lessframework.com/ and resize your browser window so you can see how it works its always the same content its just styled different based on the devices resolution.

Then we could probably use some simple jquery transitions to make it look more like an app, again this jquery will only be enabled if your using a mobile device and not a regular browser.

Ah! Like that

Actually looks interesting to use now that I looked at it more carefully.. and would support tablets as well.

Thanks.

If you need any help just let me know like I said I’ve been trying to implement some of the mobile frameworks into MODx but so far I think lesscss is the best option and less invasive, I would just love to get some of the transitions working with it.

Well, I wont be working on this just yet. But I’d love to get a proper specification that suits as many people as possible ready before diving into this. It’s going to be quite some work and definitely take a lot of time and money I would rather not see go to waste..

I still want to get VersionX to a late beta/pl release before actually committing to another big project like this, too.

btw.:
http://app.protofluid.com/ can be used for first prototyping tests.

and I guess, messaging, chunks and that kind of stuff is not needed.
Im trying to imagine what I would do with a mobile app and MODx.
That wold be first publish, unpublish, maybe a comment, maybe a kind of minimalistic news entry (image, text, caption)

Would love to hear more from your progress

Hi Mark,

I would love to have a backend manager for mobile devices. You know I’m a poor coder when it goes to PHP.
But I’d love to get on for the UI/UX thing…

My thoughts about the MobileManager:

• Shouldn’t it be built on http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/ as the whole MODX Revo Manager is built on Sencha? I think it’s better for maintaining as they use same code…? Would love to hear the thoughts about this from Shaun or another dev.
  Personally I think it’s okay to use a JS framework on mobile devices as it can improve UX very much. So maybe you can use the Sencha framework in a way that works (somehow) also without activated JS.
• No start screen in traditional way. Using a bunch of icons as a stack on the iPhone would be cool.
• Ressource listing should maybe be in a iPhone way with sliding layers. So you’ll first get a list of folders, get into one, select one, select a option, then can edit or view. Complete list is (in my mind) unnecessary and should be replaced with a search module.
• icons/buttons in a list wouldn’t make sense as they’d be way to small for a handy handling.
• If you want to support FC rules I think you must use Sencha as it’s currently done with JS and is coming PHP-coded later on in 2.1/2.2
• messaging system could be implemented but think that has low priority (so maybe later).
• there’s a need for a very intuitive, good writer. What I (or clients) would do with the MM actually is writing/editing a blog entry or sth. like that. Do you know iA Writer? That’s a cool one and we should consider to provide a good writing tool here, too.

Quote from: smooth-graphics at Feb 28, 2011, 06:58 AM

• Shouldn’t it be built on http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/ as the whole MODX Revo Manager is built on Sencha? I think it’s better for maintaining as they use same code…? Would love to hear the thoughts about this from Shaun or another dev.
  Personally I think it’s okay to use a JS framework on mobile devices as it can improve UX very much. So maybe you can use the Sencha framework in a way that works (somehow) also without activated JS.

Yes, pretty much on the mark... data access layer in ExtJS4/SenchaTouch is a work of beauty.