Help Create the Best Content Management Experience

- I would like to be able to add N instances of a TV to a resource, Like Drupal has. Migx gives that possibility i but think it should be a core capability. For every TV you assign to a template you should be able to say how many instances of that TV are allowed in a resource.
- a BIG lack now is the absence of a possibility to organise a lot of children. Don't do away with the tree, clients do like and understand it. But augment the resource-edit page with a Childrens TAB for listing a lot of children. see: http://tracker.modx.com/issues/9529#change-20835
- I too think components should be in the tree since the are about entering content (Articles does this nicely with a nice icon and all)
- keep the top nav to clearly separate management-content like settings etc. from resource-content that sits in the tree
- Keep in mind that the success of MODX is greatly due to the fact that templating is so easy. Changing the way templates TV's and resources tie in together can probably make it more efficient but will it still be as clear and simple as it is now?
- keep the tree. it gives a very clear sense of how the content is structured.
- it would be nice to have a good front-editing tool (something like quick edit was for EVO). this gives a good UX to the client. I know there are some extras for this but the integration with the front end could be a lot better. like… Drupal has.

MIGx-like capability will definitely be incorporated into the core at some point.

Quote from: sottwell at Mar 27, 2013, 03:22 PM

MIGx-like capability will definitely be incorporated into the core at some point.

Great to hear that! Looping single TVs is often not enough when there are groups of TVs that need to be repeated, like "[text, image, caption, copyright,link]".
I also posted some thoughts on the future MODX here: http://forums.modx.com/thread/83404/some-ideas-for-modx3#dis-post-460085

Hi everyone,

My idea is to basically mimic desktop. All content should be in folders and every sort of content would be represented by icon. Clicking it would open forms for certain content - forms would be like programs in desktop environment (just like doc files are opened with word...). "File manager" for going through content "folders and files", "Control panel" for system settings and such...again mimic desktop as much as possible.

It is about time someone puts desktop on web in proper way...

P.S. Ditch ExtJs and use something else (Angularjs would be my choice...)

Romain, great UI work. Love it man, and agree it would be awesome for MIGX-like functionality, too.

• Great Romain!
• +1 for MIGX-like functionality, or MIGX itselft
• I also had some problem with resources with a lot of children, partially solved with "articles"
• when a user clicks with left mouse button on a resource, what about giving the chance to open the menu instead of modifying directly the resource?
  For example I've some customer with hundreds of resource and sub-resources, if they click on a resource title instead of on the "+" next to the parent resource it's a drama...
• I like the resource tree on the left, and end-users usually like it
• the file manager is another topic, right?

Guys I'm thinking about a end-user friendly GUI for MODx, let say as a casestudy, to make it end-user friendly. Not to kick anybody to his leg but I see the marketing-guy at our company struggle with Evolution and most with the WYSIWYG-editor which insert all crazy html-elements underneight. He struggles using it. He doesn't know HTMl and then he comes to me "Raymond I've got a lay-out problem can you help me?" I quote him "I hate that piece of crap!" From personal experience I think MODx is a really nice CMS in respect to front-end code. Can't say that cough eg. Drupal cough. As MODx gospel is HTML is first-class citizen. How about for daily usage make the user first-class citizen?!

What about a GUI which also work let say on iPad and maybe even more simplistic version on a smartphone. Only doing it's job for day by day usage so post development aka live. I mean like editing, adding, deleting content. I'm thinking about loads of whitespace to make it more focussed on the small set of jobs. This is already a step to soon because that's already problem-solving. First I'm thinking doing about an inventory about problems, task analysis on daily usage of MODX.

What do you guys think? Okay I'm of to the local bar to get some beer it's weekend! First see how this idea lands!

By the way I also think it's great MODx has won best-CMS-price!
[ed. note: jambek2003 last edited this post 10 years, 6 months ago.]

@myradon Love your POV, we'd be happy to have task flows and user actions and friction points listed out to consider. UX is the key differentiator between most CMSs.

My view is that since the end user/client has to live with the site on average 3 years and devs on average spend 3-6 months building it. It should favour, in the manager, the end user. I think we do well when compared to many CMSs but OS CMSs keep moving the benchmark higher. MODX is pretty good as are many other CMSs but we can always strive to do better at each iteration and major release.

I haven't tried Redactor yet, but what I keep hoping to find is that somebody with better Javascript skills than mine will one day be able to modify one of these RTEs to either recognize MODx tags as block-level elements, or simply ignore them altogether.

@Jay Gillmore that's exactly what I mean. When the website/application is live the user have to get along with the manager. When let say the average user use only 40% of the managers features for daily tasks then let's focus on that 40%. Facilitate the user for ease of use.

My colleague only use a small portion of the manager. I think I' m going to interview him about his experience with CMS'es in general and features he would love to see.

My first approach would be interviewing getting insightful data. I mean no solutions. Developers and men even more are problem-solvers. When coming up with presentational solutions too soon can gave you tunnel-view and not seeing probably better alternatives. Haha I think this is the difficult part; we are not the user.

If got limited spare time so let see where it goes. Okay that's it for now.

edit: @Jay that would be most helpful. First I'm going to fiddle what could be the best approach and then we can see further. This thinking up aloud isn't by any means an idea to substitute the current manager. I'm curious if there is a probably slimmed down User Centered alternative.
[ed. note: jambek2003 last edited this post 10 years, 6 months ago.]