MODx : a great Etomite Fork

davidm · 2006-06-12 15:57:21

To me, “best” is an irrelevant term as far as CMS are concerned : it all depends on what you want to do, of course… and being a long time Textpattern user and a MODx team member, I appreciate the differences…

Textpattern is incredibly versatile, you can do many things with it (and I have) but for some purpose (like corporate websites) MODx is way more powerful, otherwise I wouldn’t have switched ! But one of the reason I switched is so many things follow the same logic it’s easy to learn MODx when you know Textpattern. And you get additionnal levels of freedom… Get past the admin interface and you’ll understand what I mean. Textpattern is more elegant, no question about that, but no it’s not as powerful (at least, not until Elements or Bannister are out. For those who missed it “Bannister A clean, simple and smart framework for web applications, built inside Textpattern itself.” -> from the team.textpattern.com page).

Shaliza · 2006-07-22 03:08:32

So wait – you don’t use TXP at all? Is the point of this post to try & persuade others to leave TXP & try MODx?

Ace of Dubs · 2006-07-22 12:29:05

Just tried the demo and …UGH! That admin is so butt ugly, I had to look at some pretty sites afterwards just to get the bad taste out of my retinas! Not to mention that this is probably the most convoluted and bloated interface I have seen to date… the grouping of tools is hardly intuitive and this might explain why even the most studious nerd would take months to wrap his head around this program.

I wont poo-poo it entirely though… there are some cool things going on there, in particular I like how you can manage persmissions, parse CSS out of the box, etc… but whoever is in charge needs to seriously reconsider the design and logical flow of how the tools are presented because 5 minutes with this admin has given me a headache

davidm · 2006-07-22 17:52:14

Shaliza wrote: So wait – you don’t use TXP at all? Is the point of this post to try & persuade others to leave TXP & try MODx?

I am not trying to persuade others to leave txp, they are different tools for different purposes IMHO. Plus, I think people here are grown ups enough to make their choice :P
And I AM still using txp when appropriate, just saying that to build corporate websites, MODx is IMHO a better tool, is all I am saying.

Ace of Dubs wrote: Just tried the demo and …UGH! That admin is so butt ugly, I had to look at some pretty sites afterwards just to get the bad taste out of my retinas! Not to mention that this is probably the most convoluted and bloated interface I have seen to date… the grouping of tools is hardly intuitive and this might explain why even the most studious nerd would take months to wrap his head around this program. I wont poo-poo it entirely though… there are some cool things going on there, in particular I like how you can manage persmissions, parse CSS out of the box, etc… but whoever is in charge needs to seriously reconsider the design and logical flow of how the tools are presented because 5 minutes with this admin has given me a headache

As I have said time and again, the admin is the Etomite legacy, MODx was a the start an Eto fork but is way past that now.
Next release won’t feature this ugly admin anymore. The 1.0 branch, rewritten from the ground up, will make a total break from the past. The admin will be built using the API, the same way you build front end pages :D

Last edited by davidm (2006-07-22 17:55:08)

Ace of Dubs · 2006-07-22 18:25:06

My apologies.. I didnt catch that, david

Will be interesting to see how the design team packs all that power into a clean and efficient interface. It will be a challenge to say the least!

Keep us posted, and if possible, post some screen shots to maybe whet a few appetites. :)

marios · 2006-07-22 19:30:35

@David, how would you evaluate the use of modx for multi-lingual sites in comparison to txp.
How do they compare? (like and cons and pros)
(also from the backend and the customization of the backend so it can be handled in a simple manner)

Would be nice, to get your opinion about the subject for current code bases.

regards, marios

hakjoon · 2006-07-22 19:42:42

Once MODX starts allowing users to create pages outside the manager (which I hear is coming), you will just be able to build whatever interface you want and only have to use the manager to manage snippets and modules if you want.

IMO 0.9.2 is not there yet. The groundwork being made towards 1.0 can make using 0.9.2 a little confusing. I think once everything is centered around TVs this will clear up a bit.

marios · 2006-07-22 23:45:08

@hakjoon, interesting what is a TV ?

@david, what about speed and performance, I’ve been reading your old comparisons, but AFAIK no mention.
(amount of queries, response time, etc)
The only documented speed comparison that I know of is between wordpress and TXP from Sencer .(But was a little while ago on RC i think)
My guess is that txp still would leave WP behind.
How about modx ?
What about security and spam protection ?

UPDATE:

Does it have a caching feature like Sencer did ?

XML-RPC ?

regards, marios

Last edited by marios (2006-07-22 23:52:21)

hakjoon · 2006-07-23 19:58:41

TVs (Template Variables) are like super powered custom fields. It lets you add extra elements to the the basic article that can behave in different ways (checkbox, dropdownbox, WYSIWYG editor) So you can customize the article entry to meet your needs. There are other things like tying the values to SQL queries and external files which are also very powerful.

Right now every article has a few pre-defined fields and then you can add to it using TV’s. The understanding I got is that once 1.0 happens everything in the article will be defined by TVs which will make it ultimately flexible. Currently there seems to be a mixture of hard coded elements along with TVs.

The thing that is neat is that you can make these TVs available outside the manager so you basically can also create your own custom interface for accessing certain article types. The Blog setup Tutorial gives a quick example of how that works. It can potentially be very, very cool but more complicated.

It’s still in the complicated side for me.

all of this is just my understanding. I have played a little with MODX and have checked out the forum for about a month. David is definitely more qualified then me on answering any of this stuff

davidm · 2006-07-23 21:43:42

Sorry guys, did not reply earlier, away on vacation, connected through my cell (can’t answer, bit expensive for me right now :P)

I’ll give some answer next week :)

marios · 2006-07-23 21:49:47

Super powered custom fields, that sounds interesting. Just reading your Summary wakes my curiosity.
However, as you mention there will be a lot of learning involved, which again costs time.
I wonder how steep the learning curve would be for their new stuff.

regards, marios

marios · 2006-07-23 21:52:52

Hey, welcome back David.
Vacation, well that’s needed.
Good recreation then and have a nice holiday.

regards, marios

bit · 2006-07-24 02:52:54

Good to find this thread here.

I’ve tried MODx before (perhaps a few months ago, so there might have been major changes since then) and the first thought that hit me when I logged into the admin area was: TooMuchMagic

But we’ve heard enough about how the current interface is all messed up and how the MODx team are probably pulling all-nighters to get their new and improved interface up and running smoothly to be released. I haven’t really gotten down and dirty with MODx but I can certainly feel its potential.

I’ll be patiently waiting for v1.0. I’ll be sure to be adding something new to my toolbox when that comes out. ;-)

davidm · 2006-08-16 07:57:14

Thanks Marios, it was nice indeed taking a (short) break :)

@bit : thanks for your input, always nice to have feedback !
I truly don’t think MODx falls into the “Too much magic” pit, but I sure understand how it could look that way.

As stated time and again, the current admin is Eto legacy and will be totally different when 1.0 is out (let’s remind that the 1.0 branch is totally separate from 0.9.x, and is a total rewrite of the core, free of Eto legacy… Also, that the 1.0 dev has been under way for a few months now, parallel to the 0.9.x branch). In a way, it hardly should be considered as the same app…

In the meantime, some admin cleaning up has been done to the current branch for the upcoming 0.9.5 release, which will also pack significant improvements :D
I’ll say more about that in due time…

guiguibonbon · 2006-08-16 10:55:01

David, since you seem well aware, do you have any idea of when 1.0 will be out? I’ve got this project that could better be done in ModX, especially with the upcoming features i’m hearing about. Otherwise i’ll have to hack txp big way.

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#31 2006-06-12 15:57:21

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#32 2006-07-22 03:08:32

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#33 2006-07-22 12:29:05

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#34 2006-07-22 17:52:14

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#35 2006-07-22 18:25:06

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#36 2006-07-22 19:30:35

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#37 2006-07-22 19:42:42

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#38 2006-07-22 23:45:08

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#39 2006-07-23 19:58:41

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#40 2006-07-23 21:43:42

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#41 2006-07-23 21:49:47

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#42 2006-07-23 21:52:52

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#43 2006-07-24 02:52:54

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#44 2006-08-16 07:57:14

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#45 2006-08-16 10:55:01

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

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