MODx : a great Etomite Fork

davidm · 2005-11-04 11:04:57

It’s been quite a long time since I did not bug you with one of my yet-another-great-opensource-CMS ramblings… don’t worry, I am back, still hunting for fresh blood in areas where textpattern lacks some things I need for projects, namely illimited hierarchical structure for some corporate websites… but enough ramblings, let’s cut to the chase ;p

I had followed the progress (or rather non-progress lately) of Etomite. This CMS looked promising but never quite took off, releases have been sparse this past year since the main dev seems to be developping a commercial app.

Then, I discovered MODx… and as Adam Crownoble puts it on opensourcecms.com :

Actually there are quite a few changes from Etomite. Just to name a few: Template Variables (custom content areas and types) Modules (integrated applications) Plugins (core code extensions) Webusers (and webuser permissions) QuickEdit (frontend editing) Backup manager Updated default content and resources Plus many other enhancements.

You can get a feeling of the direction MODx is taking by reading Modx interview on opensourcecms.com.

And more to the point, you can test it with the demo

I strongly advise you to do so, I must say I am fairly impressed by what those guys have achieved.. I’ve never been as enthusiastic about a web tool ever since I discovered textpattern, which is not a light statement.

Just like textpattern it’s not only the tool itself, but also a very responsive dev team and a friendly and active community… I get the sense “something is happening there”, just like I did for textpattern.

Last edited by davidm (2005-11-10 16:53:01)

davidm · 2005-11-04 16:55:05

Not the only one to like it apparently :-)

davidm · 2005-11-17 17:01:17

I have now spent quite a bit of hours both trying MODx, then building a website with it, and roaming its community… I feel like I HAVE to bump this thread : nobody seems to have tested this except for steventer and deep.

It at least deserves to be tested… it took almost two years for me to find a tool as powerfully flexible as texptattern, and I didn’t think I’d find another community like this one… but I did :D

I know I could be considered partial since I am now part of the testers team there, but from the inside infos I have I can tell you the future for this app is exciting. I won’t bug you anymore with this but word of advice : don’t miss it !

Last edited by davidm (2005-11-17 17:02:39)

zem · 2005-11-17 21:14:06

Perhaps you could post a review, comparison, summary or similar?

davidm · 2005-11-18 00:18:27

I will work on it, but I have only been working with MODx for two (intense) weeks, and I’d better make this an informed review/comparison, I’ll wait a little to gather more infos and see how things go day to day when the website is online, and I’ll definitely do this :)

Thanks for replying Zem !

While I am here : the MODx team uses FlySpray for bug report and I find it quite nice to use. Thought I would mention this, just for reference…

Mary · 2005-11-18 00:29:37

So, what makes this different than Etomite? I checked the admin demo, and it still looks very much like Etomite. I realize that doesn’t mean much, but that’s why I’m asking. :)

Etomite is still being developed (in case anyone is interested). Here’s what happened.

hakjoon · 2005-11-18 03:01:23

I still find MODx’s interface confusing. Create new content is almost below the fold of the left side top frame while things like administration and modules are up top. I realize you can edit content form the front end so maybe that’s how its’ supposed to be done. When I click on a page form the site tree I’m presented to a huge page of information (like if it used the rich text editor or not) about that page but the preview of the page is shoved under the fold. Nowhere in this sea of information is there an explanation of what teh number next to the page in teh site tree is.

Anyway I still find the interface incredibly overloaded. The main icons on the first page of the admin screen are security, web users, modules, resources and backup. None of which I would use on a daily basis. Maybe the paradigm is that content editors would edit from the front end (which is nice) but I would be afraid to throw joe user at that admin interface. Even Joomla/mambo seems more accessible to me. I also don’t see how it differs very much from Etomite

Anyway that’s just my first impresison and it hasn’t gone away. Maybe developing with it is really nice. I’m open to being convinced.

davidm · 2005-11-18 08:10:30

<blockquote>Mary wrote : So, what makes this different than Etomite? I checked the admin demo, and it still looks very much like Etomite. I realize that doesn’t mean much, but that’s why I’m asking. :) Etomite is still being developed (in case anyone is interested). Here’s what happened.</blockquote>

About what happened, so every side of the story gets covered read About MODx
and Successful opensource development

Until 1.0 where it won’t look like Etomite at all, the difference with Etomite will need some explaining, yeah…

Since MODx was an Etomite mod, it still harbors the same interface. Not for long : a complete overhaul of the admin is under way for 1.0, and to quote Ryan on this “<em>While the manager has served us well, it’s time to loose all the frames. And they’ll be disappearing as fast as possible. (How does a customizable/overridable manager that’s also can be skinned via the CSS Zen Garden sound?)</em>”.

More details about the Roadmap here : 1 year. 7 versions. 15 great team members.

Very basically Etomite does not have plugin, modules or template variables. This is a HUGE difference, as you easily can understand. MODx development is based on a modular approach, very much like what zem announced recently about the Crockery branch with elements : the MODx dev team is turning many features integrated in Etomite into modules. This will mean lighter core. The template variables are also a very powerful tool allowing for custom content areas and type.

More details here on MODx forums : What’s the difference between Etomite and MODx ?

Hakjoon wrote : I still find MODx’s interface confusing. (…) I realize you can edit content form the front end so maybe that’s how its’ supposed to be done. (…) Anyway I still find the interface incredibly overloaded. (…) The main icons on the first page of the admin screen are security, web users, modules, resources and backup. None of which I would use on a daily basis. Maybe the paradigm is that content editors would edit from the front end (which is nice) but I would be afraid to throw joe user at that admin interface. Even Joomla/mambo seems more accessible to me. I also don’t see how it differs very much from Etomite. Anyway that’s just my first impresison and it hasn’t gone away. Maybe developing with it is really nice. I’m open to being convinced.

Well these are all valid points. As I said, MODx is undergoing a major interface overhaul and won’t look anywhere near what Etomite’s looks like anymore. Frontend editing will remain and it’s actually working nice, easy to turn on or off with a # added in tags on pages you want to enable quickedit for.

When Tattoo is released (with 1.0 branding is changing, to reflect the fact that MODx is not a mod of Etomite anymore but something quite different…), you’ll see :D

I don’t know from a coder point of view what you would think of MODx’s plugins and modules, but from a designer’s point of view I like working with MODx !

Last edited by davidm (2005-11-18 14:13:32)

rthrash · 2005-11-18 15:10:52

Defintely don’t want to intrude or come across as promoting my project, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask (I’m on of the two founders). And if this comes across as such, please remove the post and accept my most sincere apologies! I would like to answer a few questions and comment a bit about what makes MODx what it is…

And thank you for being so kind to the manager, acutally… I personally think it’s TERRIBLE! Our development focus has been under the hood. The things that will come out post 0.9.1 (next rev) are quite cool actually … Much faster, much smaller, much simpler, much more robust.

Differences with Eto:
The implications of Template Variables (TVs) combined with display widgets and @bindings are really amazing, not to mention the plugins and modules (none of which are currently available in Etomite). Oh yeah, and a real built in “webuser” system. Our goal from day one was to hide the really powerful developer tools from from the average end user that probably will never have an interest in them. Developers however can quickly build sophisticated web applications much more easily. That’s why I call it a Content Management Framework (as in Application Framework).

The fact that we appear to be the same as Etomite on a cursory inspection means we’re doing a pretty good job there, I guess!

There’s also other things that haven’t surfaced publicly. Let’s just keep it that we’ve been doing a lot of foundation building. ;) And yet despite our foundational work, we’ve managed to make 7 releases in our first year. We’ll have our 8th before year end. The most exciting one personally for me will the one after that containing a total manager rewrite, and a total overhaul of the parsing engine. No ETA on that one though … just base a guess on our release history. ;) lol

Then thre’s the community. I love the folks that hang around and use MODx. I love having smarter people than me making great suggestions on anything, technical or otherwise, MODx-related. I think you’ll find the vibe at MODx totally differnt than many Open Source projects. We decided to have everyone check paranoia and control-freak tendencies at the front door. And I also love seeing all those red dots scattered around the globe in Google Analytics!

So… sorry for rambling, I’ll cut it off here. Any other questions, again, please feel free to ask!

Mary · 2005-11-19 02:58:43

It’s perfectly fine for you to respond to a particular “Textpatter” (any topics are allowed here, within reason of course) discussion, if it involves your software.

You guys have made me very curious. I had used Etomite before it was named that. :) I’ll have to install MODx when I get the time, so I can actually play around with it.

Last edited by Mary (2005-11-19 02:59:00)

Jeremie · 2005-11-21 15:16:56

zem wrote:
Perhaps you could post a review, comparison, summary or similar?

They have a bug report/tracker system. Fu fu fu…

;-D

running with scissors · 2005-11-21 22:34:20

it’s very hard to get motivated enough to get past that interface. that is some whacked-out shit. not all that intuitive in it’s current state. the templates seem fairly strait forward, but they could use a better code abstraction in my opinion.

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#1 2005-11-04 11:04:57

MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#2 2005-11-04 16:55:05

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#3 2005-11-17 17:01:17

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#4 2005-11-17 21:14:06

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#5 2005-11-18 00:18:27

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#6 2005-11-18 00:29:37

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#7 2005-11-18 03:01:23

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#8 2005-11-18 08:10:30

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#9 2005-11-18 15:10:52

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#10 2005-11-19 02:58:43

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#11 2005-11-21 15:16:56

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

#12 2005-11-21 22:34:20

Re: MODx : a great Etomite Fork

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