Review: MODx Content Management System
I’m always on the lookout for a content management system (CMS) that is powerful, flexible, and doesn’t require me going back to school for a degree in computer science to set it up. I’ve found one that has gotten me pretty excited. It is called MODx CMS.
My computer background is pretty solid. I have studied programming before and done well at it. I’ve been building and repairing my own computers for nearly 10 years and am very comfortable pulling open computers and working on them. I’m a self-taught web designer/developer and have had the good fortune to work with some gifted people who have guided me into standards-based web design. I even know my way around a server well enough to set-up databases and install software. But I still get stumped – often!
Most Open Source CMS packages have frustrated me. Many are incredibly powerful, allowing all sorts of automation and customization, but are just complicated enough that I have trouble getting them customized to my needs. It is usually the templating portion of the process that brings me to my knees.
I can design and code a beautiful standards-based web page, but usually get frustrated trying to translate the page into a template that will work in the CMS. At heart I’m more of a designer/developer than a coder.
The stated mission of MODx is to make a CMS for people like me. Within a few minutes of installing MODx on my server, I managed to create a basic template based on the HTML from one of my sites. I simply dropped a couple of simple tags into the existing code to replace the content and navigation areas, and hit save. And, when I viewed the finished page, it worked – how gratifying! This is a CMS made for me.
MODx is a breeze to install. Just unzip the files and FTP them to your website’s root directory. Set-up a new MySQL database and copy down the login information. Then run the setup script, plug in your database info and hit enter. The script creates your database structure and loads in all the initial data required. Now, you’re ready to start building your site.
My plan is to do a little more experimenting with MODx focussing on understanding how the system works, how to extend and customize the functionality of the CMS, and exploring how it handles user permissions for content managers and site users.
If it performs well, I’ll convert a site that currently has no CMS to run on MODx. I’ll keep you posted.
The Go-To Guy
I just found this post, and wanted to say thanks for the great little review of MODx Andrew. I am a founding member of the MODx development team, and it’s great to see positive feedback about the product we so strongly believe in.
Cheers, and hope to see you around the MODx community in the future…
MODx is the first platform that made sense to me. With other solutions I was always stumped at some point trying to figure out how to make it work for me.
Since this review I have used it to make a political campaign website for a client in California (www.MarbyLee.com). I didn’t have to compromise my design one bit to integrate the templates into the site. Plus, the client was immediately able to take over managing the text content with no training and no technical background.
I’m planning to use it again when I do the re-design of the site for a comedian I taking on as a client. She is a complete tech novice and is looking forward to managing the content of her site without having to pay a coder for every little update.
Look for more articles soon.
if that intrest you, I’m using toko for content management (it’s a free one)… http://toko-contenteditor.pageil.net