Modx CMS In Action
I recently used the Modx CMS platform to build my sister-in-law’s political campaign website. It was my first attempt to build a working site using this CMS. Overall it worked out very well – once I wrapped my head around a few basic concepts. I’ll write more about my experiences with this project if there is any interest. Send me an email or leave a comment and let me know if and what you want me to discuss
The Go-To Guy
This comment is in response to a question asked by Kam in a comment to another article. He asked what the hardest part of working with MODx was:
I found MODx very easy to use. I installed the sample site and spent some time examining the way things were set-up. When you start this way there are a bunch of useful Chunks and Snippets preloaded into the installation.
The blog setup required the most effort to understand. With tools like WordPress everything just pops out in working order. I had to get my head wrapped around the way you set everything up. There are a couple of components you have to include to get everything working. You also don’t get all of the ping and trackback tools that come pre-built in blogging specific software.
Another thing that I had to get used to was the fact that the content of some of the content pages in the site is code calling a Snippet to perform some special function. Working with a blog tool you get used to content being text and images and code being hidden away in a template. The downside of a highly flexible tool is that it requires more effort to customize. Maybe the MODx community will develop some installation pre-set packages that will create default installations for different website categories?
I had to read through the DropMenu Snippet’s documentation a few times to figure out all of the settings I needed, but was quickly able to reproduce the exact menu design I wanted. I was really impressed at how easy it was to integrate – 100% CSS design, no compromise.
Overall, I spent much more time creating the design of the site and coding the CSS than I did integrating the results into MODx.