This is a great overview of MODx. I am convineced that i can use MODx for anything :)
Ray
· 11 months ago
An excellent overview! High-level, yet going into just the right amount of technical detail to explain to a potential new user how the components actually work together. I've been happily using MODx for most projects since mid-2006 and I can fully agree with your asessment.
This is definitely a good resource that I can point people to who are "shopping" for a new CMS.
Chris Pratt
· 11 months ago
Thanks for your comment Ray. When I came to my current job, they had just switched to MODx for their client CMS solution. This was my first exposure to MODx, and I was instantly entranced by it. It was a lot less polished back then (early 2007) than it is now. I'm seriously impressed by 0.9.6.3.
I just finished customizing out a new default install of our MODx (which is what prompted me to write this post). It's not really upgradeable that way, but it's amazing the features you can.
I think there's probably a time and a place for just about any CMS, but I've yet to find something I couldn't use MODx for.
besman
· 4 months ago
Modx might be the best but installing it is definitely not intuitive!
I tried using both Xampp and Wampserver. I get one step further with Xampp but a little. With Xampp, I get stuck at Database Information (Database name, Table prefix, Connection method, Collation). I'm instructed to
"Enter the database name to use or which you wish to create for this MODx install. If no database exists, the installer will attempt to create one. This may fail depending on the MySQL user permissions"
and to...
"Create or test selection of your database"
but when I do, I get...
"Checking database: failed - could not create database"
When I try installing it using Wampserver, i.e. "Enter the database host (server name or IP address), the username and password before testing the connection." But nothing happens.
Perhaps there are some settings that I'm overlooking but if so, there are no clear steps to configure the required settings.
Chris Pratt
· 4 months ago
MODx will attempt to create a database if one hasn't been created yet, but depending on your server configuration, this may or may not be successful. Particularly on shared hosting environments, it will invariably fail, since most do not allow automatic database creation.
That said, it seems you're trying to install MODx in development environment on your computer, and while I'm not overly familiar with either Xampp or Wampserver (both Windows, and I'm exclusively on a Mac), my guess is that they, too, are not allowing automatic database creation in their default configuration.
You should be able to simply use whatever GUI those tools give you (most likely phpMyAdmin) to create a database and a user for MODx, though, and then provide that information to the MODx installer. If the database checks in the MODx installer are failing, it can only be caused by one of two things: 1) wrong connection information (server name, database name, database username, and database password) or 2) the database user doesn't have sufficient privileges.
Brian
· 4 months ago
Modx sucks. Another developer installed this on a site we did and everytime I have to go in and edit something I spend 50 minutes trying to decipher the difference between a chunk and a snippet and how it all flows together. It certainly isn't intuitive.
In modx's defense it took me a little time to get up and running with Joomla, but the differences between the two are vast. Modx seems obtuse, clunky and backwards. If you're going to use a cms, just use joomla and don't waste time with this.
John
· 4 months ago
I can't be more agree, Joomla and MODx are two different beast.
Basically Chunks are HTML and Snippets PHP code.
I think that you're looking for "Point & click" system like joomla or Wordpress. MODx is not geared toward what you're searching for and will probably never be.
In the same way, your Joomla sites will always look like every Joomla websites, your are limited to think the Joomla way to develop your applications and the framework is not as Flexible as MODx is.
MODx may seems obtuse, but backwards and clunky? Comparing to Joomla? You're kidding right?
nyl auster
· 4 months ago
@Brian : If you are not able to dechiper the reference between snippet and chunk; that's mean you are not able to see the difference PHP and HTML. I hope you are not a webmaster or a developper.
All Comments
This is definitely a good resource that I can point people to who are "shopping" for a new CMS.
I just finished customizing out a new default install of our MODx (which is what prompted me to write this post). It's not really upgradeable that way, but it's amazing the features you can.
I think there's probably a time and a place for just about any CMS, but I've yet to find something I couldn't use MODx for.
I tried using both Xampp and Wampserver. I get one step further with Xampp but a little. With Xampp, I get stuck at Database Information (Database name, Table prefix, Connection method, Collation). I'm instructed to
"Enter the database name to use or which you wish to create for this MODx install. If no database exists, the installer will attempt to create one. This may fail depending on the MySQL user permissions"
and to...
"Create or test selection of your database"
but when I do, I get...
"Checking database: failed - could not create database"
When I try installing it using Wampserver, i.e.
"Enter the database host (server name or IP address), the username and password before testing the connection."
But nothing happens.
Perhaps there are some settings that I'm overlooking but if so, there are no clear steps to configure the required settings.
That said, it seems you're trying to install MODx in development environment on your computer, and while I'm not overly familiar with either Xampp or Wampserver (both Windows, and I'm exclusively on a Mac), my guess is that they, too, are not allowing automatic database creation in their default configuration.
You should be able to simply use whatever GUI those tools give you (most likely phpMyAdmin) to create a database and a user for MODx, though, and then provide that information to the MODx installer. If the database checks in the MODx installer are failing, it can only be caused by one of two things: 1) wrong connection information (server name, database name, database username, and database password) or 2) the database user doesn't have sufficient privileges.
In modx's defense it took me a little time to get up and running with Joomla, but the differences between the two are vast. Modx seems obtuse, clunky and backwards. If you're going to use a cms, just use joomla and don't waste time with this.
Basically Chunks are HTML and Snippets PHP code.
I think that you're looking for "Point & click" system like joomla or Wordpress.
MODx is not geared toward what you're searching for and will probably never be.
In the same way, your Joomla sites will always look like every Joomla websites, your are limited to think the Joomla way to develop your applications and the framework is not as Flexible as MODx is.
MODx may seems obtuse, but backwards and clunky? Comparing to Joomla? You're kidding right?