Choosing a web CMS and an introduction to Modx March 2010

Joe Lee Senior Developer at Artemis 8 Digital Performance Agency Develop mainly in PHP / Mysql Enjoy working with Javascript...enough about me... NEXT! Who is this guy ?

What I will be babbling about... What is a Web CMS? CMS or development framework? What choices are there? What I wanted from a CMS Introducing Modx Building a website in <5mins Questions?

What is a Web CMS ? Content management system “…implemented as a Web application, for creating and managing HTML content. It is used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A WCMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and essential Web maintenance functions."Web applicationHTMLcontent

CMS or development framework? Brochureware = few pages and minimal functionality? CMS How many ‘types ’ of pages? – All holding copy or media we produce? CMS What is the content? – Most data driven from and/or aggregated from external source. Dev Framework How rich is the functionality? – Sounds like a web app? Dev framework Can’t be bothered with building another admin system ? CMS ;)

What are the choices ? Some choices: Joomla Drupal Wordpress Mambo MojoPortal Umbraco DotNetNuke....Plus loads more

“Where do I start?” What I was looking for…

Flexible - Good templating system Easy to pick up - No learning new mark up language Doesn’t mess with their mark up! Designer friendly

Developer friendly Easy code integration Good hook system for future extensibility Handy core libraries to help with the boring stuff Flexible content fields Efficient solution for tiered content structures Active dev forums

SEO / Content people friendly Fast way to manage the META tags Easy to change friendly URLS /Slugs Flexibility to change meta tags without hassling the developers/designer Intuitive content management workflow

The solution?

Modx Introduction bit CMS framework Written in PHP / Mysql Two flavours – Evolution – Production ready (1.0.2) – Revolution – Complete rewrite, beta. Full api and OOP based. (2.0)

History lesson bit Started life as a mashup of another CMS, Etomite 2004 Modx mention got removed from the forum and got forked. Won “Most Promising Open Source CMS” Packt award in 2007

Cool modx stuff

Simple template system Basic markup = “Chunk” Chunk can be used in templates Allows the static content to be separated in any way you like Nice logical separation of content elements Modx does not try add anything (aka muck up) your tags Makes it very easy for designers to pick up

Easy to put in code! Code bits = “Snippet” Eg snippet called “greeting” <php Echo “Hello “.$person; ?> [[greeting? &person=`joe`]] Separate admin system to manage code snippets

Great core functionality Wayfinder – Powerful snippet to build navigation elements eg main nav, sub nav and site map Ditto – A content aggregator snippet eg blogging and news Eform – Build forms quickly WebLogin – Registered user management Changing content from the public pages

Great core functionality (pt2) Chunks/snippets can be cached Scheduled publishing/unpublishing Full user access level control and defining “roles”

Template variables! Powerful way to create custom fields Placed anywhere in a template/chunk Or as a variable into a snippet

Building a Modx site in < 5 mins

5 part plan to start on Modx 1.Download Modx from 2.Read through the excellent tutorials from tutorials/ tutorials/ 3.Bookmark modx cheatsheet Browse through the plugins/addins available Ask questions on the forums - they are a friendly and active bunch!

Questions?

Thank you for listening! website : joelee.me.uk