Comments on: Gauging User Interest – MODx vs. Drupal

By: mary

mary — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:29:28 +0000

Luis
Congratulations on what you’ve been able to accomplish with MODx so far. I don’t think you should give up on MODx that quickly. The documentation is getting better and I think more tutorials are going to become available over time. Remember that compared to Drupal MODx is very young and still growing. I am always learning and try to make time to share what I know, and will continue to do so.

That said, Drupal is also a fantastic system and I enjoy using it a lot too. Both MODx and Drupal have their strengths and weaknesses, and it helps to know more than one CMS anyway, that way you have more options to choose from depending on what you need to build and your timeframe.

I hope you’ll find the Drupal tutorials I have here useful, as well as the many more that are out there. Themeing Drupal is not as straightforward as templating MODx, but it’s not impossible either, it will just take you more time than it would on MODx.

Just remember that each system comes with it’s own challenges, so keep your options open. Good luck!

mary

By: Luis Puesan

Luis Puesan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:07:30 +0000

I am new in both CMS, I did three sites with Modx so far, but I have some difficulty with getting to work with it. And the people who created Modx are difficult to obtain information who to do things with their software. Most of my knowlwdge was learned in this site, and as a result two of my site were selected in the showcase of Modx official site. However,Now, I am switching to drupal because there is more documentation and tutorials, and I am starting to work with Drupal and I like it so far, the only thing that I don’t like about Drupal is that it is not easy to create your own themplate or design as a did using Modx, but I am starting to learn the how to do custom templates in Drupal.

By: Jzigbe

Jzigbe — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:36:08 +0000

I came from Drupal to MODx.

Drupal is a heavy weight. It can do so many things well. However it is not as flexible as MODx. Plus for me the modules section is a little buggy. A case of too many cooks spoil the broth?

Somebody who is reasonably good with Xhtml, CSS and has a little knowledge of how PHP works will delight in the freedom that MODx gives. And for a designer who prefers the freedom of Xhtml/CSS static sites MODx is a breadth of fresh air.

Jan

By: mary

mary — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:20:20 +0000

Sarah
Thanks for your feedback and your question. To be quite honest that’s a really difficult one to answer. I can say that I love both MODx and Drupal equally, and while that is true, it wouldn’t completely answer your question.

I find that I like them for different reasons, and pick one over the other depending on the kind of site I need to build.

You have inspired an idea for a future post though, so keep checking in (or subscribe to my feed) so that you can see that post when I put it up!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:55:01 +0000

You have written excellent tutorials on both -shows a love of both Drupal and MODx. (and thank-you for them!)

So could I ask you Mary – which do you prefer – a personal viewpoint would be so interesting!

By: admin

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:56:15 +0000

peter
Thanks for the feedback

I agree that MODx does not have the most well pieced and coherent official documentation out there but it’s definitely getting better. Since developing the new website the MODx team has been hard at work integrating and getting all the documentation well organized and in one place.

If you look at the bottom of every tutorial here, I add links to the official documentation on each topic I cover to make it easier to find. We all need to remember that MODx is relatively young as far as CMSs go and the team and community have been hard at work building it up and growing it, and the documentation, while it could still use a lot of work, is getting better.

mary

By: peter

peter — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:10:18 +0000

possibly also a reflection of the endless searching new modx users are having to go through to find any information at all. the wiki link is empty… there is no consistency in documentation at all… every time I need to know anything about the product I inevitably wind up on a site like yours because the modx site is completely void of information…. I feel like I have been going around in circles.

thanks for your efforts, much appreciated!

By: davidm

davidm — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:41:07 +0000

I share your analysis and the conclusion too : there is a growing interrest in modx and people love “user produced” resources (that is outside “official” channels) especially tips and tutorials from seasonned users Drupal already has that and then some, but it’s an established CMS born way before modx.

Your blog or Shane’s website are meeting modx user’s needs dead on and will definitely help modx grow

Drupal already has lots of user contributed resources, but it’s an established CMS born way before modx.

If we’re talking trends, it’s funny to see how strong modx is on twitter relatively to its “market share”. I think that’s a good sign, especially since the twitter chatter about modx is not buzz but actual questions, debates, tips, pointer to valuable resources (those can easily be missed in the overactive modx forums).