Exploring MODx Revolution

In this screencast we will start exploring MODx Revolution, which at the time of this posting is at Beta 5.  We will install Revolution and then proceed to look a little bit at the manager, create a resource, install some addons, and just start to get a feel for it.  While Revolution is still in beta version and not recommended for production sites, I believe we’re getting very close to RC and eventually GA so if you haven’t yet, there’s no reason not to start exploring and playing with it.

I look forward to your feedback and to learning more from those who’ve already starting exploring MODx revolution so please go ahead and leave your comments.

22 thoughts on “Exploring MODx Revolution”

  1. Hey Mary – great screencast! Always good to get first impressions. Would love to hear more thoughts on your experience. I can answer a few questions you had as well:

    1. demo content – RC will provide you with demo content; how we plan on doing that is yet to be decided. We might make it available through Package Management. Not sure yet.

    2. other providers – there are currently no other providers to download from (since the provider code is still in flux and will be until RC; after that at some point we will probably release a package so people can “become” providers. modxcms.com/extras is a provider, btw.)

    3. add new provider error – This is a known issue and will be addressed before RC1. Clicking “Download Extras” bypasses this entirely, by the way, and gets you right to the download tree.

    4. clicking download button – This will also be addressed; we’ll add some more status messages and signals so you know that it’s downloading.

    Thanks so much for doing this screencast! It’s much appreciated.

    Reply

    1. Shaun
      Thanks for stopping by and for answering my questions. Revolution is definitely an interesting beast and I’m looking forward to exploring it more and sharing what I learn as I go.

      I figured there probably weren’t other providers yet, makes sense we’re still in beta. The Package Management feature is definitely one of my favorites although all of Revolution is pretty exciting.

      Hope you stop by again and I will definitely be doing more screencasts and explorations of Revolution.

      Reply

  3. This is a great screencast of the direction MODx is heading, it’s truly unfortunate there isn’t more documention / media displaying the power and possibilites of MODx and what it truly can be used to accomplish.

    Can’t wait for the final version of Revolution.

    Reply

    1. Brad
      I agree with you 100%. Revolution is pretty exciting and I am eagerly awaiting it to go into GA.

      I think that as more people get into MODx and realize its power and versatility, we’ll hopefully see more documentation, tutorials, and screencasts!

      I started a couple of threads on the MODx forums listing all the different screencasts I’ve found on the web that pertain in one way or another to MODx.

      http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,43702.0.html
      http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,43734.0.html

      🙂
      mary

      Reply

  4. Thanks for that Mary you have a very relaxed style that makes watching a pleasure!

    I’m a Modx newbie trying to decide between Modx and Website Baker as the tool to do a new website so developments in Modx Revolution are very interesting for me.

    I think your site is going to be a great resource for my learning experiences!

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the feedback Geoff! I have used both MODx and Website Baker, they’re both good systems. I have done more sites with MODx than with Website Baker and I hope you find which one works better for you based on your needs and skill level. I hope you find the tutorials here helpful! 🙂

      mary

      Reply

  5. I just heard about modx for the very first time today (from you! – i.e. your “I love them equally” interview you recently gave – and nice job BTW). Based on your interview and screencast, MODx looks very appealing to me, but as a complete modx newb, would you recommend skipping evolution altogether and diving straight into revolution? (I’m a programmer and don’t mind getting my hands dirty)

    Thanks for the screencast! (The one on Drupal 7-alpha was good too)

    Reply

    1. ridgerunner
      Thank for the feedback!! Glad you enjoyed the screencasts 🙂
      With regard to your question, based on your background, I would say dive head fast into Revolution. It’s way more powerful than Evolution and very flexible. There’s already a good official documentation base for Revo -> http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/display/revolution/MODx+Revolution and the MODx forums are very active and friendly. I would definitely say go for Revolution!! It wouldn’t hurt to learn some Evolution either just for the heck of it 🙂

      Good luck and I look forward to hearing about your progress 🙂

      mary

      Reply

  6. Hi Mary,

    For a client I’m using MODx Revolution and I’m a bit stuck at creating a simple contact form with the new ‘FormIt’ package for Revo. I’m using Revo beta 5. I followed these two tutorial pages / official documentation:

    http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/display/ADDON/FormIt+Example+1+-+Contact+Page

    http://svn.modxcms.com/docs/display/ADDON/FormIt

    Now I don’t understand WHERE to put the snippet in. The site says the ‘resource’ that uses the contact form.

    I’ve got a resource, containing the form from the example page. And I created a snippet with the contents explained on the website. I can’t get it to work when I put the snippet in the resource. When clicking the submit button, it submits the form but no error’s and no email. I changed the snippet value’s accordingly ofcourse to my website.

    Any thoughts? Thanx from the Netherlands.

    Reply

    2. Hi, D. Burger.
      Set “snippet” of FormIt right to your chunk.
      It works.
      But they used recapcha, I can’t struggle with it )

      Reply

  7. Just stumpled upon MODx last week and played a bit with it. I really like it, although you have to make your hands more dirty as with other CMS. Apart from flexibility I was amazed of the speed of backend and page generation right from the start.

    As I tried Revolution and Evolution, I think Revolution is a big step in the right direction. But, as you can see it even on the screencast, Revolution feels a really slow compared to Evolution. Especially as I don’t have an own server, just a shared hoster…

    I really hope that will be improved before final…

    Reply

    1. Frank
      Thanks for your comment. In the screencast I was using Beta 5, Revolution is now in RC1, and I think the backend is a lot faster. I don’t think there are any issues with using shared hosting, at least none that I’ve heard of. I am using Revo on shared hosting and it runs just fine. It’s definitely worth giving it a try 🙂

      mary

      Reply

      1. I tried Revolution RC1 first and it felt like every other backend I tried before. Like Contenido or TYPOlight. I mean its not exactly slow, like Drupal can be or like concrete5 is, it just feels like a generic web application.

        I tried Evolution after Revolution, because of there is more stuff on the web about it, yet. And I had more the impression to deal with a static html site, than a generated, PHP based one. It was simply fast. Just compare the menu speed of Evolution and Revolution. When RC1 is a lot faster than Beta 5, then I don’t want to try Beta5 on my hoster 😉

        I can give you a test account on each backend so you can feel it yourself, if you wanna…

        Yesterday, I have seen the videos of Shaun McCormick, showing the new backend and I think its really the way to go. I was most impressed by drag and drop a snippet and getting a menu of parameters…

        I really hope it will speed up a but till final.

        Reply

  8. Thanks for this great screen cast, Mary. I learned Evolution from your tutorials and am about to dive into my first Revo project. Knew to come to The Coding Pad first! Thx!!

    Reply

  9. Hey Mary
    Thanks for the intro to Revo, just started playing around with it today. I’ve been using modx Evo for the past year and I thought this is a good time to step into the fray. I hope you do more screencasts

    Reply

  10. To put it really simple, I just love Evo more than Revo from what I’ve seen so far. I really could do without a lot of stuff which to my POV is just slowing things down -a lot. I simply don’t get that. I will stick with Evo for a while.
    Cheers

    Reply

  11. Hi Mary.

    I know this is a little off topic. Just finished watching your tutorial on Revolution Beta. Wanted to know what software you used to record your screencast as I have some screencasts that I want to record.

    Thanks – Gord

    Reply

Leave a Reply