MODX: The Official Guide – Book Review

If you closely follow the happenings in the world of MODX you know that Bob Ray’s book MODX: The Official Guide.
is now available.  I was fortunate to receive a copy of the unreleased PDF a few weeks ago and have been looking through it. Now that the book is available for pre-order, I thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts.

First, I want to say that the release of this book is really exciting and a great step forward for the MODX community.  This is not the first MODX book to be published. The first one was written in Japanese and covered MODx Evolution.  This was followed later by two books published by Packt that also covered Evolution.  I have, of course, not read the Japanese book but have looked at the two Packt books, and I can comfortably say that Bob’s book far supercedes either of the Packt books and is far superior product to either of them, and I recommend it without reservations.

Why Buy MODX: The Official Guide?

Let’s start with two simple reasons why I consider this book to be THE MODX book to buy, then we will go on to actually talk about the contents.

Why MODX: The Official Guide is THE MODX book to Buy

1. The author: This book has been written by an active and well known MODX community member and contributor who has a proven track record and relationship with the community.  At the time of this writing, Bob has over 9000 posts in the MODX community forums, asking questions, responding to requests for help, and contributing in many different ways to the community.  He has also authored more than a few addons for both MODX Revolution and MODX Evolution. So you know that this is not a book written by a novice or a casual MODX user.
2. The Publisher:  This book has not just been dubbed “The Official Guide” as a marketing strategy. It IS the official guide, and you can tell that this is the case because it’s been published by MODX Press, the new publishing arm of the MODX CMS team.  So it’s the real deal.  It also comes with the official stamp of approval from the MODX team and core developers.

What’s between the covers?

Let me first say that this is a massive book.  It’s 772 pages in total, full of text and code.  The pre-release copy I have doesn’t have much in the way of images, so you can imagine how much content has been packed into this book.

– Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments

Introduction

About This Book

About MODX

Chapter 1

How MODX Works
The MODX Database
MODX vs. Third-Party Components
The Back End vs. the Front End
Basic MODX Building Blocks
How MODX Delivers a Web Page
Transport Packages
Other MODX Concepts
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 2

Installing MODX
Installing the Current Stable Release
Installing Add-on Components
Friendly URLs, Friendly Aliases
Installing MODX on Your Local Machine
Porting an Existing Site to MODX
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 3

The MODX Manager
The Resource, Element, and File Trees
The Top Menu
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 4

Resources
Documents
Weblinks
Symlinks
Static Resources
Template Variables and Access Permissions
Other Resource Operations
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 5

Templates and Template Variables
Templates
Creating a Template
An Example Template
Example Template: A Closer Look
Deciding What to Put in a Template
Using Tags in a Template
Template Variables
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 6

Chunks and Properties
Introducing Chunks
Creating a Simple Chunk
Using Chunks with Other Tags
Other Uses for Chunks
Introducing Properties
Sending Properties in the Chunk Tag
Default Properties Versus Property Sets
Working with Default Properties
How Default Properties are Used
Property Sets
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 7

Snippets and Plugins
Working with Snippets
Working with Plugins
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 8

Advanced Snippet Operations
MODX get*() Methods
Object Methods
Working with Resources, Elements, and Users
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 9

Site Organization and Contexts
Site Organization
Contexts
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 10

MODX Security
Security System Overview
Security Elements
Working with MODX Security
Controlling Access in the Front End
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 11

Customizing the MODX Manager
Altering the Top Menu
Form Customization
Custom Manager Pages
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 12

Using Common MODX Components
Installing Components and Creating Property Sets for Them
Creating an FAQ Page with EZfaq
Creating a Contact Page with SPForm
Using Breadcrumbs to Show the Current Path
Using Wayfinder to Create a Menu
Using getResources to Aggregate Content
Using FormIt to Create and Process Forms
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Chapter 13

Creating Transport Packages
Transport Package Overview
A Simple Transport Package
Summary
MODX Evolution Notes

Appendix

MODX API
PHP Primer
MODX Objects Reference
Using SMTP to Send Mail in MODX
MODX System Events

As you can see, this is quite a comprehensive book, and attempts to cover a LOT of material.  This is always a tricky undertaking, and sometimes things can be left out or covered in not enough detail to be useful. But I can say that Bob has done a good job covering a lot of material in this book in such a way as to be useful.

Revolution or Evolution?

The primary focus of this book is the Revolution branch of MODX. However, each chapter has a section with MODX Evolution notes. In my opinion, if you’re interested in learning just Evolution, this may not be too useful for you as it does not cover Evolution as comprehensively as you may need it to.  But seeing as Revolution is the larger focus for the MODX team at the moment and going forward, you may be wise to start upgrading your MODX knowledge to Revolution anyway 🙂

Who is MODX: The Official Guide for?

I think that this book will benefit anyone who is interested in MODX, whether a complete beginner or a seasoned MODX developer.

For Beginners: This book covers enough details about the whole MODX ecosystem to be useful for starting from scratch and understanding how MODX works.  However, because of its sheer size and the amount of content presented, it may prove to be a little overwhelming to complete beginners.  It definitely isn’t a beginners primer and quick intro to MODX. I think those who benefit from it the most will be people who have at least a little familiarity with the MODX CMS either from the official docs, from tutorials, or from just dabbling around.  However, even if you’re a complete beginner who is serious about MODX, I definitely recommend buying this book and having it handy for when you’ve got the lay of the land and are ready to really dive in.

For those who know MODX: I believe this book will make an excellent reference, and will help fill some of those knowledge gaps that you may have about different parts of how MODX works, particularly chapters 7 and 8 which dig deeper into code.

Now that you know that I strongly recommend this book, let me say what I didn’t like about it 🙂

Things that could be improved

Scope too wide? While I appreciate the scope of material covered in this book, I feel that it may have been a tad too ambitious in trying to cover everything about MODX.  It may have been beneficial to perhaps divide this guide into two parts, one for the site builders, and the other for the developers.  As it stands, this book can be a little overwhelming if you’re just coming into MODX as a beginners and want to just get the lay of the land, since it attempts to cover everything in one fell swoop.  However, take my word for it, it’s definitely worth the time to dive in and find the information you need.

Lack of graphic content: I’m partly a visual learner, so I like screenshots and snapshots, flowcharts, and images.  Perhaps the print copy will have some, but the pre-release copy I have doesn’t have much in the way of images. It’s mostly all text.  Images are great for breaking up text and for aiding in understanding the written material. Flow charts and tables are also great as a quick reference, and screenshots help you to relate where stuff is on the web page that you’re looking at as compared to what the text is telling you.  Given the amount of content the author chose to cover, adding images would probably have made the book considerably larger, and perhaps this is where two separate parts would have come in handy.

Overall?

• If you’re serious about working with MODX in more than a casual way,  buy this book
  .
• If it seems a bit overwhelming at first, be patient, and work through the chapters that cover what you need, and then move out from there to explore the other chapters and build your knowledge.

I definitely highly recommend MODX: The Official Guide
for anyone who is serious about delving into MODX.