Content Management System – Modx

My business partner Greg has summed up our CMS woes in a recent blog post that can be found here, basically after however many years of business we have been developing websites we still have found ourselves pretty disgusted with 3rd party CMS applications that are on the market.  We have many conversations back and forth about what exactly is needed in a good CMS, Greg also posted an entry that can be found here with some pretty good ideas…

A few weeks ago we stumbled across Modx, a PHP Application Framework that serves as a CMS.  This 3rd party (open-community) application probably offers the biggest glimmer of hope that we have found in a while.  My one position all along is that “no matter what we go with, it needs to be a database driven application instead of a web-based html editor”, it’s just one of those things that I have felt in my gut.  Here is a little bit of information about Modx that I have found…

 

MODx is an open source PHP Application Framework that helps you take control of your online content. It empowers developers and advanced users to give as much control as desired to whomever they desire for day-to-day website content maintenance chores.

MODx is 100% buzzword compliant, and makes child’s play of building content managed sites with validating, accessible CSS layouts – hence Ajax CMS. It empowers its users to build engaging “Web 2.0” sites today, with its pre-integrated MooTools, Scriptaculous and Prototype libraries. If you’re a CSS designer or Ajax aficionado, this is the CMS for you; and if you like what you see today, you’ll love what’s coming.

Techies call MODx a Content Management Framework (“CMF“): equal parts custom web app builder and Content Management System (“CMS“). With a flexible API and a robust event override system, MODx makes building engaging web projects straightforward — or changing core functionality without hacking the core code possible. Custom tweaks won’t leave you pulling out your hair when it’s time to upgrade.

Not only does MODx help you build sites quickly, but it also is both robust and simple. As far as end-users know, MODx is just an easy-to-use online application; for developers there’s freely available resources and a fantastic end-user community.

 

One factor that I really like about Modx is that it appears to be pretty SEO friendly.  As you know a lot of database driven applications aren’t search engine friendly, this one appears to be promising in that respect.  Who is using Modx?  It appears that Modx has gathered a pretty large community of developers that are contributing application plugins and post deployment hacks that work very well.  Modx also appears to be pretty consistent when it comes to usability and standards compliant issues.  Here’s a quick features list that’s pretty impressive…

Strong Web Standards Support – MODx does not force you into awkward and confusing blocks-this or channels-that templating engines or layout rules. You can build XHTML 1.1 Strict sites just as easily as a tag-soup laden table layout. MODx is the dream CMS for CSS designers.

Web 2.0 Features (yes, that means Ajax) – MODx is the first free PHP CMS to offer an API that fully supports Web 2.0 Ajax technology thanks to MooTools. Expect to see this grow more and more into our manager over time, but you can make use of it today in your own custom applications including live search, web effects, Ajax communications and more.

PHP Application Framework – a flexible API and a event model that allows to override how the core behaves means that you get both tremendous flexibility, but also the ability to customize the solution to your needs and a simple upgrade path.

Works in your favorite browser – and yes that means Safari! You can manage your websites from anywhere in the world with an internet connection and IE 5.5+, Safari 1.3+, Firefox 1.0+.

Graphical Installer – it’s now easier for less experienced users to get up and running fast with a step-by-stop online installer.

Improved Rich Text Editors – All MODx RTEs are optional plug-ins, making for a smaller base download. TinyMCE ships out of the box. Adding new RTEs to MODx is simple with FCKeditor available now as an optional download and Textile, Markdown and widgEditors on their way.

Better handling of aliases and menu indexes – Search Engine Friendly aliases are automatically created from the page titles and the system will check for alias conflicts before saving a page. Reordering your pages with Ajax-enabled drag and drop indexing.

Robust CSS Menu Builder – Menus made from ULs are ready to go out of the box. Whether you want something simple as a bulleted list for a sidebar or as complex as Big John’s deluxe menus complete with CSS “hover zones”, MODx has you covered.

Improved Meta-tag and keywords controls – consider MODx your #1 free Search Engine Optimization CMS. MODx helps your SEO efforts by making it easier to adjust meta-content of your site on a per-page basis.

Separate Manager and Web User sessions – simplify your testing and development workflow.

Improved Document Parser and Error handling – build better custom applications with a more robust API and greatly improved error handling and reporting inside the manager.

Custom Content Types – use MODx documents to manage your linked Style Sheets, Images and Javascript. Transform them into XML, PDF, Excel or Word documents with snippets and this handy new feature.

Bug fixes and usability tweaks – a more polished and robust product, bringing us to the home stretch to the official project launch and 1.0 release.

There is also a lot of other features that are apparently in development right now that will be released later but honestly just looking at our client list that relies on CMS I feel like their requirements are already addressed under the current features list.

The past few weekends I have spent a lot of time looking into this solution and am anxious to start deploying it on some of our clients projects down the road.