MODx Framework Advantages

As some of you might already know, my partner Greg and I have been playing around with a sandbox installation of MODx PHP Framework and I have to admit I am pretty impressed.  It’s a very open-ended framework that allows for a lot of scalability and ease of management. 

MODx is a highly robust “open source” PHP application framework that enables website owners and editors to fully manage their website or extranet content in a centralised environment. It is used by organisations all of sizes across a wide variety of sectors.

From a business perspective, MODx offers total control and ownership over website content whilst minimizing business risk as it adopts standards-based technology commonly found among PHP developers. Most importantly, being open source implies that it doesn’t incur any license cost to clients and is therefore the most obvious alternative to purchasing costly content management systems.

From a developer perspective, it offers the ability to control the website functionality as desired in a flexible web 2.0 based environment and has thus gained much accolade among development teams and technical project managers and producers. As a result of its success, MODx has inherited a strong global developer network constantly producing updates and additional features.

Here are a few of the advantages to using MODx from a site owner or IT manager’s perspective:

• Search engine friendly; URLs produced are keyword based to encourage better indexing
• Take full control over content; add/edit/delete new sections, pages, images, documents and links
• Manage and update your content from any location using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari
• Permissions can be set enabling limited access to different editors within your organization
• Website navigation is generated dynamically when new sections or pages are added
• Choose different pre-defined templates according to the type of content to be added
• Editors can set automatic publish or unpublish dates on a per page basis
• Upgrades and new releases available free of charge
• Administrators can easily edit meta tags on a per-page basis, for better search engine optimization
• Ability to include an extranet or member’s only area
• Ability for users to sign up to extranet or member’s only using self-registration
• No limit to the number of pages or sections editors can add (design permitting)
• Robust access control via user/group permissions, days of week and/or IP address
• Multiple language support (both for editors and website visitors)
• In-built search engine
• Edit rich media content using easy-to-use WYSYWG editors
• Easily track editor logins and behavior for auditing purposes
• Large number of continually updated Plugins available – license free!

As a web developer, these advantages are very significant:

• Strong Web Standards Support: easy to build strict XHTML websites
• The first open source content management system to offer an API that fully supports Web 2.0 Ajax technology
• A flexible API and event model that allows to override how the core behaves; means excellent flexibility and the ability to customize the solution to your needs
• Simple upgrade path thanks to the flexible API and event model
• Graphical step-by-step installer for less experienced developers
• Export website as static HTML; or import an entire HTML website in the database
• 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, 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”
• Advanced backup facility