About | MODx CMS / CMF

About MODx

In laymen's terms, MODx helps even regular individuals manage content on their websites simply, quickly and intuitively. For the geek-elite, MODx is an Open Source PHP web application framework with a capable built-in Content Management System (CMS).

Run by a talented group of individuals that's adamant about not creating YAPS, they strive to keep MODx flexible and restriction-free so developers, designers and webmasters can build sites that match their vision exactly. For end users, constant effort is maintained to make the interface approachable and easy to understand.

The Abbreviated History

In 2004 Raymond Irving and Ryan Thrash began MODx as a mash-up of John Guerra's DocVars for Etomite and Raymond's web user add-on. The traction it gained and interest in the forums meant at least to us that we were on to something and we were having a blast helping improve an Open Source project. After discovering one morning all our posts and support threads about the work were deleted we received the (unfortunate) requested by the project's founders to cease even mentioning MODx.

In short, we found ourselves in the position of choosing between forking the project or abandoning over a thousand hours of work. We chose dinnerware. Shortly thereafter Jason Coward joined the project and we started clarifying our vision for the now standalone project.

We wanted MODx to accomplish some goals that were important to us:

Provide a simple template system that didn't get in the way of making XHTML/CSS sites,
Help users quickly build custom web applications,
Offer a sensible, robust and extendable API,
Avoid the tortuous or extended learning curves found in many other CMSes, and
Work equally as well for simple marketing website CMS needs and for more complex applications.

Since its inception, we significantly enhanced MODx's API; been fortunate to be joined by talented development, international and support teams; augmented the user system; and, rewrote much of the application. While Raymond has since moved on to other pursuits, Ryan and Jason continue to guide the project.

We think MODx is a dream come true for Designers, Developers and even normal end users. It's a platform that enables people to make a living from building sites. In fact there's been nothing more rewarding to hear than hearing companies—and even first time entrepreneurs— tell us that MODx is the main platform on which they hang their services.

So who makes MODx tick?

That's simple: the community.

At any given time, there's 30 or more people actively engaged in developing, maintaining and managing MODx. Not all are coders. In fact, many are "MODx Ambassadors". We have 2-3 bilingual users per native language community serving as conduits for non-English speaking users. With many established and growing international communities, we expect to continue see significant growth and reach with non-native English speakers globally. (As a side note, the first book published on MODx was in Kanji.)

Early on we hoped that by focusing on the Framework aspect of MODx instead of trying to serve as a be-all-end-all solution for even novice web users, that we'd attract talented developers. Now it seems there's not a day that goes by that a "normal" user doesn't come out with something that's just plain cool and deserving of inclusion in the core distribution.

Traditionally the types of users that instantly get and click with MODx are advanced designers and developers. That's not to say MODx isn't an incredible tool for ongoing website maintenance by "normal" people, because it is. But properly building a website that's easy to maintain an expressly built to handle the content needs specific to any site takes experience that can only come with seat-time with MODx. And there's lots of people that can really make MODx fly.

Even if someone doesn't exquisitely fit the above description, the MODx community welcomes everyone to actively participate and learn about our platform of choice. Time and time again, experienced MODx users lend a helping hand and offering feedback to new users and converts to MODx, even for the questions that are asked over and over again. Few projects have enjoyed the great vibe and a rightful reputation of being exceedingly friendly, helpful and supportive of users at every level as MODx.

What really makes MODx different?

A combination of many things, including:

MODx Rocks SEO – the simple truth is that if your site cannot be found in Search Engines, then it's all for naught. Today, playing the Search Engine Optimization game, hopefully using our SEO CMS, is almost mandatory for the vast majority of sites out there. MODx makes building sites that perform well in search engines exceptionally straightforward. You get 100% control of your content, structure and URLs. Happy SEOing!
Simple templates – build a page and replace the content parts with some simple tags. No complex template system required, and XHTML/CSS sites are dead simple. Converting existing sites is typically very fast, too, taking 10-15 minutes for a basic template port thanks to our Template Variables (see below) and some helpful and free code Snippets. MODx is the Web Standards CMS of choice for thousands of savvy designers and developers worldwide.
Unlimited hierarchy – it never made sense that in some systems you can't build sites as deeply-nested as you want in some system. MODx has no such restrictions. If most sites start with a sitemap then why shouldn't you be able to build them that way in your framework?
Template Variables (TVs) – you can have as many custom content fields as you want for your site with TVs. They can also have "widgets" attached to them to create things more easily like data grids, select boxes, pop-up lists and so on. (even questionable things like scrolling marquees as well...). This allows developers to turn complex content scenarios into a simple process of filling out an online form for content editors.
@BINDINGS – this is one of the most unique aspects of MODx. It allows you to "bind" virtually anything as an input source or the default value to TVs: a logic evaluation (@EVAL), a value from an ancestor document (@INHERIT), an API call, a file uploaded to a specific directory on your web server (@FILE), an RSS feed, a file listing in a directory (@DIRECTORY), another page's content values found in your site (@DOCUMENT) or pretty much anything else you can dream up. The combination of @BINDINGS and the output transformation "widgets", like dynamically transforming an uploaded .csv file into a data grid, is a combination that many developers find aluring.
QuickEdit front end editing – log into the manager, surf your site, and click the edit buttons that appear when you want to make changes. Edit from the front end while surfing and proofing your site.

In closing

Deploying MODx is a safe choice. It's been around for years, has won awards like Packt Publishing's Most Promising Open Source CMS for 2007 and has a strong community in many countries. It has been adopted by both publicly traded and large private corporations, has a vibrant pool of developers, has seen more than a dozen releases with no signs of that slowing down, and it gives organizations the freedom to work how they want and to see and modify all the source code at will. On behalf of the MODx project, we invite you to join our community of users and experience the MODx revolution.