The Evolution of a Revolution
MODx 0.9.6.2, currently in Release Candidate phase, will represent what the MODx Team considers the completion of the original vision for MODx. In fact, it really surpassed our expectations. It represents the closing of an exciting and interesting 4+ years for us and has inspired a new name for our legacy code base: MODx Evolution.
We considered alternate names like “MODx CMS”, “MODx Lite”, “MODx Web”, “MODx Classic” or “MODx Base”. At the end of the day though, “Evolution” accurately describes what it is and how it came to life.
The long-discussed “0.9.7” pending release also gets in on the naming exercise. Its re-architecture and rewrite make “MODx Revolution” an appropriate name. (We likewise also considered others such as “MODx CMF”, “MODx App” or “MODx Pro”...)
In the end, these names feel right and we’re excited about them as a team. New names will soon be accompanied by a new logo, support resources, site architecture and website design. With these items in place we hope we’ll do a much better job in helping people get started with MODx and foster a better MODx culture.
It’s high time we have a “1.0” release
Renaming the projects serves a couple of purposes.
First, it puts to rest the perception held by some that MODx is not production-worthy simply based on our lack of a “1.0” release. While version numbers in our case were purely arbitrary and completely unrelated to the amount of development and testing that has gone into MODx, there’s really no point in not putting that “magic milestone” stake in the ground.
Secondly, it also gives us a starting point to differentiate and maintain each code base project with cleaner separation.
The MODx Evolution code base (0.9.6.x, remember?) will be around and supported for a long time. With hundreds of thousands of downloads—and no telling how many websites running on top of it—we’re committed to providing security for website owner in knowing they’re not riding in a ghost ship. It’s initial release will be known as MODx Evolution 1.0.
Vive la Revolution!
On July 14th (Coincidentally Bastille Day in France), the MODx Team finalized the names. Since the MODx Revolution code base is massively improved, maintainable and scalable for “more serious” sites we felt its name aptly describes what’s coming.
While our legacy release has a lot of framework capabilities—especially if you really know the code—it pales in comparison with what’s possible and will be coming in MODx Revolution.
Easy to Join the Revolution
Even though the MODx Revolution 2.0 code base is 100% new and unique, we ensure existing sites can join the Revolution with minimal fuss. Our migration tools will help convert your sites quickly and surprisingly well. Similarly, we have extensions of the core class to help you maintain backwards compatibility for a lot of existing snippets.
As an example, the MODx site with thousands of pages (the Repository alone, has one or more pages for each Resource) took 17 seconds to convert into the new format and data structure, generated a 20MB log file (yes, megabytes) and required minimal manual tweaking for a few pieces of poorly implemented testing code.
Mind you, our site is Frankencode—chock full of experiments and pieces bolted together from all the releases going back as far as 0.9.2.1—so we’re very pleased with the results. Will all sites migrations go so smoothly? Probably not, but the starting point really will significantly reduce or eliminate the massiveness of the effort.
Separation of the Core
MODx Revolution also brings a very clear distinction between the core (API, parser, data access, base access controls, etc.) and the add-ons (Ditto, Wayfinder, content et al). MODx has traditionally been distributed with baseline content and a selection of Resources.
A future release of MODx Evolution will start to see it correlate directly with the Revolution lingo (e.g., “Resources” becomes “Elements”), and also bring a much more svelte core distribution. Don’t worry though, you’ll still be able to easily install your beloved demo content, but in a much more “MODx way”.
Changes Bring more Frequent Releases
As an added benefit of splitting the add-ons from the core in the distribution, more frequent updates should occur. No more waiting on those last few things to get done with a snippet or worrying about how it’s time for a total revamp of the demo content in general.
A slimmer distribution, harmonizing some terminology, and a dedicated separate installer for Elements (currently “Resources”), will serve to further ease the transition when people ultimately choose to adopt the MODx Revolution 2.0 code base.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this sneak-peek into the near future of MODx and our reasons for the many changes and we’re sure you’ll find them exciting as we do.
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Comments:
Cole
Keep on the great work.
Thanks,
Bogdan
@Bogdan the things it can do, the better documentation and so much more are gonna make it a dream ... particularly for those that need multiple languages and so many more things
I share Bogden's sentiment where I am extremely exited about the Revolution, however, I am also a bit scared of having to learn it and the time it will take to get to the point where I feel as comfortable as I currently do with Evolution.
The great thing is that everyone can make the transition at their own pace.
Great work folks! The revolution is on!
You guys are totally rock! Thanks for the new masterpiece and viva la revolution!
From my Systems Analyst point of view, I believe that you guys have really ramped MODx up into a much more modular and effective tool for extensive and advanced web designs. While allowing users to only use the aspects they actually need. The first thing that caught my eye was dbcache in the configuration. Many of my MODx creations involve external databases to be accessed and a cache for that is a wonderful idea.
The GUI is different, but similar enough to figure out from previous versions. (Tools | Configuration still gets you to the same place.)
The GUI may take some getting used to, but the usability I see offered is going to be priceless to many developers.
I may be biased, but I see Revolution as the first CMS by developers for developers.
I believe the success of Revolution will be directly proportionate to the amount of usable documentation that can be easily found, concerning its different aspects.
In closing, thank you for offering this product to the world even more so, the amount of each of you which has been poured (or squeezed) into Revolution.
I'm really looking forward kicking the Revolution's tires while I continue to develop sites in Evolution. You guys have built an AWESOME tool, keep it up!
Cheers to the MODx Community and Team! This is going to be one hell-of-a-ride :)
I hope to be the first developper to deploy it on my projects and while I'm at it, I will make sure to put my money where my mouse is and support the community for the wonderful job it's doing.
Does the new naming scheme mean that the name "Tattoo" and it's tag "Make your mark" are out of the picture now?
Bee
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Vive la Revolution!
-sD-
Dr. Scotty Delicious, DFPA.