MODX Next

MODX NextLooking forward to creativity with MODX

Humbled by ImpossibilityAt MODX we set out to accomplish impossible tasks. We don’t always get there, and we have to take work that pays the bill along the way. As the clock ticks this year, how do we use open source more effectively to battle the impossible?

What we are really good at• enabling site creators

• staying abstract

What we could be better at• surviving open source

• leveraging our talented community

• working together

What we are• small team

• individual areas of expertise

• MODX Professionals

• core developers

What we are not

What we need

Creative Freedom∞

Where we need more freedom• Manager Interface

• Add-on Development

• Creative Process

2.3?With 2.3 we cleaned many blemishes of the interface and added some new features like the uberbar, but it has been a bit of a ‘perfume on a pig’ project. With that in mind, we look forward to breaking changes.

Media ManagerThe front end of the media manager is in an alpha state and needs to be integrated into a feature branch of the modxcms/revolution repository where it will be hooked up to the connectors that will make it talk to the MODX Manager. The Media Manager is targeted 2.3, but we will not delay enacting a feature cut off for any one feature alone, so it may wind up being 2.4.

Let’s be honestWe’ve fallen short when it comes to most things front end related. User experience is poor. Defining layout in JavaScript makes no sense at all. Everything takes way too many clicks. !

Our core is too dependent on any given JavaScript library.

Where do we start?

<HTML>

HTML Markup• semantic

• universal

• future forward

• relentless (remember Flash?)

Fear the Beard

@nateb (he’ll find you)

It’s HTMLEven if we are parsing JSON into markup (Angular), we are working with markup. By bringing our technology stack backwards, towards HTML 5 we won’t be left in the dust as standards evolve.

The IronyMODX can attribute success to leading the industry in enabling site creators to have full control over their content and how it is presented and delivered to users. MODX is arguably the best open source HTML pre-processors in the world. !

Yet we treat HTML in the Manager like an after thought.

Markup LastIn 2.x the manager was built markup last. I’m not sure if anyone even knows what the markup actually looks like. This has not proven an effective or performant way to develop interfaces. !

With ExtJS we wind up with something that skips over the HTML box model and CSS leaving us with something we kinda just hope works.

Markup FirstIf you know HTML you can join the party. !

If we go back to HTML rather than stopping at ExtJS, we can bring creative freedom back into a re-imagined Manager.

Less of this{ xtype: 'xdatetime' ,fieldLabel: _('resource_publishedon') ,description: '[[*publishedon]] ' ,name: 'publishedon' ,id: 'modx-resource-publishedon' ,allowBlank: true ,dateFormat: MODx.config.manager_date_format ,timeFormat: MODx.config.manager_time_format ,dateWidth: 120 ,timeWidth: 120 ,value: config.record.publishedon }

undefined is not a object

More of this<input name="publishedon" id="modx-resource-publishedon" type=“datetime" required value="[[+record.publishedon]]" data-date-format="[[+manager_date_format]]" data-time-format="[[+manager_time_format]]" data-allow-blank="true" data-description="[[*publishedon]] '" >

Why enforce workflows?• Automation

• Test Driven Development

• Client-Side Optimization

but I don’t wannaToo bad.

Any sneak-peaks?Releasing 2.3 is a milestone for us. It’s the last minor release before we can move onto the clean slate and breaking changes of 3.0. !

If you want to participate in the discussion of what front end tools are proposed to power the next Dashboard watch the matboard project on github: https://github.com/jpdevries/matboard

https://github.com/jpdevries/matboard

matboard

Death of ExtJS

matboard

matboard• community led decision

• disposable assignments

• scientific comparison

How you can help• Be proactive

• Ask how you can help

• Get in Touch

• Build Awesome

Get your *$%# and get outMODX is powerful because it makes little assumptions as to what you will be using it to build. A website that serves HTML, or a web app that serves JSON…it makes little difference to MODX. So this time, nothing in the core that is too assumptive.

$modx->regClientCSS() $modx->regClientStartupCSS()

$modx->regClientJS() $modx->regClientStartupJS()

compress_css compress_js

media sources

webapp != websitelet the http requests be and look at

require.js if you don’t believe me

Front End Tech Stack

HTML5

Sass

Grunt

?JS

Get in Touch• Forums

• Twitter

• Trello

• GitHub

• [email protected]

http://forums.modx.com

http://twitter.com/modx

http://modx.com/trello

http://github.com/modxcms/revolution

mailto:[email protected]

Technology

MODX Next