MODX is a Open Source Content Management System
We have been using Modx as our primary CMS since the company began and although we have used other systems (mainly Wordpress) we have always come back to Modx as our primary solution.
There are dozens of CMS solutions out there (both open source and paid for solutions), and I don't claim to have knowledge of all of them but I have spent time researching some of the open source solutions. So what is it about MODX that keeps me coming back? Here are four reasons why I love MODX.
Open Source
The term open source can conjurer up different thoughts in different people. Some negative comments I hear include things like:
“Open source software isn't user friendly” or “It's not secure”.
While either these comments can be true (for both open source and paid for solutions) MODX doesn't suffer from either. One of the key benefits of open source software is it is essentially free and this is often reason many people use it. However, to appreciate the true benefits of open source software you have to look beyond just the price. The system can grow and improve organically via the community and therefore the overall product improves for the benefit of the users. Also, having full access to the source code allows you to extend and build upon and the code. This of perfectly leads onto my next point – creative freedom.
Creative Freedom
Creative freedom is the term that MODX use as their tag line but what does it actually mean? Well, for me it's perfectly summed up in the following sentence taken from the MODX site.
MODX fits your content. Unlike other CMSs, it doesn’t force you to adopt an engineer’s dogmatic view of how your website should work and be organized.
One of my favourite things about MODX is that its a system that is so incredibly flexible. It doesn't force you to build your site in certain way. Its theming system is logical and simple and you can easily take a existing website and plug it into MODX in a few hours. This freedom means that MODX goes further than just a CMS and actually becomes more of a framework that allows you to build far more complicated applications and sites without having to jump through hoops or work within the frustrating system limitations.
Custom Template Variables
Custom template variables are essentially custom fields that are used to extend default fields of a normal page or post (such as page title, content or description). Template variables can hold any kind of data you like (text, images, phone numbers, tabular data etc ). So why are they useful? Well by splitting a page down into different editable areas it gives the website editor so much more control and confidence over editing their pages. They can just upload an image where an image should go and add content in the specific areas.
Now as I don't know enough about how other CMS's work I don't know how many other systems have this functionality, I do however know Wordpress quite well and I am always frustrated by not having template variables to hand when theming a site. I have seen quite a few solutions where content and been written raw html and shoved into widgets which are edited on a separate page. This is just a messy solution and not a good one for website editors.
Now I know there are a couple of good plugins for Wordpress that give you this functionality (“Advanced custom fields” is a particularly good one in my opinion), but it is not native to Wordpress and so its one of the features that for me, stands out for MODX.
Community
No open source CMS would be half as powerful unless it had a good community supporting it. One thing I love about the MODx community is the level of professional help and advice that is available. Maybe its because Modx isn't as 'plug and play' as Wordpress and therefore attracts more professional developers than enthusiastic 'hobbyists' but the forums are a fantastic source of excellent help and advice that you can trust.
Whenever I have needed a bit of advice on how to build something or fix a bug there has always been someone (quite often a member of the core dev team) that has been able to help. It always amazes me how much time and effort people give for free to help build a community around open source software – and so I take my hat off to the excellent MODX community.
For more information on MODX visit OurMODX development page
