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MODX Revolution 2.6.2 has been released. This new patch release fixes a number of bugs and offers a few enhancements to the system.
Here's a list of the changes in this release:
<ul>
<li>Display context name and key in Context dropdown</li>
<li>Only save properties modified from the default for an element in Property Sets</li>
<li>Replace usages of each() to avoid deprecated warnings in PHP 7.2</li>
<li>Prevent adding ./ to filepath when in root of a mediasource</li>
<li>Fix error with getonline processor on systems with only_full_group_by sql_mode</li>
<li>Prevent logging errors for comments or empty tags</li>
<li>Fix typo preventing verbose CURL option from being set in modRest</li>
<li>Prevent http headers from being overwritten in modRest</li>
<li>Fix sending messages to wrong recipients in message/create processor</li>
<li>Stop sending too much data on package install request</li>
<li>Add events permission to Administrator policy on new installs</li>
<li>Remove max width from the tree sidebar</li>
<li>And more.</li>
</ul>
For a full list of changes, check out their <a href="https://modx.com/blog/modx-revolution-2.6.2">announcement post.</a>

MODX Revolution 2.6.2 Released

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<a target="_blank" href="http://modx.com/">MODX</a> has pushed out a new update for its in-house hosting service, MODX Cloud.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modx-color.png" /> The cloud hosting service provides MODX users with an environment to build websites using MODX servers across the world, the most recent of which was unveiled in Frankfurt, Germany.This latest update brings about improvements to the backup process. Let's take a closer look.<h2>Backup Retention Schedule Tweaked</h2>MODX has updated the backup retention schedule for each Cloud instance.Users can set them to as low as a single nightly backup, or increase them to up to 30-days of retention on a rolling basis. For safety purposes though, there's no option to disable backups completely, which is nice. To adjust the schedule, users only need to click on the name of the Cloud from the Clouds view, click the Backups tab, and then position the slider.Saving is automatic and the schedule will be adjusted for the next round of backups later that same night. Pretty smooth stuff.MODX itself is built to handle a range of project types, from multi-domain global presences to a mobile API. I'm sure this update will come in handy for all those working with the PHP-based platform, no matter the size of their project.To learn more, check out the <a target="_blank" href="https://modxcloud.com/userguide/using-modx-cloud/backups.html">Backups in MODX Cloud</a> section of the MODX User Guide. To find out more about this update, check out the <a target="_blank" href="http://modx.com/blog/2016/01/07/better-backups-in-modx-cloud/">MODX Cloud blog</a>.

MODX Cloud Gets Improved Backup Process

<a href="http://modx.com/" target="_blank">MODX</a>, the free and open source content management system, is taking steps towards making itself (and in turn, the Internet) more accessible for those who would usually struggle to get the most out of the world wide web.
A range of disabilities can and do impair people from experiencing content management systems as they are intended to be experienced. And that's a problem for everybody in the CMS world.
Thankfully, MODX are taking the initiative, shining a much needed light on the issue.
Here's a video detailing MODX's mission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQlT5isC-2U
<a href="http://modx.com/blog/2015/02/06/help-us-bring-modx-to-everyone/" target="_blank"> </a>
<a href="http://modx.com/blog/2015/02/06/help-us-bring-modx-to-everyone/" target="_blank">In a recent blog post</a>, Ryan Thrash, the Co-Founder of MODX, said this:
<blockquote>“…For people who rely on assistive technologies, building in MODX has been marginal, and not a good user experience.
For example, try surfing the web with your eyes closed while someone reads the page to you, and you try to tab to the right links. What if you misplace your eyeglasses and need to enlarge your fonts 2- to 3-times their normal size? Or, crank down the contrast and brightness on your monitor, and only use your thumb on your non-dominant hand. For many users, there is effectively no alternate way to experience the web.”
Accessibility is for everyone and it’s time to make accessibility a top-priority in MODX.”</blockquote>
<h2>An Improved &amp; More Consistent UX</h2>
<a href="http://a11y.modx.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modx700x0.jpg" alt="MODX " /></a>
It's worth noting that this project will enhance the MODX user experience for everybody, not just those who require assistive technology.
MODX say that their users will soon benefit from an improved and more consistent UX, thanks to a host of benefits including vastly improved keyboard navigation and other enhancements.
<a href="http://www.osu.edu/">The Ohio State University</a> also deserve credit for helping to fund the project.
Ken Petri, The Ohio State University Director of Web Accessibility, made this statement upon the announcement of the MODX initiative:
<blockquote>“MODX has a lot of traction on campus. For site administrators and content creators, the Manager interface is logical, intuitive, and simple to use. But there are a number of staff on campus who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers, or who have other vision impairments or need access by using the keyboard alone because of a motor disability.
To this point, MODX hasn’t been a practical solution for them. But Ohio State and others in the accessibility community are working with the MODX team over the next few months to help guide changes to the Manager interfaces so that they can be used effectively by everyone, including our staff with disabilities.”</blockquote>
I for one, commend MODX and The Ohio State university for this noble move.
In a world where every serial entrepreneur and enterprising organization is trying to reach more people in more ways, MODX are reaching out to those looking to do the simpler things, like build a website of their own.
Making technology more accessible in this sense is exactly the type of innovation needed in the world of CMS. Perhaps every vendor should now ask themselves about how accessible their products really are, especially to those with slightly and significantly different needs.
In my recent <a href="/cms-in-2015-what-we-want-to-see/" target="_blank">article about the future of CMS in 2015</a>, I mentioned the need to make products more accessible, and although I may not have originally meant accessibility in this particular sense, MODX are definitely showing us all the way forward when it comes to innovation in accessibility.
Check out the <a href="http://modx.com/blog/2015/02/06/help-us-bring-modx-to-everyone/" target="_blank">MODX blog</a> for more information on this project, and if you can, do your best to help <a href="http://a11y.modx.com/" target="_blank">by donating towards their $50,000 goal</a>.
Also, you can find out more about <a href="/products/modx/" target="_blank">MODX through out CMS Directory</a>.

MODX Makes Noble Move Towards True Accessibility

<a href="http://modx.com/" target="_blank">MODX</a> have unveiled a new series of updates for their cloud platform, <a href="https://modxcloud.com" target="_blank">MODX Cloud</a>.
MODX Cloud is the hosted version of MODX, which allows users to build MODX websites using MODX's servers, optimized infrastructure, automatic backup management, and so forth.
This update, coming a few weeks after the arrival of <a href="http://modx.com/blog/2014/07/22/revolution-2.3.1/" target="_blank">MODX Revolution 2.3.1</a>. Unsurprisingly, this update now brings 2.3.1 functionality to MODX Cloud.
The MODX team have said that this update will enable users to save more time and benefit from improved security.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modx-color.png" /> 
Here's a breakdown of what's new with MODX Cloud:
<ul>
<li>MODX Revolution version 2.3.1 available</li>
<li>PHP updated to latest stable release version 5.4.31</li>
<li>phpMyAdmin updated to latest stable 4.2.7 release</li>
<li>Improvements to PHP-FPM reload times</li>
<li>Updated and expanded User Guide</li>
<li>Streamlined trial signup flow and plans</li>
<li>Updated UI around MODX Revolution version upgrades</li>
</ul>
For more information, check out the <a href="http://modx.com/blog/2014/08/14/modx-cloud-updates-aug-14/" target="_blank">blog announcement</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/modx/" target="_blank">MODX via our CMS Directory</a>.

MODX Cloud Updated

<a href="http://modx.com/" target="_blank"> MODX </a>  have announced the release of <a href="http://modx.com/blog/2014/07/15/revolution-2.3-brings-a-revamped-manager-user-experience-and-much-more/" target="_blank"> MODX Revolution 2.3 </a> . This long-awaited and “huge” release incorporates over a thousand commits by dozens of code contributors, translators, and bug reporters.
MODX offers customizable core to fit almost any project requirement or scale. It aims to be the go-to product for projects involving a multi-domain global presence, a mobile API, or anything in between.
Revolution 2.3 features a refined and updated MODX Manager, boasting a new and improved theme. In 2.3, the user friendly and less intimidating workspace enables you to build and manage your sites faster and easier.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modx-2_3_1-manager-ui-search-2.png" alt="MODX Revolution 2.3" />
<h2>Faster, Sleeker, More Accessible &amp; More Secure</h2>
Here's what users can expect from MODX Revolution 2.3 in terms of the newly improved MODX Manager User Experience:
<ul>
<li>Noticeably faster page and screen loading / more performant ExtJS DOM</li>
<li>New überbar to find any Resource, Element or User by a variety of criteria</li>
<li>All new default Manager theme with Gravatar support</li>
<li>New Manager theme customization workflow using Sass</li>
<li>Open Manager Views in Tabs or New Windows</li>
</ul>
On top of these interface and usability enhancements, MODX Revolution 2.3 also brings about the following new features:
<ul>
<li>Custom Headers for Content Types</li>
<li>FontAwesome icons replace PNGs in the Manager UI</li>
<li>Open objects like Resources or Elements in new Tabs or Windows for a multi-tabbed workspace</li>
<li>Updated languages from our many translators and proofreaders thanks to moving to Crowdin for group translations</li>
<li>Five new manager translations added: Chinese, Finnish, Indonesian, Romanian, Danish and Belarusian</li>
<li>Full-screen Media Browser</li>
<li>Security patches from all 2.2.x releases</li>
<li>Hundreds of bugfixes, enhancements and more</li>
</ul>
The full list of improvements can be found via the <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/modxcms/revolution/v2.3.0-pl/core/docs/changelog.txt" target="_blank"> changelog </a> .
Here's the <a href="http://modx.com/blog/2014/07/15/revolution-2.3-brings-a-revamped-manager-user-experience-and-much-more/" target="_blank"> official blog announcement of MODX Revoluton 2.3 </a> , with further details.
<h2>MODX Cloud Updates</h2>
On top of the new MODX Revolution 2.3 release, updates have also been made to the MODX Cloud stack.
In addition to numerous behind the scenes improvements, here's an overview of what's new:
<ul>
<li>PHP updated to latest stable release version 5.4.30</li>
<li>Added the Libevent extension to PHP</li>
<li>Browser-based file upload limits increased from 8MB to 25MB</li>
<li>Updates to ensure Composer works from the command line</li>
<li>Convert database connections from Unix to TCP sockets to improve command line functionality with MySQL and MODX</li>
<li>Updated Sass and Compass to work for MODX Manager theme development</li>
</ul>
Here's the <a href="http://modx.com/blog/2014/07/15/modx-cloud-updates-jul-15/" target="_blank">official blog announcement</a>.
For more information on MODX, check out <a href="http://modx.com" target="_blank">their website</a>.
To see an introductory video and an overview of features, visit <a href="/products/modx/" target="_blank">MODX via our CMS Directory</a>.

MODX Revolution 2.3 Released With Enhanced Manager User Experience

A new version of MODX Evolution has been released. Version 1.0.13 brings with it over 100 fixes and improvements to the popular open source CMS.
For those running older versions, it's highly recommended that you update as soon as possible to take advantage of the many improvements and fixes available in this release.
Here are the highlights of the 1.0.13 release:
<ul>
<li>KCFinder – change uploaded image/file names with TransAlias</li>
<li>ManagerManager updated up to 0.6.1</li>
<li>Updated API functions: clearCache, now you can call it with parameter full ($modx-&gt;clearCache(‘full');)</li>
<li>Updated API functions: getDocuments, getTemplateVars, getTemplateVarOutput, getDocumentChildren, getDocumentChildrenTVarOutput, you can call getDocumentChildren with parameter all for view all documents (not only published or unpublished, and the same with deleted)</li>
<li>Updated Wayfinder to 2.0.2 (available document specific placeholders [+pagetitle+], [+longtitle+] etc.; fixed work of @INHERIT for custom TVs)</li>
<li>Managers with role = 1 can see all documents in manager panel and in front-end (in earlier versions documents with restrictions to special groups could not be seen by those manager users)</li>
<li>Added API function: $modx-&gt;parseText()</li>
<li>Added document ID to title during editing document, also added to QM+</li>
<li>Breadcrumbs 1.0.4 (you can exclude documents with the specified templates)</li>
<li>phpthumb 1.2 (if images on page processed already, phpthumb class will not included)</li>
<li>eForm 1.4.5 (added parameters: &amp;attachmentFields/&amp;attachmentPath)</li>
<li>FirstChildRedirect 2.0 (added parameters: &amp;default, &amp;sortBy, &amp;sortDir, &amp;responseCode)</li>
</ul>
For more information, check out the <a href="https://raw.github.com/modxcms/evolution/v1.0.13/install/changelog.txt">complete list of changes in the changelog.txt</a>
To learn more about MODX, visit <a href="/products/modx/">their listing</a> in our <a href="/products/">CMS Products</a> directory

MODX Evolution 1.0.13 Brings Over 100 Fixes and Improvements

The latest version of MODX Revolution has been released today, containing a couple of bug fixes for the popular open-source CMS.  For those running MODX (and those looking to do so) it is highly recommended you update your system as soon as possible to ensure full stability of the platform.
From the release announcement:
<blockquote>Revolution 2.2.12 was released today. It includes two bug fixes including one affecting the phpThumb library that ships with Revo. In addition, it eliminates the bug with the alert notifying users to confirm navigation to prevent losing unsaved changes. 2.2.12 also includes update language files and copyright updates to 2014.
As this release contains fixes that improve stability and the Manager UX, we recommend upgrading all your sites. If you're using MODX Cloud, this just takes a couple clicks.</blockquote>
A full changlog of the fixes within this release is available here: <a href="https://raw.github.com/modxcms/revolution/v2.2.12-pl/core/docs/changelog.txt">MODX Changelog</a>
If you are not familiar with MODX, the are the winners of our People's Choice Awards for Best Open Source CMS for the 2013 Critics' Choice CMS Awards (see <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/">https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/</a>)

MODX Revolution 2.2.12 Released

CMS Summit 25

Find out at CMS Summit 25, May 13 - 14 in Frankfurt, Germany. Seats are limited.

CMS. Content. AI. Where is it all headed?

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If you've been waiting to cast your vote for your favorites in the People's Choice Awards, now is the time to do so.Voting has officially opened and you may now <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">cast your vote</a>! So head on over to our <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">awards page</a> and submit your favorites.If you are in the running, we have created a handy badge you can use to spur interest...Simply download the graphic (shown below) and link it to <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">https://www.cmscritic.com/critics-choice-cms-awards/</a>.For those who missed it, here are the nominees in each category:<h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best Open Source CMS</a></h3>2013 Nominees ( <a href="/announcing-the-peoples-choice-for-best-open-source-cms-nominees">read the announcement </a>):<ol><li><a target="_blank" href="https://modx.com/">MODx</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.dnnsoftware.com/">DNN Platform</a></li><li><a href="/products/liferay">Liferay</a></li><li><a href="/products/processwire/">Processwire</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://e107.org/">e107</a></li></ol><h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best Free CMS</a></h3>2013 Nominees ( <a href="/announcing-the-peoples-choice-for-best-free-cms-nominees/">read the announcement </a>):<ol><li><a target="_blank" href="https://processwire.com/">Processwire</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://tiki.org/HomePage">Tiki</a></li><li><a href="/products/concrete-cms">Concrete5</a></li><li><a href="/products/wordpress/">WordPress</a></li><li><a href="/products/umbraco/">Umbraco</a></li></ol><h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best Small to Midsize Business CMS</a></h3>2013 Nominees ( <a href="/announcing-the-people-s-choice-for-best-small-to-midsize-business-cms-nominees/">read the announcement </a>):<ol><li>Adobe Business Catalyst</li><li><a href="/products/ingeniux/">Ingeniux</a></li><li><a href="/products/kentico/">Kentico</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.percussion.com/">Percussion</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.progress.com/sitefinity-cms">Sitefinity</a></li></ol><h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best Enterprise CMS</a></h3>2013 Nominees ( <a href="/announcing-the-peoples-choice-for-best-enterprise-cms-nominees/">read the announcement </a>):<ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.adobe.com/solutions/web-experience-management.html">Adobe Experience Manager</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.hannonhill.com/products/cascade-cms/index.html">Cascade Server</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.optimizely.com/">EpiServer</a></li><li><a href="/products/liferay/">Liferay</a></li><li><a href="/products/sitecore/">Sitecore</a></li></ol><h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best eCommerce Solution </a> (New for 2013!)</h3>2013 Nominees ( <a href="/announcing-the-people-s-choice-for-best-ecommerce-solution-nominees/">read the announcement </a>):<ol><li>3dcart</li><li>Aspxcommerce</li><li><a href="/products/bigcommerce/">BigCommerce</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://business.adobe.com/products/magento/magento-commerce.html">Magento</a></li><li><a href="/products/shopify/">Shopify</a></li></ol><h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best Website Builder</a></h3>2013 Nominees ( <a href="/announcing-the-people-s-choice-for-best-website-builder-nominees/">read the announcement </a>):<ol><li>Adobe Business Catalyst</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.jimdo.com/">Jimdo</a></li><li><a href="/products/squarespace/">Squarespace</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ucoz.com/">UCoz</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.webydo.com/">Webydo</a></li></ol><h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best Forum Solution </a> (New for 2013!)</h3>2013 Nominees ( <a href="/announcing-the-peoples-choice-for-best-forum-solution-nominees">read the announcement </a>):<ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://vanillaforums.org/">Vanilla Forums</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://nodebb.org/">NodeBB</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.simplemachines.org/">Simple Machines Forum</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.vbulletin.com/">VBulletin</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.invisionpower.com/">Invision Power Board (IPBoard)</a></li></ol><h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best Social Networking Solution</a></h3>2013 Nominees ( <a href="/announcing-the-people-s-choice-for-best-social-networking-solution-nominees/">read the announcement </a>):<ol><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-engage">Evoq Social</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.phpfox.com/">PHPFox</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.oxwall.com/">Oxwall</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.socialcore.com">SocialCore</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://socialengine.com/">Social Engine</a></li></ol><h3><a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Best Hosted/Cloud CMS </a> (New for 2013!)</h3><ol><li><a target="_blank" href="http://acquia.com/products-services/acquia-cloud">Acquia Cloud</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://agilitycms.com/">Agility CMS</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.paperthin.com/products/commonspot-cms.cfm">CommonSpot</a></li><li>Gutensite</li></ol>Best of luck to all who are in the running!

It's Official! Voting is Now Open for the People's Choice Awards!

We had a huge number of participants and tons of vendors nominated in the Best Open Source CMS category (in fact, it's the most popular category in the entire <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">awards </a> ) and we're pleased to be able to announce this year's nominees for the People's Choice Award.
Keeping in mind that the voting stage begins on September 1, 2013..
Here are the People's Choice nominees for Best Open Source CMS for 2013:
<h3>MODX</h3>
MODX is a free, open-source content management system and web application framework for publishing content on the world wide web and intranets. MODX allows for full segregation of content (plain HTML), appearance and behavior (standards compliant CSS and JavaScript), and logic (PHP snippets).
<a href="/products/modx/"> Visit their profile. </a>
<h3>DNN Platform</h3>
DNN Platform, formerly known as DotNetNuke Community Edition, is a business solution that helps bring your website to life with captivating content and engaging interactions. Users can add and edit content through a standard browser with no IT support.
<a href="/products/dnn-platform/"> Visit their profile. </a>
<h3>Liferay</h3>
Liferay Portal is an open-source enterprise portal written in Java and distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License and proprietary licenses. It is primarily used to power corporate intranets and extranets.
<a href="/products/liferay/"> Visit their profile. </a>
<h3>Processwire</h3>
Build bigger, faster, stronger, easier. ProcessWire is a free PHP5 open source CMS built to save you time and make development fun at any scale. It works the way you do.
<a href="/products/processwire/"> Visit their profile. </a>
<h3>E107</h3>
e107 is a Content Publishing Solution for Website Pages, Documents, Menus, and Links powered by PHP and MySQL which gives you a totally dynamic and professional website “out of the box”.
<a href="/products/e107/">Visit their profile. </a>
Good luck to all who are nominated and be sure to check back on the 1st of September to begin voting for your favourites!

Announcing the People's Choice for Best Open Source CMS Nominees!

My choice for Best Open Source CMS for this year (and the one that will be my #1 recommendation in this category until next years awards) is the one and only, <a href="http://modx.com/">MODX CMS</a>!
<img style="max-width:285px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modx-logo-color1.png" />
MODX is an incredible CMS that offers an abundance of features for those looking for quality software for free. MODX Revolution starts as a completely blank slate. Start from scratch, or use the Package Manager to download and install Add-ons, Core Extensions, Templates or even Content Pack Distributions.
As my choice for this year, when asked to offer suggestions for the best open source CMS, I will point to MODX. They will receive my recommendation from now until next year’s winner is announced.

Critic's Choice for Best Open Source CMS goes to...

<a href="http://modxcms.com">MODx CMS</a> has continually been gaining in popularity over the years and we thought it would be interesting to touch base with the founder of this great CMS and get his thoughts on the project, how it started and where it's going. Read on!
Please tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/ryan_400x400.jpg" alt="Ryan Thrash" />
I grew up in Tyler, a small East Texas town with my parents and younger brother. In 1994 I moved to Dallas, TX, where I went to college to get a business degree at SMU. Years after graduating I was set up on a blind date with the gorgeous woman that I managed to convince to marry me, now happily so for 11 years. I am fortunate to have an incredibly supportive partner that keeps a crazy entrepreneur of 20+ years in line when needed. We have a daughter (4), a son (8) and our new puppy that arrived this Christmas.
Professionally, I come from the print world having started a pre-press and ad production shop which I owned for roughly a dozen years. While I love amazing typography, white space and beautiful proportions, I definitely don’t miss the CMYK world.
People often ask how the print-world translated into the CMS software business. My first introduction to programming was when I began hacking on mainframes in the in 4th grade at a summer class for kids at a nearby community college. While I am certainly not a developer in the true sense of the word—especially since CSS actually makes sense to me—I do know what can be accomplished. I’ve always been the lead tech at my business and, starting in the mid-90s, I started poking around with what was then PHP-FI at my pre-press shop.
My first taste of open source was osCommerce, where I was involved in that community for a while. I followed that by being part of the original 10 or so early people with ZenCart, dabbled with Mambo and Etomite, and finally started what turned out to be MODX. It was certainly not a plan, but it’s been my career for the last 7+ years.
How did MODX come to be?
In 2004 I was looking for a CMS that would let me escape the then prevalent table-based layouts and style sites with lean markup and CSS. Back then bandwidth mattered and I had ported osCommerce to output semantic markup and saw huge reductions in rendering times; from then on I was sold.
I also wanted a platform that made creating login-protected content straightforward, that my clients could pick up and use to manage their sites without breaking things and that they could learn within an hour. Needless to say, it didn’t exist. As such, I teamed up with a small group of people including Raymond Irving and Jason Coward who had similar goals and we started our journey to achieve some very specific goals:
<ul>
<li>Provide a simple template system that used standards-based (X)HTML/CSS and that didn’t inhibit design or site structures in any way.</li>
<li>Let users quickly build login-protected site content.</li>
<li>Create a sensible, robust and extensible API that developers could use to extend or override the platform without having to hack the core.</li>
<li>Allow people to organize content in a logical and understandable manner.</li>
<li>Avoid the tortuous or extended learning curves found in many other CMSes.</li>
<li>Work equally as well for basic marketing websites as it would for more complex applications.</li>
</ul>
We first released MODX in the wild in 2005, and it was exhilarating to watch people resonate with our work. Our first Packt Award for Most Promising Open Source CMS came in 2007, a big encouragement for turning a passion into a profession.
In 2010 we formed a company around MODX to give it our full-time attention. This past year I hired our CEO to focus on strategic business issues, freeing the rest of the team to focus on three key areas: Community, MODX Complete (support &amp; maintenance for businesses) and MODX Cloud, which is simply going to be an incredible platform—and which I’d love to talk about with you more at a later date.
We’re looking forward to meeting lots of people at CMS Expo this year, which we consider our first big launch. It’s kind of funny given that we already have hundreds of thousands of sites powered by MODX, amazing partners and some great traction.
Why the name MODX?
MODular and eXtendable. Or something like that … really it was a working name that originally was going to be Tattoo CMS with the tagline of “Make Your Mark” and a hand print logo, but that got shelved and the MODX moniker stuck. We love it now.
What are the distinct differentiators between Evolution and Revolution for those unaware?
MODX Revolution, “Revo” for short, is the newer, completely rewritten version of our classic code base. Revo kept the same paradigms from MODX Evolution, but executed in Object Oriented PHP using a database layer that enables MODX to also run on Microsoft SQL Server. It gives developers the ability to override and extend Revo to achieve the exact functionality any project requires, without requiring upgrade-blocking “hacks” to the core.
Not only do you get both custom functionality and an upgrade path to the next version, but this new version also offers more control, the ability to create complex applications and integrations that would have been impossible with Evo. Scaling to hundreds of millions of page views is entirely possible with Revo, for instance. You can extend the caching layer to use Memcache or Membase, sessions to use Redis or some other highly-perfomant flavor du jour of the latest technology hotness.
MODX Evolution is perfect for small marketing-dominated websites or on an inexpensive, resource-constrained shared server without too many pages. Revolution can still be used for smaller sites but allows significantly more complex development, integrations and virtually unlimited content. MODX Revolution is where the focus of development activity is for us, however, we will continue to provide guidance, patches and releases for Evolution as needed.
What makes MODX unique?
MODX makes it incredibly easy to use any design one can dream up for their website and do so without having to code—in fact we can confidently claim MODX support HTML7 and CSS5 already today. It does so while separating how a site looks from how it functions. Users of all backgrounds find MODX easy to publish their content with confidence. What further sets it apart is that the MODX management interface can be completely customized for the users and tailored to the content. This ensures that people who use MODX daily to manage a site can easily use the tool and train others quickly as needed.
What do you feel is the main reason people use it as their CMS?
MODX truly empowers creative people to have 100%, pixel-perfect control of how sites look without ever having to write a single line of PHP. You can use any flavor of HTML/CSS/JS you want and you don’t have to worry about diving into a theming system, mixed templates/code or coming to grips with taxonomies or limited categories. We also have a great track record for security, with very few critical issues surfacing since inception.
Can you direct to any significant sized implementations that you are aware of?
Complex.com currently serves about 100-million page views a month and is tracking towards 150-million by December 2012. MODX.com also serves quite a bit of traffic with a ton of complex back end infrastructure supporting all our sites. We are firm believers that our main marketing site should run on our software, constantly pushing to make it a better solution.
Which site do you feel makes the best use of MODX’s features?
MODX.com itself has many custom integrations and components. Our custom single sign on application is tied to a Mongo DB store. Our forums are built using the MODX API and handle tens of thousands of users with about half a million posts. We use our native blogging Extra called “Articles” for our news, announcements and blogging, and we have eCommerce transactions tied to FoxyCart and to Recurly.
We also have the back-end infrastructure in place for a MODX leaderboards platform that we’ve been testing for months, an internal dashboard, a live map showing when users download something or post in the forums (or anything else that will move them up the leaderboard), integration with Redmine for product management, and a lot more. We’re also working on a Certified MODX Professional program which will use another MODX Extra to handle exams and dynamically generating completion certificates PDF.
Is there a commercial offering of the CMS? How does the organization bring in funding?
MODX software is open source and will always remain free for anyone to download and to use—we’re 100% committed to open source. MODX the company offers turn key post-launch support and maintenance as well professional services working collaboratively with MODX Partners and large organizations to complete any phase of a MODX based project.
Later this year we will launch a new platform for web developers—anchored by MODX Revolution—called “MODX Cloud”. It’s a major game changer for people that build or manage websites, especially for creative or marketing organizations.
Who are the key contributors to the project? Can you tell us a bit about them?
Jason Coward and Shaun McCormick have done the majority of the development on MODX Revolution, and they both work for MODX. In the community there are hundreds of contributors who report bugs and submit pull requests to our GitHub repository. Highlights that immediately come to mind include Bob Ray, author of MODX: The Official Guide, Susan Otwell in Israel, and Stephane Boulard in France who improved the back-end Manager UI tremendously.
For MODX Evolution, the Russian and Japanese communities do a tremendous job of maintaining the software. Mike Schell, another one of our Senior Developers at MODX, vets the contributions and handles the releases.
If people want to get involved in the project, how can they do so?
There are many ways to get involved with MODX for people of all skill levels and from any location. The most basic thing people can do to contribute to MODX is let us know when something needs to be fixed or improved upon, or by requesting new features in our project tracker. This isn’t limited to just our software, if people find issues on our forums, in the documentation or anywhere on modx.com we love to hear about it so we can make it better. On that note, we can always use help improving our documentation. Developers and designers can contribute code through GitHub. To get involved contributing code don’t forget to sign a Contributor License Agreement first.
The MODX community forums of over 38,000 users is a welcoming, positive and supportive place to dig into MODX. Answering even the simplest of questions is an incredible way to master MODX, make friends and find collaborators. Most of the team at MODX came to our attention from the forums.
Finally, this past year there have been over a dozen meet-ups all over the world. We are committed to seeing our International interaction grow exponentially this year and we’re going to dedicate time and money to this. It’s a great way for MODXers to share experiences and find collaborators.
Final thoughts you may have or parting comments.
Thanks for giving us a chance to talk about MODX. We’ve been hiding in plain sight for a few years now and it’s time to change that!
I think what is truly special about MODX compared to most open source projects is that we are very friendly to commercial interests. In other words, while we are ardent proponents of open source, we are certainly not zealots. In fact I wrote a blog post on this a while ago. We certainly encourage people to license their work under an OS licence at MODX, but we also don’t hold it against them if they chose to do otherwise.
In other words, we don’t view open source as an all-or-nothing proposition. If you don’t modify the core application or use the public APIs to create something cool on top of MODX—like an amazing template or an Extra that enhances how MODX works—we think you should be able to license that however you wish. We don’t think MODX’s GPL license should “virally infect” everything that touches it and in turn dictate the license under which you release your IP. As such we’re in a great position to build an incredible commercial ecosystem around MODX Extras and Themes that is incredibly developer/designer-friendly. More on that in late 2012!

Interview with Ryan Thrash of MODx CMS

This month's edition of CMS Critic recommends… brings you our suggestions for the most versatile content management systems. This can mean a lot of things so let's first clarify how we have made our selections.
First, the CMS must be able to be expanded upon, must be flexible, and be used for multiple purposes.
Without further adieu, here are our recommendations for the most versatile CMS (to date):
<ol>
<li>Drupal 
It's not possible to speak about versatility and expandability and not include Drupal. Drupal is perhaps one of the most flexible platforms available, both in the commercial and free marketplaces. A large part of this is due to the fact that it really is a content management framework from the get-go and can function in a myriad of manners. Some common uses of Drupal include Intranets, Project Management Platform, Publishing Platform, External facing Website management, and Social networking platform to name a few. Learn more: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/?s=drupal+6">Drupal Review</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/drupal-founder-dries-buytaert-interview/">Drupal Founder Interview</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tag/drupal/">Drupal News</a> 
Website: <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">http://www.drupal.org/</a></li>
<li>MODx 
MODx is incredibly flexible. This is especially so with their latest release, MODx Revolution, which can be used for pretty much anything and has a number of ways with which it can be expanded.MODx is effectively an application framework with a CMS built on top of it. While Drupal is also known as a framework, MODx does not have as steep a learning curve (in our opinion). Learn more: <a href="/modx-review/">MODx Review</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tag/modx/">MODx News</a> 
Website: <a href="http://www.modxcms.com/">http://www.modxcms.com/</a></li>
<li>Plone 
Plone is based on Python and Zope and is another open-source CMS that offers multiple uses. Plone offers exceptional security (and a fair learning curve if you are not familiar with the Zope management interface). Learn more: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tag/plone/">Plone News</a> 
Website: <a href="http://www.plone.org">http://www.plone.org</a></li>
<li>Concrete5 
Concrete5 has been widely adopted by a number of web development firms due to its flexibility and ease of use. Amongst the competition, Concrete5 is perhaps the most user-friendly with inline editing, plenty of plugins to extend its functionality, and very good support. Learn more: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/concrete5-review/">Concrete5 Review</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/concrete5-founder-franz-maruna-interview/">Concrete5 Founder Interview</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tag/concrete5">Concrete5 News</a> 
Website: <a href="http://www.concrete5.org/">http://www.concrete5.org/</a></li>
</ol>
Obviously, everyone has their own preferences but these are our personal favorites.
Do you have a favorites that you feel we missed? Add your comments below, we'd love to hear them.
Read previous editions of CMS Critic Recommends…

CMS Critic Recommends... August Edition

On July 21, the long awaited release of MODx Revolution was let loose on the public. For those who are unaware, Revolution is a ground up rebuild of the CMS based on the paradigms and principles of MODx but eliminating most of Evolution's limitations. Here is our MODx Review.
We were eager to test out this new system so we grabbed a copy and began the installation:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen1-580x345_wptvki.png" alt="MODx Review" />
The process of installing MODx is quite quick and easy, with most of the work performed by the system and minimal interaction required by the user.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen2-580x514_hbg06o.png" alt="MODx Review" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen3-580x491_jzegxk.png" alt="MODx Review" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen4-580x597_kebrpu.png" alt="MODx Review" />
Once installation has been completed, you get to log in to the manager (the back-end of the CMS):
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen5_chkapq.png" alt="MODx Review" />
After logging in, you'll be greeted with a slick welcome screen that provides you with some suggestions on next steps to take.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen6-580x349_tsc25t.png" alt="MODx Review" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen-7-580x503_mfqs0g.png" alt="MODx Review" />
As you can see from the above screenshot, the manager now sports a slick and responsive new GUI with nice descriptive drop down menus and and excellent use of screen real estate. Just from our first few times messing around with the system and exploring, we found it to be extremely responsive and snappy. We have been told that there may be issues with Firebug and Firefox causing the manager back end to slow down but from our tests, we didn't experience any of these issues.
Right click menus are abound in this release and can be used almost everywhere within the manager back end:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen11_oed2mf-1.png" alt="MODx Review" />
Before we start exploring some of the new features of the system, here's a quick breakdown of the key ones (pulled from the MODx release announcement):
<ul>
<li>MODx Revolution 2.0 can be used on much larger and expansive sites as it boasts  better site performance from an all new caching system with fine grained options to cache any Element (or not if you need it that way). In addition you can override the default caching and use large-scale caching methods like Memcached.</li>
<li>Extend or override any part of the MODx core including System Settings, Users, Language, Sessions and much more. This enables you to safely extend core features and integrate with other applications and maintain a clean upgrade path.</li>
<li>Developers can create redistributable add-ons, or an entire MODx Distributions using Transport Packages.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Assign different views of your site based on almost any criteria using Contexts.  Contexts provides a simple way to have native multi-sites, subdomains or even securely running the MODx core outside of webroot.</li>
<li>Developers now have access to better error tracking and debugging capabilities through Core Logging. It provides various error levels and output targets including ECHO, HTML, and FILE. You can also use it in add-ons for audit logs, error logs, debugging, or other logging needs.</li>
<li>Unified, simpler MODx Tags now support multi-line tag calls for better readability in development, calling of cached tags within other cached tags, and allows native and custom modifiers to be attached to any Element (Snippet, Chunk, TV, Etc.) similar to PHx did in Evolution but far more efficiently.</li>
<li>The Manager is MODx. The new Manager for MODx is built using the MODx API, ExtJS from Sencha, and Smarty templates, as a demonstration of the new core and API.</li>
<li>Web users and Manager users are now Users that can be grouped and assigned fine grained access and permissions. The User system can be extended to provide external authentication and handle additional user record information via the API. Completely new user system – all permissions are now handled via a robust, Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) security model.</li>
<li>Property Sets allow you to change all your the properties for Snippet calls in various locations across your entire site from a single location in the manager. Create a Property Set, assign it, and then manage all the calls in one  location.</li>
<li>Properties are available to all Element types including Chunks, TVs, Templates and Plugins.</li>
<li>Manage and customize your MODx Lexicons — the language records for things like labels, event notices and more for local, industrial or regional terminology, all from within the Lexicon Manager.</li>
<li>Install Add-ons and custom Transport Packages from MODx using the Package Manager. Open the Package Manager and search for available addons or your own private addon repository.</li>
<li>Manage files on the filesystem (even outside of webroot) within the Manager using Static Resources.</li>
<li>Create exact clones of other resources in your site tree in as many places as you'd like with Symlink Resources.</li>
</ul>
Pretty expansive list isn't it?  Let's take a look through the system at some of these new features.. starting with the caching system. Caching capabilities are controlled by a number of settings found under System -&gt; System Settings in the manager.
The Area: Caching settings can be found on the first page near the bottom and look like this:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-caching-1-580x457_t5qmw2.png" alt="MODx Review" />
Clicking on the plus signs beside any of the settings will present a description of that settings functionality. As you can see, there are plenty of options that you can play with to improve performance of your CMS.
Clearing the cache is as simple as selecting Site-&gt; Clear Cache from the manager menu.
The next area we're going to show you is the Contexts. Contexts allow MODx configuration settings to be overridden, extended, isolated, or shared across domains, sub-domains, sub-sites, multi-sites, cultural-specific sections, specific web applications, etc.
To access the contexts, navigate to System-&gt; Contexts in the manager.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-contexts-1-580x200_jtbigh.png" alt="MODx Review" />
To modify a context, simply right-click on the one you wish to modify and select Update Context.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-contexts-2-580x194_wefd70.png" alt="MODx Review" />
This will present you with the context editing screen where you can modify the settings:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-contexts-3-580x289_b3iwfs.png" alt="MODx Review" />
What I particularly found handy was the Help button in the top right that provides information and assistance for the various areas should you need it:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-contexts-4-580x338_lcdxjc.png" alt="MODx Review" />
For a system with such power and expandability, it's good to see the developers didn't lose sight of the help functions and provides some great built in assistance. This is a great addition.
The last addition we are going to show you is the new package management that was built into the CMS.
You can access the package management component from the System-&gt;Package Management dropdown:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen8-580x277_fbi7py.png" alt="MODx Review" />
Navigating the package browser is very easy and consists of simple dropdowns. Say for instance you wish to install a sample site, you can do so with a couple of clicks and be ready to go. Simply use the dropdowns to find the appropriate package, click the Details button for more info and click Download to add the package to your installation:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen9-580x326_t3pcfp-1.png" alt="MODx Review" />
Once the package is downloaded, you are given the option to install.. which is as simple as clicking the button:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/modx-screen10-580x231_nrxlyn-1.png" alt="MODx Review" />
And that's all there is to it.
There are obviously many more additions we can fit into this review as this new release comes chock full of goodies as you can see from the bullet list above.. but from what we've managed to ascertain so far, this is one incredible release.
The MODx team should pat themselves on the back for creating what we think is one of the most functional and slick looking content management systems on the market today.
From their responsive back end to the myriad of right click context menus and help functions, they've outdone themselves with this release.
Everything feels fast, fun to use and powerful as you navigate through the system. It really is astonishing that a product of this caliber is free and for that, we have to say a big thanks to the MODx team for bolstering the open source community with yet another quality product. Great work guys!
We know we are just touching the brink of what comes with this new release, what are your most/least favorite new features and additions? Join in the discussion in our comments below!
Interested in getting your hands on this excellent release? You can do so at <a href="http://modxcms.com" target="_blank">http://modxcms.com</a>

MODx Review: Revolution 2.0

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