Following the full public release of MODx Revolution I decided it was time to jump in and begin learning this new system. I can honestly say that I approached this challenge with hesitancy. I have spent the last couple of years learning, developing in and blogging about MODx Evolution and have never had any real complaints. But, I understand that all things related to the internet must move forward and I have committed myself to developing all my new projects in Revolution.
New Revo Sites
So far I have converted an existing site and built a brand new site in Revolution. Each is a relatively small site with light traffic. The observations in this post are derived from my experiences with only these two sites.
Once I got over the initial snarl I had on my face I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new MODx interface is faster to develop in than it was in Evolution. Installing snippets through the new Package Management system is pretty painless and is much faster than the old manual process. I have found it helpful to leave a couple of tabs open to the Add-Ons documentation and the Tag Syntax documentation pages.
One of the changes to watch out for is the If Snippet. If I understand correctly this is essentially the replacement for PHx in Revo. Structuring the statements is different than it was with PHx and it took me a little time to feel comfortable with it. I do believe that given a few more Revo projects I will be as proficient with this tool as I am with PHx.
Room for Improvement
There are a couple of points that I feel do have room for improvement. The first is that I kept having to open navigation containers, snippets, chunks, etc… Over and over again. Once I realized I could select the Expand Tree button I thought my issue was solved, but Revo tends to frequently refresh the interface when certain components are saved and the expanded tree view does not persist through these refreshes. So, I was now continually hitting the Expand Tree button. Yes, this one goes right to the top of my “irritants” list.
As I stated above, I think the Package Management area is a great improvement, but one of my critiques stems from the Updates Available function. I noticed that when an update for a package is available the system displays a red “Yes”. Great! Now, how do I update my package? I realize I could probably go and re-download the new Package version, but honestly I am looking to update from this location. I think most users will too. Once a site is built I don’t believe that the Package Management area will be frequently visited either. It would be helpful if these Update Available notifications were displayed on the Home page, along with the ability to initiate updates from that location.
Moving Forward
The amount of work it has taken to get MODx Revolution to it’s full public release is impressive. As I mentioned previously I am planning on all future projects to be done in Revolution. Despite my criticisms my overall impression of Revo has been a positive one.
So, to answer @JayGilmore‘s question: what do we need to do with/for @gregorysmart to make him want to hug it[Revo]? Just give me time…
