Book Image

MODx Web Development - Second Edition

Book Image

MODx Web Development - Second Edition

Overview of this book

MODx is a content management system and PHP web application framework rolled into one. With the ease of a CMS and the extendibility of a framework, MODx allows you to develop professional-looking, intricate websites with its easy-to-use interface and flexible architecture. MODx provides reusable code fragments called snippets, most of which are so generic that, without any modification, they can serve multiple functionalities. The generic nature of the snippets makes it possible to get the perfect customization that is so hard in other CMS. This book will get web developers up-and-running with MODx. With step-by-step examples and illustrative screenshots, you will be guided through installation, configuration, and customization. By the end of the book, you will have created a powerful, dynamic website by using the individual elements of MODx, without the need for programming know-how. Starting with a walk-through of how to install MODx, you will quickly learn how to develop your site without having to use any programming language. Logical, step-by-step instructions will show you how to create your own unique site by adding and editing documents using the inbuilt TinyMCE editor. You will change the look and feel of your site by creating your own templates using HTML, CSS, and widgets. By following the example of a blog site, you will learn how to extend your templates to allow rich user interactions through comments, posts, and forms. The book teaches a few code snippets such as Ditto and Wayfinder in detail. These powerful and flexible snippets will enable you to add multiple functionalities to your site. The book will also introduce you to many more snippets that will help you build some of the commonly required web functionalities such as forums and image galleries. You will manage your users with authentication and authorization and make your site user-friendly with user groups, forums, and the use of PHx notations to embed logic in templates. Through following this easy-to-use, step-by-step guide you will, by the end of the book, have a fully functional, feature-rich MODx site with professional-looking, dynamic web pages that are totally customizable.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
12
SEO, Deployment, and Security

Rich text editor for the blog content


To provide a rich text editor for the blog content area, all that has to be done is to replace the content area with a template variable that is of the rich text type and uses the rich text widget. This way, MODx provides a rich-text editor automatically when the form is being filled in or edited. This is a three-step process:

  • Creation of the template variable

  • Making the form template chunk use the template variable

  • Letting NewsEditor be aware that the content field has changed to the new template variable

Creating the template variable

  1. 1. Click on the Manage Elements menu item in the Elements menu.

  2. 2. Click on the Template Variables tab, and then click on New Template Variable.

  3. 3. Fill in the fields with the following values:

    Field Name

    Value

    Template Variable Name

    blogRT

    Description

    Template Variable to store rich text for the blogs

    Input Type

    Rich Text

    Widget

    Rich Text

    Widget width

    100%

    Widget height

    300px

    Editor

    TinyMCE

    Template Access

    ...