MODx
- Website: http://www.modxcms.com
- License: GPL
MODx (pronounced /ˌmɒdˈɛks/) is a free, open source content management system and web application framework for publishing content on the world wide web and intranets. MODx is licensed under the GPL. MODx is written in the PHP programming language and uses the MySQL database.
History
Raymond Irving and Ryan Thrash began the MODx CMS project in 2004 as a mashup of DocVars for Etomite and Raymond’s web user add-on. Over the weekend of March 19, 2005, all references to “MODx” were removed from the Etomite forums, coupled with a request from its founder to cease MODx support activities there. At this point, MODx became a fork of Etomite.
By May 2005, the MODx forums were online and Jason Coward joined the project leadership team. In 2007, Raymond left the project on amicable terms. The following year, Shaun McCormick joined the project leadership team.
In 2008 MODx users created a new logo and branding for the project.
Features
MODx allows for full segregation of content (plain HTML), appearance and behavior (standards compliant CSS and Javascript) and logic (PHP, snippets). Additional MODx features include:
* Graphical web-based installer
* Supports PHP 4.3.11 and above
* Supports WYSIWYG rich text editors
* Its Manager application works cross-browser and cross-platform including Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer on Windows, Firefox and Safari in Mac OS X, and Firefox in Linux
* Can be installed under IIS, Apache, Lighttpd and Zeus web servers
* Can be deployed “to the cloud” via Amazon EC2
* Works well even on modest shared servers
* Supports any Ajax library including jQuery, MooTools, ExtJS and Prototype
* Recursive parser for nested functionality
* Complete control of all metadata and URL structure for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes
* Object-oriented core code
* Model-view-controller compliant
* Role-based permissions for the Manager
* Ability to customize the Manager on a per-deployment basis
Translations & Community
MODx has active, global end-user and developer communities. These communities have translated MODx into their native languages, including: Alsatian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. Other active communities reside in India and the United Kingdom.
Recognition, Awards & Publications
In July 2007, MODx was awarded Packt Publishing’s Most Promising Open Source Content Management System award..
Linux.com reviewed MODx on January 14, 2008. Its author concluded, “MODx is an easy-to-use, standards-compliant, search-engine-friendly, functional, and extensible CMS…”.
On July 28, 2008, water&stone produced an analysis of market share in the competitive open source CMS market which included MODx. The author noted, “outside MySpace, MODx has been unable to build much show of support. Moreover, while the system has solid search engine rankings, it was the big loser in the Alexa rankings in our survey. Perhaps even more disturbing is that MODx was the only system in survey whose user ratings [in OpenSourceCMS.com] declined during the test period.” water&stone “began in 2003, as a specialty house focused exclusively on building web sites with Mambo, Joomla, Drupal and osCommerce”.
On February 6, 2009, OpenSourceCMS.com user rankings placed MODx version 0.9.6.3 as the 3rd highest ranked of 78 applications in the CMS/portal category with 2885 votes. Jaws (#1 with 985 votes) and CMS Made Simple (#2 with 3052 votes) were ranked higher.