My third MODx site is about to launch. It’s relatively simple (no forms!) so I had the chance to really concentrate on refining my architecture, and the work I’ve done will stand me in good stead for a while (unless I give in to the enticements of SilverStripe or ExpressionEngine, or just ditch the PHP altogether and finally get up-and-running with Django).
“Refining his architecture? What does he mean?” For me, learning to use MODx well has been about working out how to combine templates, template variables, chunks and snippets in a logical and efficient structure. A good application – a small one, at least – should have a shape that you can envision (if you’re the kind of person who … read on »
Posts Tagged ‘image’…
New Work
This is a taster of what’s to come in a few weeks. I’m building this website, for the Scottish Golf Heritage Festival, with an array of incredibly useful components and features: I’m using the MODx content management system, FoxyCart for an integrated shop and registration process, and a wealth of snazzy (I’m certain I can make that word cool again) rich interface components. I’m particularly looking forward to building the graphing functionality for the admin system, for which I’m probably going to use the gRaphael javascript library.
The holding page, two screenshots of which are shown above, is the result of a lot of work in establishing the general layout and style of the forthcoming site. It combines several approaches to … read on »
A Paradigmatic Project: Building a Flickr Gallery with PHP, jCarousel and Lytebox
Don’t re-invent the wheel. That’s a motto that every good programmer and web developer lives by. If we’re being creative or original it’s usually in knowing which components and scripts to combine, amongst all those that have been created by other people; and in knowing how each of those components can be tweaked and configured to produce a good solution.
In web development this amounts to a synergy of languages, APIs, engines and interfaces working in blissfully ignorant harmony to provide rich functionality. This is the beauty of web development in the age of its blooming youthfulness, following the awkward stumblings of its infancy.
Incidentally, I think this is the characteristic of this kind of work that conventional programmers, or software engineers … read on »
©2010 Alistair Robinson