CAP Training Day Session 1

1. STUNTROCKET
D E S I G N & D I G I TA L

2. CAP
WEBSITE
TRAINING
MODX and CAP website orienta4on for beginners.
N E W C A S T L E | J U N E 2 1 S T 2 0 1 6
D A N N Y H A R D I N G | D A N N Y @ S T U N T R O C K E T. C O
E M I LY T O M L I N S O N | E M I LY @ S T U N T R O C K E T. C O

3. System Overview
An overview on MODX and some core principles.
M O D X C O R E F E AT U R E S
Benefits & Poten3al
How MODX can help you tell the NEA and CAP story.
M A R K E T I N G & C O N T E N T
Basic Usage Examples
Short instruc4onal videos and the chance to try some
common content management tasks yourself.
D AY T O D AY C M S TA S K S
What we’re hoping to
achieve in today’s session.
OBJECTIVES
TRAINING
Ques3ons & Details
Talk about any other aspects you’d like.
T H I N G S W E M I S S E D

4. D O N ’ T B E S H Y
If there are any ques4ons along the way, or you want us to go over anything
again or in more detail, just let us know.
WE ARE HERE TO HELP

5. MODX
OVERVIEW
MODX Revolu4on is the web content management plaMorm for those that truly care about no-
compromise design and excep4onal user experience. It gives you complete control over your
site and content, with the flexibility and scalability to adapt to your changing needs.

6. LINKS
USEFUL
Official MODX Website
A good place to start if you want to learn more about
MODX in general. Signposted and easy to navigate.
Modx Documenta3on
Lots of documenta4on of the system, plugins, and how to
guides for website administrators and developers.
QuickStart Videos
Founda4onal knowledge on a good range of subjects in
easy to digest format.
CAP Website Documenta3on
Documenta4on specific to the CAP website with details
that aren't on the official MODX documenta4on.

7. Mature Project
As a soVware project MODX is
nearly 8 years old and enjoys
regular updates and improvements
from a dedicated and passionate
community and core team.
Modern Prac?ces
As well as a full featured CMS,
MODX also has its own framework
and database abstrac4on, making
it great for complicated projects.
Fun To Work With
Working with a system every day
can be a grind. MODX helps keep
you mo4vated by puXng everything
at your finger4ps.
Flexible & Extensible
MODX doesn’t lock you into
restric4ve templates that require
technical development and you can
expand your website safely and
responsibly for years to come.
Simple Principles
With easy to learn, common sense
terminology, principles and
techniques, gaining founda4onal
understanding and knowledge in
MODX doesn’t take long.
Marke?ng Friendly
Being able to respond to changes
in the world and reshape your
content message and marke4ng
helps you cost effec4vely take
control of your digital presence.
WHY WE LOVE MODX
7

8. MODX
BENEFITS
MODX enables content editors to do the things that are
needed to market their brand effectively without getting in
their way or hindering creativity and productivity.
Discovery & Visibility
Originality & Flexibility
Wide Audience & Engagement

9. SEO FRIENDLY
MOBILE FRIENDLY
EASY CONTENT CREATION
FLEXIBLE LAYOUT
Reach Maximum Audience
Get Found On Google
Organic Growth
User Journey Improvement
MAXIMISING OPPORTUNITY
B E N E F I T S

10. TECHNICAL
B E N E F I T S O F M O D X
Y O U R W E B S I T E H A S T E C H C R E D I B I L I T Y.
Code And Layout Separa3on
Safe separa4on between display and func4onality, meaning you
won't break things by edi4ng layouts and templates.
Extensibility & Future Development
Adding new func4onality can be done via a simple plugin system,
making contribu4on to development safe and secure.
Common Sense Methodologies
You don't have to fight the system to get things done, and
things that would be difficult on other systems are a breeze.

11. CORE ELEMENTS
MODX An introduc4on to the main components on your website, including
templates, pages, layout elements and seXngs.

12. RESOURCES ELEMENTS FILES
R E F
Anything that can be viewed on the
frontend website is a classed as a
Resource but typically this refers to
Pages and Downloads. Resources are
made up of Elements and Files.
Elements are the building blocks of Page
Resources, and come in a few distinct
types; Templates, Template Variables,
Chunks, Snippets and Property Sets.
Moderators may only need Chunks.
Files are the images and PDF
documents that make up the website
and Resource Library. All Files live in
the Assets folder on the server and
managed via the Media Browser.
Now that we have defined the system objects, let's look at the
Dashboard and MODX Navigation system.

13. QUICK ACCESS TO TASKS
DASHBOARD
Your MODX system has a customisable dashboard that
makes day to day tasks easily accessible when logging in.
Tasks and widgets can be added when needed.
Dashboards can be set per user, so each moderator can
have their own, depending on their role requirements.
V I S I T D A S H B O A R D

14. C O N T E N T M A N A G E M E N T
NAVIGATION & STUFF
L O G O - R E T U R N T O D A S H B O A R D
S E A R C H - E F F E C T I V E O N C E Y O U K N O W W H AT Y O U ’ R E L O O K I N G F O R
R E S O U R C E S TA B - S E C T I O N S A N D PA G E S
E L E M E N T S TA B - C O N S T R U C T I O N A N D D E S I G N
F I L E S TA B - I M A G E S A N D C A P D O W N L O A D A B L E P D F S
Finding the resources and elements you need to edit is simple
using the built in navigation and search functionality on the left
hand side of the MODX manager.
G L O S S A R Y/ T E R M S V I S I T D A S H B O A R D

15. RESOURCES TAB
PAGES & DOCUMENTS
The Resource Tab’s Tree represents the sections,
pages and downloadable documents on your
website.
Folders and documents can be clicked to edit, and
dragged and dropped into position, making it quick
to make large scale changes to whole sections.
V I S I T D A S H B O A R DG L O S S A R Y/ T E R M S

16. Video: The Resources Tab

17. LAYOUT
ELEMENTS
Page resources and templates are
made up of a few core layout
elements, which are essentially just
HTML.

18. ELEMENTS TAB
BUILDING BLOCKS & DATA SLOTS
Templates, Template Variables, Chunks, Snippets,
Plugins, Categories and Property Sets can all be
accessed via the Elements Tab.
Also called Content Elements, or Layout Elements.
Day to day moderators will likely only need to edit
Chunks.
V I S I T D A S H B O A R DG L O S S A R Y/ T E R M S

19. Video: The Elements Tab

20. OUTER HTML
Templates are the outer
HTML that pages decorate.
You probably won't need to
create new templates, but
you will need to assign new
page resources to a
template during day to day
usage.
TEMPLATES
PAGE SPECIFIC DATA
Template Variables are
defined against Templates to
give page resource types a
set of available editable data
slots for content. Populating
the TVs for a page is what
makes it unique.
VARIABLES
HTML BUILDING BLOCKS
Chunks are static blocks of
HTML that can be used like
digital Lego to build unique
layouts and repeatable
content sections within page
resources. Chunks are an
important concept within
the system.
CHUNKS
FUNCTIONALITY BLOCKS
Snippets are similar to
Chunks but are concerned
with functionality rather
than display and so they
contain PHP. Day to day
users will probably not
need to dig in to Snippets.
SNIPPETS
PAGE LAYOUT COMPONENTS
W E B R E F E R E N C E W E B R E F E R E N C E W E B R E F E R E N C E W E B R E F E R E N C E

21. FILES TAB
IMAGES & PDFS
The Files Tab gives you quick access to the two
main Media Sources, Images and Resources.
You can easily admin folders and documents to
keep images and pdfs organised.
Be careful not to delete them unless you
understand their role in the system.
V I S I T D A S H B O A R DG L O S S A R Y/ T E R M S

22. Video: The Files Tab

23. FINDING &
EDITING PAGES
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam.

24. RESOURCES ARE…
V I S I T D A S H B O A R DG L O S S A R Y/ T E R M S
CONTAINERS & COLLECTIONS
REGULAR WEB PAGES
DOWNLOADS
Containers are resources that contain sub resources.
Collecons are specialised Containers that can be
thought of as data libraries rather than page containers.
Resources make up majority of your website, including
regular web pages, which are just resources set as HTML
content type.
Also resources, but with the Content Type set to PDF or
one of the other downloadable variaons and a sanised
link to the document on the server.
PAGES
SECTIONS
CONTAINERS
COLLECTIONS
SELECTIONS
STATIC LINKS
WEB LINKS
LIBRARIES
BASICALLY EVERYTHING!

25. SEARCH
Using the powerful built in search for quick access to items within the MODX manager is a great 4mesaver.
I S Y O U R F R I E N D

26. SEARCH BAR
WEB PAGES & PDFS
Regular Page Resources and Downloadable Resources are
accessible by search. The home page is excluded by default.
DESIGN & LAYOUT ELEMENTS
Advanced users can find layout elements like Templates and
Chunks.
QUICK ACCESS NAVIGATION

27. Video: Finding & Edi4ng Documents

28. MAIN ATTRIBUTES
DOCUMENT TAB
TITLES
SEO ASSISTANCE
LISTING/INTRO SUMMARY
TEMPLATE SELECTION
ALIAS/URL
PUBLISHING & MENU
EDIT/SAVE/DELETE

29. MAIN ATTRIBUTES
SETTINGS TAB
RESOURCE TYPE
CONTENT TYPE
CONTENT DISPOSITION
PUBLISHING
DOCUMENT CACHE

30. MAIN ATTRIBUTES
TV TAB
TEMPLATE VARIABLES
CATEGORIES

31. MAIN ATTRIBUTES
GROUPS TAB
ASSIGNMENT LIST

32. MAIN ATTRIBUTES
TAGS TAB
TOOLKIT TAGS
PUBLIC TAGS

33. MAIN ATTRIBUTES
SEO TAB
INDEXING
LINK FOLLOWING
SEARCH VISIBILITY
GOOGLE SITEMAP
REDIRECT URLS

34. ARTICLES
Publishing blog content with MODX is
easy. Let's take a look at the Articles
module in more detail.
W E B R E F E R E N C E S E T T I N G S L I S T

35. Tasks: Modera3on
As well as posts, you may need to moderate
public comments on the website to ensure
they meet your content standards.
ARTICLES
Tasks: Page Edi3ng
Article posts are essentially just regular
page resources that are grouped and
presented a little differently on both the
frontend and within the MODX manager.
Tasks: Adjustment
There are a number of configurable
settings that have been set to sensible
defaults that can be refined if needed.
POSTSCOMMENTS SETTINGS
ESSENTIALLY JUST RESOURCES…

36. A LOOK AT ART IC L E S
A quick click around the Articles module within the MODX manager
CREATING A POST
W E B R E F E R E N C E

37. Video: Ar4cles Overview