Wow... Processwire seems to be the CMS I have always wanted..

[Zislatik]

Hello all,

My name is Jim Jackson (Username: Zislatik) and I am amazed at processwire. I have been a student of MODX and always found my web development endeavors coming up a little short (my failings not MODX). Modx was the first CMS that I installed that made sense to me and I have created several basic site in it. I love the Modx community but in recent years I feel it has gotten pretty "big" as they have grown in a direction I am not sure I want to follow. I still love the community and I am very thankful to have found it.

I am extremely please that I have found processwire. Processwire works the way I think when it comes to a CMS. I love that the community is smaller and developing. I feels like I can get in on the ground floor and watch it develop. I loved template variables, snippets and chunks  in MODX which is why I gravitated to MODX but I am finding that infinite fields rock! Mind you I am a novice and I am sure I have just scratched the surface of what processwire offers.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce my self and for warn everyone that I will probably have a stream of newbie questions slowing the forums. I do have a couple of quick questions.

1. Are there any other MODX converts here and what would be the advice you would offer to a student of webdev in learning the differences? 

2. I have a basic grasp of php, html and CSS, is it really as easy as it seems to build a site with process wire?

3. Any developers out there making money with processwire professionally? I have seen paid modules but I mean building site for customer in process wire?

Again, thanks for any information provided. I am happy to have found processwire and I appreciate everything in advance.

Thanks,

JIm

[Tom.]

Welcome aboard,

1. We have plenty of converts here. Myself I'm a WordPress convert. However I'm not a convert from MODX so I will not be able to tell you the differences.

2. ProcessWire does not alter any of your markup and only when using ->render() will you find it output markup. With the new front-end editing it does alter your markup but only when logged in with the permission to edit using the front-end. The HTML, CSS and Javascript is completely down to you. By default ProcessWire uses PHP as it's template engine. So the only thing you need to learn is API and that's it Oh yeah, and the API is super easy to learn. Trust me ProcessWire is a front-end developers dream. 

3. I work at an agency but also freelance. While I don't charge much at all for freelancing as my job is my hobby. ProcessWire is always my CMS of choice. So I guess you can say I make a living out of ProcessWire. 

[cstevensjr]

Start with this link

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/3691-tutorial-a-quick-guide-to-processwire-for-those-transitioning-from-modx/

[pwired]

Are there any other MODX converts here and what would be the advice you would offer to a student of webdev in learning the differences?

Since the days back then of the modx evo course change, many modx refugees here.

So welcome to the club

You can start off with tutorials or clips:

https://processwire.com/docs/tutorials/

https://processwire.com/talk/forum/13-tutorials/

https://processwire.com/videos/

http://processwire.tv/

You can find also some modx/processwire threads in the forum like this one:

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/3111-a-modx-refugee-questions-on-features-of-processwire/

I have a basic grasp of php, html and CSS, is it really as easy as it seems to build a site with process wire?

When you start with Processwire you have to make your self familiar with the concept that it is "an API-first CMS" a so called decoupled or headless cms. Together with the processwire flexible api makes this a diamond in a pile of cms systems out there. There is no building websites "the cms way" but you build your frontend separately in any way you want. That means, for one example, that you can directly apply any level of html, css and php experience that you already have.

Here's another quick walk through

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/4173-grouped-forum-posts-links-articles-tutorials-code-snippets/

Any developers out there making money with processwire professionally? I have seen paid modules but I mean building site for customer in process wire?

There are quite a few people here making money with websites using processwire as their tool of choice.

https://processwire.com/talk/forum/9-showcase/

Making money with processwire would not be different from any other cms system as it depends on your marketing, contacts, planning, etc. but in any case, processwire is a time saver getting your things done faster.

[kongondo]

Jim,

What the guys said above.

Welcome to ProcessWire and the forums
 

1. Are there any other MODX converts here and what would be the advice you would offer to a student of webdev in learning the differences?

Guilty as charged!
 

2. I have a basic grasp of php, html and CSS, is it really as easy as it seems to build a site with process wire?

ProcessWire makes hard things easy...but you also need to be willing to get your hands dirty. Nothing is output for you. In addition to the stuff above, have a look at the docs (page, pages and selectors are a must)...and you should be on your way
 

3. Any developers out there making money with processwire professionally? I have seen paid modules but I mean building site for customer in process wire?

I think these guys are on to something   
http://directory.processwire.com/

[Zislatik]

Guys,

Thank you so very much for all of the wonderful greeting and great recommendations! I will jump into the recommended links and work to increase my understanding of the Processwire way of doing things. Again, I am humbled and grateful for all of your comments.

Thanks,

Jim 

[elabx]

2. I have a basic grasp of php, html and CSS, is it really as easy as it seems to build a site with process wire?

If you know how to put a HTML website with their scripts and css files running, you are already on your way. Processwire content gets called through the API and you can basically put it anywhere you want. I have built a lot of "basic" websites in a better way than I could have imagined with other CMSs (or on my own for what matters!). If you'd like to see some stuff built into the basic level, I would gladly show you.

[benbyf]

What extra tutorials would you like to see?

Also

3. I mostly use processwire for my full time freelance web designer work unless there's a legacy cms (in which place I usually try and move them to pw anyway)

I'm a front end guy and it's a dream not having to do it the "template engines way" I'm looking at you Drupal :/

[tired_eyes]

Oh, another ex-MODXer here. I've switched to PW recently and quite happy with it. Some things are similar to MODX, some are different, but generally PW shares the same philosophy - highly custozieable, suitable for complex projects, strong API.

[clsource]

welcome!

I know you will enjoy Processwire and its awesome community

[marcus]

I'm also coming from MODX-land. Years ago, discovering MODX was like a salvation, because it was not biased in any way or didn't forced any particular output, but stayed behind the curtain and abstracted all content away into a nice tree of resources. Whether these resources would become pages or just parts of them, or something completely different like xml nodes didn't matter, and that was quite a relief coming from "everything is either an article or page, since I'm a blog system at heart" WordPress. But in the end MODX had its oddities [[LikeThis? stuff=`notintuitive_at_all`]] and the MODX team decided to put that very odd, editor-unfriendly, buggy and slow backend in Revolution. Then again, discovering ProcessWire was like a salvation...