Kongondo's epic MODx tome...

[PhotoWebMax]

OK, you PW guys and girls:

I am sure most of you know that Kongondo had a previous CMS "relationship" before ProcessWire. Kongondo was a major force in the MODx forums for quite a while. In the Evo days there was constant shrill barking for better documentation with MODx. All CMS systems have this issue.

Kongondo produced this massive tome called "The 'almost' complete guide to creating menus in MODx using Wayfinder". This was simply epic in my humble opinion. Wayfinder is an amazing system for generating all kinds of menus in MODx.

I downloaded this massive PDF file and had it printed and bound at my local office store. I then sat up reading this thing at night for more nights than I care to remember. My wife thought I was crazy. But the content, examples and guided projects was really a class example of software instruction at its best. This guide was HUGE in my journey through MODx. I learned to build some very cool menus systems with this volume sitting on my desk. 

We recently moved into a new house and I just found this today. Not to embarrass Kongondo but I had to share and say thank you!

[adrian]

Wow kongondo - I have always thought of you as one of the most productive and prolific writers on this forum, but now I am wondering what's been going on - after seeing this, it seems to me you've gotten slack since coming over to PW. It's either that, or just that PW is so easy by comparison with MODx that a tome is not needed.

Which is it ?

[PhotoWebMax]

I guess I should mention that the pages were only printed on one side, so the bound tome might appear larger than it really is. 

That being said, I bet you would have to walk a long, long way to find another open source CMS guide written voluntarily for fellow users that is this good...

[teppo]

Two thoughts: writing something like that is simply awesome and an exceptional example of the kind of things devoted community (and a devoted member of that community) can do for an open source project.. yet at the same time the idea that one would need to read a book in order to create menus sounds kind of scary

Of course I've no idea of the actual context here, what this Wayfinder is etc. so I guess it has to be about a lot more than just adding some navigational elements. It has to be, right?

[pwired]

Yes, Kongondo is a respected forum member, no doubt about that. But there is someone that I have

to give evo credit to and that is Susan Ottwell. She was "The" driving forum force back in the good evo days.

Still have her downloaded bundle with tuto´s and profiles. Susan Ottwell was also present at the modx

meeting in Utrecht (Netherlands) November 2012.

http://forums.modx.com/thread/90106/wayfinder-not-working-on-new-evo-install#dis-post-495189

[Soma]

Yeah I'm still waiting for kongondo to write the definitive guide to MarkupSimpleNavigation

[kongondo]

Ah, Max, people, you embarrass me! Seriously though, thanks for the comments.

This was my one-hit-wonder . There were days when you typed 'kongondo' in Google it would suggest 'Wayfinder'. I think this is because it had been downloaded so many times. I stopped counting when downloads hit 10,000. Even so, I still get PMs from the MODx forums -  people asking me for help with Wayfinder! OK, enough chest thumping!

@Max, it looks nice bound like that. I never got round to making one for myself.

@Teppo: The reasons why the guide was 'massive' were: Detailed explanations about HTML, CSS, some MODx concepts, Wayfinder, code examples, etc plus I talk too much! It took me the better part of 6 months to finish! (IIRC)....The Susan mentioned above expressed similar sentiments to yours.

@Adrian: As for a similar thing for PW, I don't know. But yes, PW is much easier. Everything is in the API! I think the alternative I have taken is to write tutorials instead.....if I can find the time for my website! . 

@Soma, you are partly to blame, hehe! . Your modules, code in the forums and in your Gists have inspired me to love and learn PW and PHP more and more...so very little time for tutorials 

Cheers

[Pete]

Can't write a guide for a module that has the word "Simple" in the title

@kongondo - you'll need a bigger hat if these guys carry on much longer

[adrian]

@Adrian: As for a similar thing for PW, I don't know. But yes, PW is much easier. Everything is in the API! I think the alternative I have taken is to write tutorials instead.....if I can find the time for my website! . 

I was kidding you know

[kongondo]

@Adrian, Yeah, but I'll need to get those tutorials at some point...

[PhotoWebMax]

@kongondo,

If you do get around to writing those tutorials let me know: I can help proofread them. Although I am a total newbie at PW and could not program my way out of paper bag it might be useful to have a pair of eyes that represents a brain that is eager to learn from the ground floor.

Some tutorials/guides are either guilty of spending too much time presenting the obvious or frustrate the reader because the author falsely assumes too much prior knowledge from the reader...