Slides from MODX Weekend by modMore. https://conference.modmore.com/

2. Best Practices in
Component Development
Jan Tezner
@jantezner
Prague, Czech Republic

3. ABOUT ME
● More than 10 years in PHP development
● 7 years experience with MODX
● CTO and Team Leader in COEX
● MODX Ambassador for Czech Republic
● One of organizers of Czech MODX Day 2013

4. ABOUT COEX
● Established in 2006
● Custom PHP & Python development
● 20 people in-house
● 100+ of MODX finished projects
● MODX Professional partner since 2011
● Direct subcontractors of MODX LLC since 2012

5. “We don't always give our clients what
they originally wanted but we always
bring them what their business really
needs.“

6. WHAT WILL FOLLOW AND WHAT NOT
This is not an ultimate workflow, those are best practices we found
in COEX in last couple of years.
1. What to consider before start
2. Environment setup
3. Development tips
4. Build of Transport Package
5. Testing
6. Release
7. Maintenance of Component
8. Links to other resources

7. WHAT TO CONSIDER BEFORE START
● Clarify solution requirements
● Search for an existing solution
● Consider development for yourself or public use
● Find a good name for your component
● Consider support for old Revolution 2.2

8. ENVIRONMENT SETUP - Folders
.../somewhere/
/extjs/
/modx22t/
/modx23/
/modx23t/
/packages/
site webroot //localhost/
extjs debug files
testing
development
testing
components folders inside
ExtJS 3.4 download link
Put content of archive ./ext-3.4.0/src/ into /extjs/ folder

9. ENVIRONMENT SETUP - MODX
System Settings
● compress_js = No
● compress_css = No
● cache_disabled = Yes
● session_cookie_path = /
} Or more easily by SQL
Then don’t forget to:
● Manually delete all content in /core/cache/ folder
● Delete all cookies in the browser

10. ENVIRONMENT SETUP - Package
● Don’t start from scratch
○ BxrExtra Yeoman generator
○ GitPackageManagement → ./_packages/
● Use IDE for development →
● User your favorite browser :)
○ Console
○ Network logger

11. ENVIRONMENT SETUP - PhpStorm
For smooth development I strongly recommend to make
following configurations for your component project.
Tree > External Libraries
Configure PHP Include Path
● /modx/connectors
● /modx/core/cache
● /modx/core/model
● /modx/core/xpdo
● /modx/manager/controllers
● /modx/manager/templates
Settings > Javascript > Libraries
● modext /modx/manager/assets/modext/
● extjs /extjs/

12. ENVIRONMENT SETUP - .gitignore
Don’t forget to ignore files which shouldn’t be located within
your repository.
E.g. config, uploaded, temporary or dev tools files.
Link to .gitignore from Tagger

13. DEVELOPMENT TIPS - General
● MODX Error log is your friend → use $modx->log(...);
● Clear cache often (on filesystem /core/cache/)
● Use xDebug
Beware of backwards compatibility to 2.2
● Javascript: MODx.config.connector_url only in 2.3
● PHP: if ($modx->version[‘major_version’] < 3) { ... }

14. DEVELOPMENT TIPS - Elements
● Use Static elements for development
● Try to not use nested Chunks → performance, readability
● Don’t hardcode strings into code, use Lexicons
● Snippets / Plugins shouldn’t contain HTML
● Don’t be lazy with creating snippet parameters
● Don’t hardcode “global” variables,
use System or Context Settings

15. BUILD OF PACKAGE
● Correctly use Semantic versioning
● Don’t forget to write changelog
● It is good practice to write date of release into
readme and changelog
● Don’t forget to put short description and basic usage of
component or its parts into readme
● Also put link to documentation into readme
● Readme should also contain version of MODX where you
have tested your Component

16. TESTING
● Test often and carefully in time of development
● Before release perform tests on clean MODX install
● Don’t forget to also test Component updates and uninstall
● Test on latest version of MODX
● Don’t test it only by yourself
○ Ask your colleague / friend to help
○ Ask the community

17. RELEASE
Great documentation makes great components,
great components make money.
● Start at least with basic documentation with elementary
description of snippet parameters
● Use standard place for documentation
● Make screenshots of visual parts
● Make a nice description for extras.modx.com
● Promote it to community

18. MAINTENANCE OF COMPONENT
Lifecycle of component doesn’t end when component is released.

19. LINKS
● How to Write a Good Chunk
● How to Write a Good Snippet
● Advanced Development
● Developing an Extra in MODX Revolution
● Creating a 3rd Party Component Build Script
● MODExt
● ExtJS 3.4 API Documentation
● ExtJS 3.4 Examples

21. Thank you!
COEX
@coexcz
facebook.com/coex.cz
Jan Tezner
@jantezner
Prague, Czech Republic