
This page is a work in progress in Google Docs and will change as I edit it.
- Please contact me if you spot errors or have suggestions.
- Feedback is greatly appreciated!
MODX Revolution Client Documentation
Contents:
Introduction
Logging In
Forgot Your Password
Change Your Password and Edit Your Profile
Manager Overview
Resource Tree: Managing Resources
Top Buttons and Search Bar
Right-Click Menu
Moving Pages
Creating and Editing Resources
Resource Types
Full Edit/ Create View
Resource Fields
Weblinks (Redirects)
Search Engine Tips
Resource Settings
Other Edit Tabs
Template Variables
Resource Groups
Quick Edit/ Create Mode
Rich Text Editor
MODX Codes
Using the File Manager
Inserting Links
Anchors (linking to a part of a page)
Inserting Images
Inserting Media (such as YouTube videos)
Main Menu Tools
Components Menu
Configuration
Gallery
Introduction
This non-technical guide to the MODX manager is meant to be used as a convenient reference after your initial training. Please contact me if you need additional help or if you have any questions about anything to do with your website.
Limitations:
- Each MODX website is different. Your website may have additional components or not use some of the features covered here.
- Each version of MODX brings improvements and slight changes to the manager, so you may notice slight differences between your manager and the examples explained here.
Free to use and distribute: This document is free to modify and distribute, even commercially, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, as long as you make a note that I was the original author. I would appreciate an optional link back to the original document or to my website (http://websitezen.com).
Logging In
1. Point your web browser to YOURDOMAIN.COM/manager, where YOURDOMAIN.COM is your website’s domain name.
- Example: if your domain name is examplewebsite.org, go to http://examplewebsite.org/manager
- Example: if your domain name is test.example.com, go to http://test.example.com/manager
2. Enter your username and password and click “Login”
- Tip: you should have received an email with your username and a random password. If not, please let me know.
- Tip: the first time you log in, you should change your password. See “Changing Your Password” section below.

Forgot Your Password
If you forgot your password, you can have a new password emailed to you:
1. On the login screen, click “Forgot your Login?”.
2. Enter your username in the box that appears and click “Send Activation Email”.

You should see a message saying the email was sent:

3. Open the email that was sent to you and click on the activation link.
- Note: You must click on the link for the new password to be used. This is a security measure to prevent strangers from changing your password and locking you out.
- Tip: The email will be sent to the same email address that you received your original password in, or your current profile email if you changed your profile.
- Check your spam folder if you cannot find the email.

4. After you click the activation link, enter your username and the new password you received to log in.
5. Change your password after you log in.
Change Your Password and Edit Your Profile
You should change your password any time you receive a randomly-generated password, such as when you first log in or when you reset your password.
1. Either click on your username in the top right corner of the manager, or (in the main menu), click on User → Profile. Either one will take you to your user profile.

2. On the profile page, you will see the following tabs:
- The first tab (“General Information”) allows you to change your profile information if needed.
- To change your password, click on the “Reset Password” tab. See step 3.
- The “Recent Resources” tab shows the pages you last edited.

3. After you click on the Reset Password tab, enter your current password, your new password, and your new password again and hit “Save” when you are done.

Manager Overview
When you first log in you will see the following manager screen:

Basic manager areas:
- Site name - your website name. This can be changed for your entire website at once.
- MODX version - The version of MODX that your website is running on.
- Main Menu - You do not need to use most of the links in the main menu, as many of them are meant for developers. Some of the menu links are useful for clients, however, and they are explained in later sections.
- Dashboards - Dashboards show useful updates. By default, they include:
- MODX news - This is a short RSS feed display that updates with general MODX news. New MODX versions are listed here, and you should let me know if you want to upgrade to any of them. As an alternative, you can ask me update your website every time an update comes out.
- MODX security updates - Any time a security vulnerability with MODX is discovered, it is listed here, including the versions of MODX it affects. Usually, every security vulnerability is fixed through a MODX version update. I highly recommend you ask me to update MODX every time a security vulnerability comes out with the version you are running.
- Active Users - A list of recently-active manager users, such as yourself, employees that you have allowed to edit your website, or myself.
- Your Recent Edits - A list of the pages you have recently edited. This is also shown in a tab in your Profile.
- Files Tab (Images and Attachments) - The Files tab is part of the MODX file manager, and you can use it to review all of the images, PDFs, downloads, and other files you have uploaded for use on your website. The file manager is explained later.
- Tools: Useful buttons for editing pages, explained later.
- Search Site: If you do not remember the name of a page you created on your website, you can use this search box.
- Site Pages (“Resources”) and Resource Tree: see “Resource Tree” below.
Resource Tree: Managing Resources
On the left of the manager, you will see a “tree” of the pages, or resources, on your website:

Definitions:
- Website pages are called “resources” in MODX because some “pages” are not real pages. E.g. some resources are redirects to other web pages or copies of other pages.
- The list of resources is called a “resource tree” because pages are arranged in a “branching” order similar to trees branching.
- One “parent” resource can have several “children” resources, which in turn can each have other children. Parent resources are marked with folder icons.
- The “root” of the tree is not a resource but the representation of each website context, or area. Most sites only have one area, called “web”.
- Site-wide settings: Most websites I set up have a “settings” context. This area contains rich-text pages you can edit but that do not show up as separate pages on your website. Instead, they show up in areas common to many pages, such as the website top (header) or bottom (footer). Simple site-wide settings (such as the site name) can be set in the Components → Configuration tool in the main menu.
Unique Resource ID:
Each resource name is followed by a number in parentheses. This number is the unique resource ID number, which never changes and uniquely identifies each page.
Resource Types:
- Normal, published resources are shown in regular black text. They can be seen by anyone visiting your website and automatically appear in the main menu.
- Hidden (from the menu) resources (gray text color) can still be seen by anyone visiting your website, but they will not automatically appear in the main menu. You can still create links to them manually, however.
- Unpublished resources (italic) can only be viewed by a user who is logged into the manager. This means that only people you allow to edit your website can “preview” these pages.
- Keeping a resource unpublished is a good idea when you do not want the public to see one of your pages, perhaps because it is unfinished or has information that only applies in the future.
- Deleted resources (red and crossed out) cannot be viewed on the website by anyone and will be permanently deleted the next time someone “empties the trash”.
Top Buttons and Search Bar
At the top of the resource tree are some buttons with icons in them. Move your mouse over each button to see its title.
