About Sepia River

and the MODX CMS / application framework

Hi there!

We believe your website should be a strong foundation for your entire online presence, integrating with other online services and channels in powerful and user-friendly ways, with minimal effort. To do this, we specialize in making sites:

  • Fast, reliable, secure and easy to maintain.
  • A hub for your online content, with the ability to syndicate that content easily to any other channel.
  • Optimized to perform the business functions you need, whether it's to gain leads, increase brand awareness, sell something, or all of the above, and always with thoughtfully architected and expertly implemented code.

For over 5 years, I had the privilege to work alongside the talented core team at MODX, the company that maintains the world-renowned MODX CMS, used by millions of businesses small to huge. Let's connect:

Check out the latest MODX Extras here.

What is "MODX"?

Below is a blurb from the CEO of MODX, Ryan Thrash, to help explain just that.

Creative Freedom

If you can prototype how a project should look and work, be it mobile responsive or JSON for integration with other platforms or whatever comes next, then MODX can power it. In fact with its first release in 2005, you could have built an HTML5/CSS3 mobile responsive website even though those technologies didn't even exist at that time. If you are looking for theme-driven sites then MODX may not be the strongest choice, but if you want complete control over your design, behavior and presentation then there's no better platform than MODX.

Scaling

MODX was built for speed. A properly optimized site can serve shocking visitor counts even on modest hardware. For a quick case study of how we helped a customer move to a much smaller server while more than doubling his traffic, see http://modx.com/support-and-services/performance-pays/ … whether you have just a few thousand visitors per month or millions per day, MODX can scale to meet your traffic requirements exceptionally well.

Integrations & Custom Apps

MODX at its core is actually an application framework that just so happens to ship with a great CMS application. Its core code is an extension of PDO, this is the same technology that Drupal will adopt in D8 in the future for its data access layer. Only we've done this for ~5 years, and it is all wrapped in a robust development API. This means not only can you build content driven websites, but you can also create applications or integrate with external data sources and APIs by design. In fact, due to how MODX's parser and template layers work, you can not only build websites, but also create applications that feed data to native iOS/Android Apps, output XML for integration with legacy platforms, or other things that require interoperability.

Multi-Language

There are multiple approaches to handling multi-lingual sites that work from everything from 1:1 straight-translations, to partially-unique to each language for sections like news releases, to completely unique-per-language/country content. I'm not aware of any other platform that has the flexibility of dealing with multi-language requirements as elegantly as MODX can.

Multi-Site

MODX's native “Context” feature lets you build multiple sites that share content elements and much, much more. This can provide a way to build things like landing pages for marketing promotions, blogs, intranets, extranets, marketing sites and more… All managed from a single login with discreet permissions for user groups to access some, all, or none of it from either the front end or the backend Manager application.

MODX FAQs

Is MODX extendable? We want to add bespoke features as well as customize both the front and back end of our clients' websites.

  • MODX was architected from the ground up to be modular and extensible. In fact, those principles are its namesake (MODular/eXtensible)
  • The upgrade path of the MODX core software is maintained no matter how customized a particular implementation becomes, because the framework encourages — almost enforces, by way of architecture — any add-on components to be developed in modular, namespaced, object-oriented fashion. Anything can be achieved in MODX, with its easy-to-use API, without “hacking the core” whatsoever.

Does MODX support multi-lingual, multi-site deployments? We need to share assets between sites, as well as create bespoke content for each individual site, and syndicate a given piece of content over multiple sites and client apps.

  • This is achievable with "Contexts" — an object in MODX that handles multiple sets of overriding global settings, initializing what can be presented on the front end as completely independent web properties that are nevertheless managed in one CMS deployment.

Can MODX handle high traffic loads and comply with our security policies (this may require core modifications)

  • Core mods aren’t necessary in MODX. It can be extended to do as you please. MODX has passed Federal and third party security audits and is constantly updated to patch any known security issues.
  • Scalability is only dependent on the custom codebase, integration work, and deployment. The MODX Professional Services team have architected, supported, and deployed highly scalable solutions capable of handling thousands of concurrent users and beyond, for some of the most demanding websites on the Internet.

Can we control permissions at a granular level with MODX?

  • The MODX core software features a highly configurable, attributes-based access control system. With user groups, roles and access control lists (ACLs), site owners and developers can control permissions for any user interacting with the system, over countless touch points, on both the front-end website and back end admin area.

Does MODX support publishing workflows?

  • Publishing and un-publishing privileges can be managed per User/Role using ACLs.
  • An example workflow may be that an author with save and edit permissions, but not publishing permissions, will upload new content, and an editor with publishing permissions must review before marking the content as published, making it visible to the world.

What are the available commercial support options for commercial projects, custom development, and consultation?

  • Custom development hours are available on a retainer basis from the MODX Professional Services team
  • Emergency support and ongoing maintenance plans are also available as part of MODX's tiered Service Level Agreements (SLAs)