Forgive me if I’m being simplistic with this question.
I keep running into Astro web framework whichever way I look.
I’m trying to understand how to use it with MODX. I’ve used MODX for a very long time but wouldn’t class myself as a developer. I use it to build local business websites that perform well, and clients find it easy to use.
I’ve recently missed out on a couple of project (no great shakes) to Astro ‘developers’.
Can anybody be so kind as to give me a really very, very simple explanation as to how this all fits together? I mean, if I have a domain name registered say with GoDaddy (or any share hosting) and I have a basic MODX installation there, what is the next step to getting a website built that uses the ease of MODX with the fast delivery and ‘easy’ frontend development of Astro?
I just can’t understand the concept despite reading and reading. Is there a real advantage?
Thank you in advance.
Hej @chrisandy, maybe this helps a bit?
Thank you Jens. Your article makes sense and is probably the most useful thing I’ve read.
I have actually read the content of the other link before. When people talk about ‘headless’ I think it just throws because I think of ‘head’ meaning ‘brain’ when in actual fact to me it would make more sense to call it ‘bodyless’ because surely in this case WP is the ’brain’.
On a ‘normal’ say, 30 page website, what would the advantage be of using a set up like this?
If you create a static website with Astro and headless MODX, don’t you then have to re-build (and re-deploy) the static site after every change you make to a resource in the MODX manager? Is there an easy way to do that, or am I missing something here?
That’s exactly the sort of question (one of many) that is bugging me.
I think the main idea is to make the site faster, isn’t it? When using MODX Caching, some getCache snippets and a good web server (SSH database hard disks, PHP opcode caching, etc.), you’re all set to achieve good Google web vital points.
I think that’s much easier to handle than using a combination of MODX and Astro. But do you have any other reasons for wanting to use Astro?
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I don’t particularly want to use Astro and you’re quite right about a good set up achieving excellent results anyway.
What I’m trying to understand is why so many people are using it. I seem to think I’m missing something when customers ask me if I use it. To me it seems that people are just deploying the same template. Feels like a step backward and so I’ve got to be missing something - or maybe not!
Are actually “so many people using it”, or is it just the latest fad? It’s seems to me, that there is a new trending JS framework like every single year.
So potential customers of yours that now get an Astro website from one of your competitors, how do they edit/manage the content of their website? Directly in some markdown files? Or do they get a custom solution from the Astro developer?
Astro might be a fine JS framework for some websites, but I don’t see much point in trying to combine it with MODX (or any other PHP framework).
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I think what’s happening is that it must be part of a marketing course that graduates are taking. They seem to be told that web design is just a case of putting something up there that looks good and don’t worry about organic SEO - just sell your marketing services.
An example is: I build a website for a brand new business and within 8 months get them to page 1 of google results, nationally, for a set of very competitive key phrases - even beating the company they worked for before setting up their own business. This isn’t enough for the customer, what they actually want is somebody to go out and sell their services and they’re not interested in regular blogging even though it’s easy with MODX. So along comes the marketing ‘company’ and shows them a nice website / tells them that organic SEO is dead and promises to actually ‘sell’. They charge nearly nothing for the website but they get a substantial contract for ‘selling’ services on behalf of the client. The client then has no organic presence and is tied into an expensive contract. The marketing company are the ones actually making the money though.
I think we’ve just hit a period of time where (some) younger businesses don’t ‘get’ organic SEO.