MODX Evolution to MODX Revolution Migration

MODX Evolution to MODX Revolution Site Migration

MODX Evolution and Revolution are fundamentally different systems. Evolution: procedural PHP approach, no OOP, no namespace, API via global $modx object. Revolution: PSR-compliant architecture, xPDO ORM, components (Extras). No direct upgrade path — full content migration required.

Current Evolution Site Analysis

-- Document counts by templates
SELECT t.templatename, COUNT(d.id) as count
FROM site_content d
JOIN site_templates t ON t.id = d.template
GROUP BY t.templatename;

-- TV parameters
SELECT tv.caption, tv.type, COUNT(tvv.id) as used
FROM site_tmplvars tv
LEFT JOIN site_tmplvar_contentvalues tvv ON tv.id = tvv.tmplvarid
GROUP BY tv.id;

-- Custom snippets
SELECT name, LENGTH(snippet) as size FROM site_snippets;

-- Plugins
SELECT name, plugincode FROM site_plugins WHERE disabled = 0;

Content Export from Evolution

// Export script to JSON (run on Evolution server)
$db = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=modx_evo;charset=utf8', 'user', 'pass');

$resources = $db->query("
    SELECT d.*, t.templatename
    FROM site_content d
    JOIN site_templates t ON t.id = d.template
    WHERE d.deleted = 0
    ORDER BY d.parent, d.menuindex
")->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

foreach ($resources as &$resource) {
    // Get TV values
    $tvs = $db->prepare("
        SELECT tv.name, tvv.value
        FROM site_tmplvar_contentvalues tvv
        JOIN site_tmplvars tv ON tv.id = tvv.tmplvarid
        WHERE tvv.contentid = ?
    ");
    $tvs->execute([$resource['id']]);
    $resource['tvs'] = $tvs->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_KEY_PAIR);
}

file_put_contents('content-export.json', json_encode($resources, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE | JSON_PRETTY_PRINT));

Import to MODX Revolution

// Import script (run on Revolution server after installation)
require_once 'config.core.php';
require_once MODX_CORE_PATH . 'model/modx/modx.class.php';

$modx = new modX();
$modx->initialize('web');

$data = json_decode(file_get_contents('content-export.json'), true);

// Map old templates to new
$templateMap = [
    'default_template' => 1,
    'inner_page'       => 2,
    'catalog'          => 3,
    'product'          => 4,
];

// Map old parent IDs to new (after structure change)
$parentMap = [];

foreach ($data as $evo_resource) {
    $resource = $modx->newObject('modDocument');
    $resource->fromArray([
        'pagetitle'   => $evo_resource['pagetitle'],
        'longtitle'   => $evo_resource['longtitle'],
        'description' => $evo_resource['description'],
        'alias'       => $evo_resource['alias'],
        'introtext'   => $evo_resource['introtext'],
        'content'     => migrateContent($evo_resource['content']),
        'published'   => $evo_resource['published'],
        'publishedon' => $evo_resource['publishedon'],
        'createdon'   => $evo_resource['createdon'],
        'template'    => $templateMap[$evo_resource['templatename']] ?? 1,
        'parent'      => $parentMap[$evo_resource['parent']] ?? 0,
        'menuindex'   => $evo_resource['menuindex'],
    ]);

    if ($resource->save()) {
        $parentMap[$evo_resource['id']] = $resource->id;

        // Migrate TVs
        foreach ($evo_resource['tvs'] as $tvName => $tvValue) {
            $resource->setTVValue($tvName, $tvValue);
        }
    }
}

// Content migration function (Evolution tags → Revolution)
function migrateContent(string $content): string {
    // Evolution uses [*alias*] for links, Revolution uses [[~id]]
    // Replacement requires manual mapping or aliases

    // Remove outdated Evolution tags
    $content = preg_replace('/\[(\*|\+|\!)[^\]]+\]/', '', $content);

    return $content;
}

Snippets and Plugins Migration

Snippets Evolution are written in procedural style with global $modx. Revolution API is different:

// Evolution (old API)
$docs = $modx->getDocuments($parents = [5], $published = 1);

// Revolution (correct API)
$c = $modx->newQuery('modResource');
$c->where(['parent' => 5, 'published' => 1]);
$docs = $modx->getCollection('modResource', $c);

Snippets need rewriting. For typical tasks (output lists, menus, forms) — use ready Revolution Extras: pdoResources, pdoMenu, FormIt.

Image Migration

# Image directory structure is identical (assets/images/)
rsync -avz old-server:/var/www/evo-site/assets/images/ \
    /var/www/revo-site/assets/images/

HTML content paths may need replacement if directory structure changed.

Timeline