Hi. I just discovered October CMS and I'm intrigued. As a Modx user, I'm especially attracted to the fact that all the October elements are contained in text files that are easily edited, copied and backed up. However, I am not a developer. I'm good with HTML and reasonably competent with CSS. I only use Modx and potentially want to use October to manage my own sites. My Modx site works well for me but will probably horrify a real developer.

I know this is going to take me a lot of time and effort but I have one quick question to get me started.

In Modx, you create templates and template variables. When you create a new resource based on a template, the template variable fields (TV) are presented to you and you just fill them in. For instance, in an ecommerce site, I might have a Product template and in that template, there are TVs for ProductName, ProductPrice, ProductSKU, etc.

What's the October equivalent to this? I'm thinking Components but I have no idea how to create a Component.

Hi :) October CMS is based on Laravel and use MVC pattern. You need to know little bit php and laravel stuff to do things but its easy to start with Builder plugin. Watch the video on this page first, try it and have fun :) http://octobercms.com/plugin/rainlab-builder

And the answer on your question is — yes. You need a self-written component for something complicated, but builder itself contain two of them: «records list» and «record detail» which is great for the start :)

In your case I would suggest simply browsing the plugins on the marketplace to find what you need. Using pre-built plugins requires no special PHP skills. It is as simple as adding the component to a page and modifying the markup as desired.