In an effort to remove the dependency on Ant, the Java-based build tool we have been using to build, test, and produce distribution packages of MODx Revolution, I spent the last week learning Phing, refactoring the xPDO and MODx Revolution build processes to use it, and writing a custom Phing Task to handle our YUICompressor requirements.
I recently published a new Snippet for quickly caching the output of any MODx Element for a configurable amount of time. By default, it uses the Resource caching mechanism and stores it's data uniquely by Resource, properties, and additional REQUEST parameters. So anytime the page is requested and the cache has expired, the Element will be processed fresh. And that's just the simplest application…
I've created a quick utility Snippet for MODx Revolution that logs how long it takes to execute a Snippet (or Chunk) you wrap with it. Makes it easy to find out if a particular tag is creating a performance bottleneck in your MODx Resources.