Top modules

Top Modules One Woman’s Notes on Drupal’s Most Enabled Contributed Modules

Jody Hamilton • Owner, Lead Developer at Zivtech • Drupal architect, developer, themer, site- builder, project manager, teacher and student • Jody Lynn on drupal.org

Top Modules Meta-data • Source: http://drupal.org/project/Modules which relies on core Update Status module • See also http://drupal.org/project/usage • Please interrupt with short corrections and confusions only (no long questions)

1 Views MUST HAVE • “Drupal without Views is like a room without a Teddy”

2 CCK MUST HAVE • Enable everything but content_permissions • Most of it is in core for D7

3&4 Pathauto & Token MUST HAVE • Want to make your URL’s consistent and SEO’d while doing nothing? • Token is in core for D7

5 Admin_menu MUST HAVE • See also: D7’s Toolbar module, and Young Hahn’s Admin module • Use all modules by sun: http://drupal.org/ user/54136

6 Fileﬁeld MUST HAVE • Use it, not core Upload • In core for D7 • Use anything by quicksketch: http:// drupal.org/user/35821

7 Imageﬁeld MUST HAVE • Use it, not Image module • In core for D7 • Use anything by quicksketch: http:// drupal.org/user/35821

8 ImageAPI API • Requirement for imagecache • In core for D7 • Set it to use GD2

9 IMCE HAS ITS PLACE • Handy inline image/ﬁle browser for wysiwygs • In D7 should be replaced by Media module • Also try Insert module

10 ImageCache MUST HAVE • Alters (and caches) any image • In core for D7

11 Date OFTEN NEEDED • A CCK ﬁeld for dates • Includes date_popup • Event module is deprecated

12 Google Analytics OFTEN NEEDED • Plug and play • Slows down page loads

13 Webform OFTEN NEEDED • The 3.0 branch is especially awesome • Study its project page to understand appropriate uses

14 Poormanscron BEGINNERS ONLY • In core for D7

15 Image DEPRECATED • An inﬂexible ancestor to the gallery building systems of imageﬁeld, imagecache and views • Used by those enchanted by its namespace or running legacy sites

16 Advanced Help MUST HAVE • The help system for Views and CCK • Secret location of the Views development docs

17 CAPTCHA OFTEN NEEDED • SPAM prevention • Mollom is better maintained but is a paid service for larger sites

18 WYSIWYG MUST HAVE • Integrates with many common wysiwyg libraries • Uniﬁes Drupal wysiwyg integration to prevent code duplication

20 Nodewords SEO • Used for SEO purposes

21 Lightbox2 SOMETIMES NEEDED • The current best of breed. • Pops up images in modal overlays, integrates seamlessly with major modules.

22 CTools API • A requirement for Panels. • Useful for developers: exportables, modal dialogs, etc.

23 Link MUST HAVE • A CCK ﬁeld for URLs.

24 Backup and Migrate SOMETIMES NEEDED • Makes database backups simple • Rarely used by experts

25 XML Sitemap SOMETIMES NEEDED • Useful for SEO purposes

26 Panels SOMETIMES NEEDED • Powerful page layout • Alternative to block system • See also: Context module

27 Devel MUST HAVE • Tools for developers and themers • dpm(), devel degerate, ddebug_backtrace(), devel_node_access, devel/php, devel/ phpinfo, devel/switch/[username] • Disable on production sites

28 jQuery_update SOMETIMES NEEDED • A dependency of some other jQuery modules

29 Content Taxonomy WTF? • Gives you more options with taxonomy features • Adds complexity to taxonomy data storage

30 Calendar Sometimes Needed • A views plugin for displaying dates as a calendar • Notoriously buggy and breakable

31 Global Redirect SEO • A plug and play SEO helper

32 jQuery UI Sometimes Needed • A dependency of other jQuery modules • Just a wrapper around the jQuery UI (which you still have to download)

33 Contemplate Beginners Only • A module for doing theme template work • A tool for beginners that mostly makes their life harder while scratching the immediate itch

34 Voting API API • A dependency of voting modules (e.g. Fivestar)

35 Page Title SEO • A module for people who are concerned with the title at the top of the browser

36 Nice Menus SOMETIMES NEEDED • THE module for drop-down navigation • You have to be pretty CSS-savvy to get it to look right with your theme

37 Transliteration MUST HAVE • Cleans up the ﬁlenames of your users’ uploads • Prevents headaches

38 Print MUST HAVE • Creates links for print, PDF download, and e-mail versions of your content • Great book module integration

IMCE Wysiwyg 39 Bridge HAS ITS PLACE • Needed if you use IMCE and Wysiwyg • You really should be using Wysiwyg module if you’re using a wysiwyg...

40 Tagadelic SOMETIMES NEEDED • Handy tagcloud creation

41 Phone SOMETIMES NEEDED • CCK ﬁeld for phone numbers • See also: generic text ﬁeld • Needed when phone numbers you store are programmatically used

42 Email SOMETIMES NEEDED • CCK ﬁeld for e-mail addresses • Needs to get more popular than Phone...

43 widgEditor SKEWED STATS • Don’t use wysiwyg modules other than Wysiwyg • Odd spike in its usage statistics

44 Menu Toggle SKEWED STATS • Odd spike in its usage statistics, matching widgEditor

45 Emﬁeld SOMETIMES NEEDED • The best way to embed external video and audio (a type of CCK ﬁeld) • Will be deprecated by media module (D7)

46 Views Slideshow SOMETIMES NEEDED • Most commonly used rotation module, but there are many others

47 i18n SOMETIMES NEEDED • Support for translating content

48 Site map SOMETIMES NEEDED • Displays all your menus and RSS feeds

49 Ubercart SOMETIMES NEEDED • The best open source e-commerce software available?

50 Fivestar SOMETIMES NEEDED • A well-written module for ratings

51 Simplenews NOT RECOMMENDED • Send e-mail blasts from your Drupal site • Not a good idea unless your mailing list will always be small

52 Auto Node Title SOMETIMES NEEDED • Create automatic titles for nodes based with your own logic

53 Image Assist DEPRECATED • Uses (deprecated) image module to add images into node bodies • Try Insert module instead

54 Location SOMETIMES NEEDED • A notoriously buggy messed-up module that collects address data, geocodes and supports views proximity searching

55 “GMap Module” SOMETIMES NEEDED • Location module’s partner in buggy module hell • See also: Open Layers

56 LoginToboggon SOMETIMES NEEDED • Provides some handy features for simplifying user registrations/logins

57 Path Redirect SOMETIMES NEEDED • Works much like Pathauto • Handy for redirecting legacy URLs into a new site

58 Rules SOMETIMES NEEDED • Slick trigger-based actions to build site logic without coding • Makes core trigger module embarrassed to exist

Views Bulk 59 Operations SOMETIMES NEEDED • Cool views plugin for building bulk action forms with views (think admin/content/ node)

60 External Links SOMETIMES NEEDED • Adds icons to external links and/or open them in new window

61 DHTML Menu SOMETIMES NEEDED • Open and close nested menu trees • Seems to confuse most users more than help them

62 Thickbox DEPRECATED • It worked nicely, but the jquery script it wraps is deprecated • Try lightbox2 or colorbox

63 Mollom SOMETIMES NEEDED • Smart spam prevention • Requires subscription for larger sites • See also: captcha

64 Better Formats MUST HAVE • Deﬁne different default formats per role and other features • A win for both security and usability • Some features are in D7

65 CK Editor DEPRECATED • See Wysiwyg module...

66 SWFTools SOMETIMES NEEDED • Use Flash to display audio/video ﬁleﬁelds

67 Content Profile MUST HAVE • Use CCK fields for user profile fields • Much better than core profile and user images • Users can have fields in D7

68 getId3() API • Get metadata from ﬁles • Fileﬁeld can use this

69 Update Status DEPRECATED • In core as of D6

70 Author Pane SOMETIMES NEEDED • Used by Advanced Forum and Advanced Proﬁle Kit

71 Mime Mail SOMETIMES NEEDED • Send HTML email from your site

72 Content Access SOMETIMES NEEDED • A node access module to customize view access per content type • Can also work on a per-node basis for view/edit/delete permissions

73 jQuery Plugins API • A dependency other modules can ask for to try to reuse jQuery plugins • jQ looks more useful

74 Menu Block SOMETIMES NEEDED • Gives you blocks for subsections of your menu, so you can show a section of navigation in context

75 Organic Groups SOMETIMES NEEDED • It powers groups.drupal.org • It’s used for all kinds of group systems and sub-sites, most them not at all organic

76 Views Bonus Pack DEPRECATED • Used to provide audio playlists and grid views in D5 • Still provides CVS export functionality

77 Scheduler SOMETIMES NEEDED • Schedules publishing and unpublishing of nodes • Workﬂow can do the same and more

78 Messaging API • System for sending messages through abstract means (email, SMS, twitter, etc) • Used by Notiﬁcations (content subscriptions)

79 Taxonomy Menu SOMETIMES NEEDED • If you need a vocabulary to be a menu...

80 Event DEPRECATED • See date and calendar.

http://www.drupaldelphia.com	60
http://zivtech_redesign.dev.zivtech.com	11
http://www.zivtech.com	8
http://zivtech.local	6
http://www.slideshare.net	4
http://zivtech_redesign.local	1
http://zivtech.biters	1

Top modules

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