There Might (Not) Be a Module For That
One of the first steps in a new Drupal project is to walk through the wireframes and functional requirements of the new site to try to decide exactly how you would implement them in Drupal. Sometimes that is dead easy to do. A simple list of the titles of the latest content can be constructed using Views. Done! Sometimes that is an enormously complicated problem because there isn't any existing Drupal solution, or there are multiple possible Drupal solutions, or the Drupal solutions won't meet the functional requirements, or they don't seem to be ready for production. If you've been around Drupal for any length of time, you've heard the phrase "There's a module for that", referring to the fact that there are over 15,000 contributed modules on Drupal.org that extend the core functionality and do almost anything you might imagine anyone would ever need. Sometimes you can do a quick search of the module list, find a module that is a perfect fit for your needs, and drop it in place. But often that's not sufficient. Both the cost and the timing of a Drupal project can be significantly affected by the decision about how to respond when there is no drop-in Drupal solution that will meet the project's requirements. At Lullabot we call this the 'discovery' phase of a project -- the process of understanding the functional requirements of a new site and exploring the best ways to achieve it in Drupal. We've helped clients of all sizes determine how to use existing contributed modules to build out the site that they need, and when (and how) to respond when the existing solutions just don't work. Some of the questions this session will cover include: - How to find existing modules that might solve your problems. - How to test drive potential modules to see if they work the way you need. - Digging for sometimes obscure or hidden documentation about how the module works. - Mining the module issue queues to tell if a module is really suitable for your needs. - Deciding which version of a module is really 'safe' to use. - Choosing between alternate modules that might solve the problem. - What to do if existing modules aren't ready? - When and how to roll your own solution. - When and how to contribute your modules and/or changes back. - Validating your decisions in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty. Speaker(s): Karen Stevenson Experience Level: Intermediate
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There Might (Not) Be a Module For That
- 1. There Might (Not) Be a Module For That Karen Stevenson Lullabot Consulting
- 3. Core is Not Enough
- 4. Is There A Module For That?
- 5. The Process Identify each problem/requirement Find modules that solve it Evaluate the quality & suitability of the solutions Choose bet ween alternatives If necessary, roll your own solution
- 6. Find Modules That Solve A Problem
- 7. Know the Top 20
- 10. /project/modules
- 12. Google It
- 14. Well Maintained? Number of committers and commits How recently committed? How many bugs relative to total issues? Balance complexity of module against pure stats Usage numbers and patterns Code quality
- 15. Is It Well Maintained?
- 16. Which Version/Branch is Safe?
- 18. Code Quality Is it neat and well-documented? Does it comply with Drupal coding standards? Is there a lot of commented-out code?
- 19. How Well Does It Work? Check those issue queues Test drive Dig for documentation Google it
- 20. Mine the Issue Queues
- 21. Google It
- 22. Documentation Look for README.txt or INSTALL.txt Find ‘Configure’ and ‘Help’ links on module list Look for documentation link on d.o. project page Search Drupal.org or Groups.Drupal.org Read the code Use hook_menu() to find configuration urls Look for internal documentation
- 23. Choosing Bet ween Alternatives
- 25. Google It
- 26. Can you re-use this module?
- 27. Take Them For a Ride
- 28. Prototype Set up a prototype site Try out key modules Create a content type and key fields Use Devel Generate Make fields required Image min/max settings
- 29. That’s a Lot of Work!!
- 30. What if the Module Won’t Do? Too many bugs No solid release Badly maintained Badly written Not a good fit
- 31. Bugs Could it be operator error? Did you try the dev version? Is there a patch? Can you write a patch? Make sure the patch is posted and marked RTBC Looking for co-maintainer?
- 32. Wrong Features Can you adjust the requirements? Is there a feature request? Can you propose a patch? Can you use it as-is for now and customize in phase 2?
- 33. Rolling Your Own Google. Again. Search d.o. sandbox projects. There may be issues with code snippets to get you started. Can you make it work with existing modules and some ‘glue’, rather than a total custom solution? Can you phase a custom solution in?
- 34. Contributing Back Code Is this a problem others will have? Is there an existing module that does something similar? Can you add a new feature to existing module? Can you write code general enough for wide use?
- 35. Contributing Back Describe what you learned Add documentation Test and bump patches Add comparisons to drupal.org/node/266179
- 36. Validating Your Decisions Be worried if: You jumped straight to custom code instead of looking for an existing solution You avoided a time-tested solution because it was missing one tiny feature You didn’t do your due diligence
- 37. Examples
- 38. Alternative Solutions for Address + Geolocation Solution #1 Solution #2 Location Module Addressfield Module 1,620 KB 52 KB Geofield Module 32 KB Geocoder Module 20 KB GeoPHP Module + Library 110 KB + 193 KB
- 41. Custom Code - Views Calc
- 42. Alternative Solutions for Multilingual Content Translation or Entity Translation? Contributing Back http://lullabot.com/articles/localized-and-multi- lingual-content-drupal-7 Description and comparison of multilingual options Several pages of links to resources uncovered during research
- 43. Which Version for Organic Groups? Version 71 or Version 7 . .2? Lack of documentation Problems in 71, Patches needed for 7 . .2 Contributing Back: lullabot.com/articles/organic-groups-drupal-7 drupalize.me/series/organic-groups-drupal-7 drupal.org/project/og_extras
- 44. Other Examples Features + Glue Views Gallery Module Choosing Bet ween Alternatives CCK vs Flexinode Image module vs Imagefield
- 46. Questions??