From 2500 to ten: A beginner's guide to module selection
Submitted by Richard Weait on May 13, 2008 - 2:15pm.
Session Number:
12
Time slot:
F: Saturday 11:30 am - 12:45 pmRoom:
Large 2 - 728 (100+)You've installed Drupal for the first time. You're finding your way around the GUI are ready to work on your site. Now it's time to just add one module to deliver the key function required for your site. You go to the modules page and, "Look at that! Over 2000 contributed modules! How do I choose from that list!?!?!?!?"
This presentation is for beginners and will look at ten key modules that will make your Drupal future brighter. We'll narrow down the many, many, many modules to just a few that you'll really want to start with.
(19 votes)
Slides are available
Slides available from my site. Licensed cc-by
Other modules mentioned by audience
Image attach: part of image module??
http://drupal.org/project/image
TinyMCE
http://drupal.org/project/tinymce
Lightbox (well, Lightbox2)
http://drupal.org/project/lightbox2
Shadowbox
http://drupal.org/project/shadowbox
Recommended modules etc. mentioned in session
Well implemented, generic, customizable theme:
http://drupal.org/project/zen
Simple menu:
http://drupal.org/project/simplemenu
Update status (part of 6 core--will be prompted to update in admin):
http://drupal.org/project/update_status
Pathauto (gives nodes more sensible paths):
http://drupal.org/project/pathauto
Bad behavior (reduces # of script kiddies):
http://drupal.org/project/badbehavior
Contact/Webform (can add extra fields; data shows up in tables in Webform admin; does stats):
http://drupal.org/project/webform
Captcha (use w/ forms):
http://drupal.org/project/captcha
Simple news (users subscribe/unsubscribe from mailing lists on their own; can upload existing mailing lists):
http://drupal.org/project/simplenews
Content Construction Kit (CCK) (allows you to add arbitrary fields to nodes):
http://drupal.org/project/cck
Imagefield name (name photos according to function and treat them different in Theme layer):
http://drupal.org/project/imagefield
Imagecache (resizes image to fit theme):
http://drupal.org/project/imagecache
Automatic node titles (create title for node from other elements of node):
http://drupal.org/project/auto_nodetitle
Faceted search/CCK facets
http://drupal.org/project/faceted_search
http://drupal.org/project/cck_facets
Views (List of [nodes, node teasers, one CCK field from many]; filter list in relevant way):
http://drupal.org/project/views
Beginner re Drupal
Definitely a session that I'd participate in. Have good website foundation/experience working with Dreamweaver on Windows platform (created and maintain several websites) - however, I am anxious to learn and work with Drupal.
Is this strictly a presentation i.e. attendees watch a screen and listen, or is there opportunity to work on computer?
Thanks, Mary
I'm not sure how much
I'm not sure how much following along you'll be able to do. I'm not planning on any exercises. You'll get a lot out of this presentation by noting the ten recommended modules and how they apply to your projects and interests.
This presentation is suitable for beginners, so you'll see and hear about ten modules that you'll find helpful as you dive into Drupal and the thousands of contributed modules.