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Tuesday 5 May 2015

Opting for the Right Modules Using Drupal: When Less is More!

There are hordes of powerful Drupal extensions or Modules to opt from and many more are incorporated every passing day. Well, in such a scenario, it is quite natural to find it difficult to choose the right module for the task at hand! It is interesting to gauge how to combine modules in useful ways and develop websites such as online store, e-commerce, wiki, photo gallery, personal blogs or a product review site.

Every new project approaches with a unique demand and so modules which were important at one time for a particular project may not be as useful now. Also, new modules hold better functionalities totally eliminating the need for the earlier ones.

However, it is still pertinent to carefully evaluate modules you choose before committing to them. You already know where to find the modules --- they are furnished on the main Drupal.org website.
Basic Types of Modules on Drupal Sites



Ways to Choose the Right Module

  • You can spot the 'must-have' modules which are most frequently utilized for building Drupal websites.
  • There are also some modules which have already proved their worth and would be continued to be used.
  •  Choose modules that are compatible with your Drupal version. For this, choose the right release.
  •  Consider factors like over-all code quality of the module, whether it has been used in the overall community and also whether the module is well-maintained or not.
  •  With every module, codes etc. are added to the site. Dealing with more things will take longer duration to load the pages. So, choose fewer modules.
  • Choose Drupal modules which are actively maintained, that is, the required fixes are applied regularly.
  • The module must conform to higher code quality level.
  • The module must attend to security concerns.
  • The module must be segmented to make sure that the code is loaded only when required.
 No Exact Science for Choosing Modules

Some of the most commonly used Drupal modules are Field Group, Link, Media (for organizing and storing audio and video) and References. Then there is View Reference, Block Reference, Submitagain etc...you name it!

There are core modules for Drupal that are referred to as Menus. Menus add functionality for working with navigation. Then, there are many user-created modules which can be installed quite fast. The Token Handling modules do not have conspicuous actions and just place small 'tokens' inside placeholders which serve a central API for modules for utilization of these tokens. 

Well, there are tons of modules, each doing its bit for extending the basic functionality of the open-source Drupal platform. It is quite possible that you choose a module and it later turns out to cause trouble with messy code and cross-browser problems!  

There is no doubt that Drupal modules make Drupal an admirable platform to build on. With experience, you will notice that certain modules become common for a particular type of project. However, fewer modules is the key! Drupal is certainly the ideal PHP content management platform with free services, customer helpline, forums and modules. Get ready for some dynamic activity on your website, with Drupal Modules!

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