Group items tagged

"Chris from LevelTen recently posted a great article on Drupal modules for improved usability. However, these focused on the administrative side of the website, not end users. So here is our own list of modules for the front end of your site! You do not want your Drupal site's users to get lost in a myriad of long forms, fieldsets, page redirects, and confusing tagging. You want to do everything you can to make navigating your site and completing frequent routine tasks as painless as possible for the end user. This will keep them calm and give them warm fuzzies to know that they can use your Drupal site with ease without having to pop a Valium just to endure the overwhelming experience of encountering your site. When you have relaxed, confident and in-control users - you have happy customers which can translate into more traffic, more sales, more word-of-mouth about your website! Now that sounds good doesn't it? Here are nine sure-fire modules to ensure users aren't selecting the "nightmare" button when interacting with your Drupal site."

" The Filter Default module allows you to assign a default input format for new nodes and comments for each role on your site. It adds a 'Defaults' tab to the Administer > Site configuration > Input formats page on which you can manage the assignments. Note: This functionality will be built into Drupal 7, so Filter Default will not be maintained beyond Drupal 6. Also, Drupal 6 users should take a look at Better Formats module, which covers more ground than Filter Default. Whenever a new node or comment is being created, each text input box with multiple allowed input formats is initially configured based on the settings for the user's roles. The user's lowest-weighted role (as defined on the settings page) that the user posseses is used. For a user that does not have any role indicated in the table, the default input format will be the one selected on the Input formats > List page. This module has no effect on which input formats any user is allowed to use. It merely sets initially selected input format when there are multiple choices. For example, suppose you have roles 'author' and 'admin' on your site in addition to the standard 'anonymous user' and 'authenticated user' and that your input formats defaults table looks like this:"

The GMap module provides an interface to the Google Maps API within Drupal. It integrates with the Location module to provide users a clickable map for entering latitude and longitude, as well as to display maps of Drupal nodes and users. GMap can be used to create interactive maps with various map markers and content in map bubbles, taking advantage of Drupal's other content management features. The module also provides a Views display plugin which allows users to display the results of a view on a Google map. The GMap package consists of the following modules: GMap: provides the GMap API, integration with Views and Location, and GMap macros. GMap Location: Provides a map of all a site's nodes and a map of all of the site users. GMap Taxonomy: Allows you to display different map markers based on taxonomy of a specific node. GMap Macro Builder: Provides a GUI for building "macros" (a text-based way of describing arbitrary GMaps). In order to use this module, you need a (free) Google Maps API key.

"The RealName module allows the administrator to choose fields from the user profile that will be used to add a "real name" element (method) to a user object. Hook_user is used to automatically add this to any user object that is loaded. It will also optionally set all nodes and comments to show this name."

Image FUpload (Multiupload) which is an addition to image and CCK's imagefield module, gives the ability to every user who is allowed to upload images by using image module or imagefield module, to upload multiple images with one simple click. All selected images are uploaded via a flash module (swfupload) and are automatically processed. So, there's no need any more to upload image by image. Features Upload multiple images with one click Fully integrates in image and imagefield module (thumbs creation [also using imagecache module] / file size limit) + using Drupals AJAX Every user can upload images depending on permission (Not only restricted to administrator) Preview list of all uploaded images in which title, body, taxonomy and imagefield specific fields can be edited all at once (customisable [decide which fields should be provided] / themeable / preview image handling customisable / additional permission restrictions) Taxonomy and all other modules (for example CCK fields like node reference) are supported Automatic node title creation and predefining of imagefield fields (customisable / themeable / editable by user / token support [imagefield])

API integration with the Twitter microblogging service and API-compatible alternatives like Identi.ca. Out of the box, it allow users to: Associate one or more Twitter accounts with their Drupal user account Have their tweets displayed in a sidebar block or on their user profile, and Post to their own Twitter account or a site-wide Twitter account whenever they create new content. Full Views integration is supported, allowing administrators to create customized listings of Twitter messages based on time, date, author, etc. The module's default "Latest Twitter messages" block and "This user's Twitter messages" profile page were created with Views, and can be customized and themed as desired. A "Post to Twitter" action is provided for use with tools like Trigger (core module) and Workflow, and an input filter is provided to turn Twitter @username references into links, and #hashtags into links to search.twitter.com.

This set of modules and themes turns Drupal into a platform for developing Facebook Applications. This allows you to embed your content and features within facebook, or allow facebook users onto your site via Facebook Connect. With Drupal for Facebook, you can harness all the power of Drupal in you Facebook App. If you already have content in Drupal, you can expose it on Facebook. The Drupal for Facebook philosophy is that the functionality already built into Drupal should be used to create Facebook Applications. Where possible, we use Drupal's user management, permission schemes, blocks, views, etc. to implement the Facebook App. Experienced Drupal users will find it very straightforward to build a Facebook App. While Facebook developers new to Drupal may want to spend some time on Drupal.org learning best practices. Drupal for Facebook contains several sub-modules. Enable just those that you need. For example if you need Social Plugins, enable just fb.module. For Facebook Connect, enable fb_connect.module; Canvas Pages, fb_canvas.module; wall posts and status updates, the fb_stream.module; and so on... Additional documentation can be found here: http://drupal.org/node/195035. Take the tour! http://www.drupalforfacebook.org/content/tour

Alternative method for grouping content/users around a particular "master node". Uses CCK reference fields with special permissions handling.

"Drupal's multi-site hosting capability is built in with any installation. This is great news for users who run numerous web sites from a single hosting account. A single Drupal installation can be used to run multiple domains, which makes it much easier to manage and maintain the code base. Even if you are dealing with only one domain, the multi-site capability may be valuable by providing the ability to run a separate domain or sub-domain for a development version. This page describes the set-up of the /sites directory for multi-sites."

This module allows users with proper permissions to upload images into Drupal. Thumbnails and additional sizes are created automatically. Images could be posted individually to the front page, included in stories or grouped in galleries.

This module allows you to specify content type(s) as being a block. This allows the content managers of the site to edit the block text and title without having to access the block administration page. Users only need edit access to that node in order to edit it. It is very handy to create a simple block content type and enable this content type for blocks and use these in place of the normal 'add block' functionality. Now supports translatable content In the 6.x-dev version, if Content Translation is enabled, then only a single node block per translation set is exposed and the node from the translation set with the appropriate language is loaded into the block.

A small distribution in development to install Drupal with user interface translations pulled automatically from localize.drupal.org. It is suggested you use this distribution to start off with Drupal if you'd like to set up a localized site. You can find setup instructions for the Drupal 7 version (which applies to Drupal 6 as well) at http://localize.drupal.org/node/2024 Localized Drupal ships with Localization update for sustainable translation management and Localization client for fixing translations and contributing back to the community (both on Drupal 6 and Drupal 7).

Display Suite allows you to take full control over how your content is displayed using a drag and drop interface. Arrange your nodes, views, comments, user data etc. the way you want without having to work your way through dozens of template files. A predefined list of layouts (D7 only) is available for even more drag and drop fun! By defining custom view modes (build modes in D6), you can define how one piece of content should be displayed in different places such as teaser lists, search results, the full node, views etc.

Shadowbox is a JavaScript modal media viewer application for viewing images, video, Flash and other content in a modal window. From the author of Shadowbox: Shadowbox is an online media viewer application that supports all of the web's most popular media publishing formats. Shadowbox is written entirely in JavaScript and CSS and is highly customizable. Using Shadowbox, website authors can showcase a wide assortment of media in all major browsers without navigating users away from the linking page.

The Media module provides an extensible framework for managing files and multimedia assets, regardless of whether they are hosted on your own site or a 3rd party site - it is commonly refered to as a 'file browser to the internet'. It replaces the Drupal core upload field with a unified User Interface where editors and administrators can upload, manage, and reuse files and multimedia assets. Media's aim is to solve Drupal's long standing media handling problem.

migrating content into Drupal from other sources (e.g., when converting a web site from another CMS to Drupal). Out-of-the-box, support for creating core Drupal objects such as nodes, users, and comments is included - it can easily be extended for migrating other kinds of content. Content is imported and rolled back using Drush commands.

These days large scale organizations are providing custom-designed applications to suit the needs of the vast mobile community spread across the world. Internet giants like Facebook and Twitter have rolled out customized applications to provide for a great user experience. All of it makes sense because of the rapid advancement in mobile technology and the growing user base especially in developing countries.

How to create another admin in Drupal

Content Creation Kit or CCK is an extremely useful utility in Drupal. CCK comes handy while creating content using forms on a Drupal website. Once the CCK module is enabled in Drupal any number of custom fields can be added to any custom type. Websites built on the Drupal platform come built in with standard features such as Blogs, Story and Page. These in turn have 'Title' and 'Body' fields as basic features and if a user wants to add any extra field the same can be achieved through the use of Content Creation Kit.