Buddylist, Friends, etc. modules

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There are two main contenders in the Drupal 6 "relationship" space as of July 2010: User Relationships and Flag Friend.

User Relationships (UR) is a comprehensive solution with a suite of modules to address a number of use cases. Flag Friend (FF) is a lighter weight but still very complete solution based on the Flag module. The main difference is that UR allows multiple two-way relationships, whereas FF allows only one (although this restriction is being removed in the 2.x branch). There are also differences in node access control. UR's documentation is a little better, but FF is somewhat easier to set up. UR is much more widely used, but FF's issue queue is significantly cleaner. Both modules are well-maintained and ports to Drupal 7 are in progress. (Update: as of January 2013 both are still in alpha)

For an in-depth comparison of User Relationships 6.x-1.0-rc4 and Flag Friend 6.x-1.0-rc4, please see this article.

Historical alternatives

Unmaintained:
Friendlist - no stable release, no development since June 2009
Buddylist2 - no stable release, no development since September 2008

Deprecated:
Ajaxified Friends - no published releases, no development in 2 years
Friend - abandoned

Drupal 5
User Relationships - stable; recommended
Buddylist - no development since October 2007; has an upgrade path to User Relationships
Buddylist2 - no development since November 2008; has an upgrade path to User Relationships

Comments

* bashes head on desk

stephthegeek's picture

* bashes head on desk *

Agghghhhh this one is driving me crazy. I read through the long threads on how they ended up with so many modules for relationships on D6 and it's just frustrating and sad. Now instead of using one of these I'm using NONE of these until things settle down.

Just throwing in my vote of shaaaaame :P

I think...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I think the big problem is that there hasn't been a module that managed user relations that was:

  • Good
  • Well engineered
  • Consistently maintained
  • Which fostered integration with other modules

So, it's not really a matter of "too many". I think it was a matter of "none, which looked like too many".

Merc.

Ditto

Rosamunda's picture

I feel the very same as you, Stephanie.
That´s so sad, because I´m really stuck with this feature, and don´t know which module to use. I just didn´t like to convert all my flexinodes to CCK, so when this "don´t-know-wich-module-will-win" situation appears, I´ll just wait until the winner shows up.
And that´s pretty sad.

World of D7

MGParisi's picture

Welcome to the world of Drupal 7, where we have very few options and no perfect simple solution. Yay for diversity!


--Sig--
Owner of Proper Programming, LLC a software and website development firm.

U mad, bro? The comment you

Garrett Albright's picture

U mad, bro? The comment you replied to is four years old, and this entire thread is older; maybe there's a solution which will work well for you out there at this point. If not, well, sorry that nobody has psychically predicted your use case and released free code to address it yet. But if you slide a few bucks in the direction of me or any of hundreds of other Drupal developers, we can address that for you.

Same here

Michelle's picture

I'm holding off a while as well to see how things pan out. Module duplication sucks. Some say it fosters competition. I say it fosters confusion.

Michelle


See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region

Some say

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

some say it fosters ingratitude. Others say it fosters good code. And some others say it fosters competition. And others say it fosters good code.

Merc.

Eh?

Michelle's picture

Igrattitude? We're supposed to be grateful for duplication over collaboration? Good code? Maybe in some cases. Not always. I've heard the buddylist 2 code isn't very good and you yourself said the user relationship code was bad, which was your justification for adding yet another module to this mess. So I don't see how duplication fosters good code. The module that comes after may have better code or it may have worse. There's no direct causation. But in all cases we have end user confusion.

Michelle


See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region

I was talking in general

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I was talking in general.

You are misrepresenting me. I didn't like UR's 1) Code 2) Database 3) API 4) Lack of workflow. It doesn't take a master in CS to know that patching something like that is not beneficial. That's an example where collaboration is actually NOT beneficial. FriendList s what UR would have looked like after 1 year of patching, discussing, changing, fixing, etc. I didn't think Drupal could wait 1 year. I don't expect everybody to understand that, though.

But the point you seem to be missing, is simple:

*** Good code, good data, good API, are everything ***

Modules with the points above don't "go", because others will pick them up.

The points above imply that:

  • If I disappeared today, FriendList still won't go because it will take anybody no time to pick it up and understand a good 95% of it.

  • The code works without unexpected quirks

  • The module can be expanded immensely easily. Just see how short the integration code is

And if you are insinuating that I am not for collaboration, give me a break. I sent patches to CCK field privacy so that it can integrate with any other module, not just "friends". I am doing the same with profile_privacy -- that is, sending working patches to them. I am working my way through all of the most important modules in Drupal, so that they have a generic way to interface to modules like UR and FriendList or Flag or ANY other module that makes connections between users. I am doing so sending code.

If you are holding a grudge because I didn't manage to take UR's maintainership (Alex.K showed up most unexpectedly), then that's just how it is. I probably should have, but at that point I wasn't quite sure how far FL was going to go.

Now, excuse me, I have modules to develop and good code to write.

Merc.

.

Michelle's picture

I wasn't going to reply here but my brain just won't let this go so I need to set the record straight so I can get on with what I should be working on.

I was talking in general.

I was talking in general. You decided to snipe at me for it. I don't see any of the other duplicated module maintainers or Dries, who I was grumbling at, for that matter, here. Just you.

But the point you seem to be missing, is simple:
*** Good code, good data, good API, are everything ***

I'm not missing it; I don't agree with it. There is more than just code. There's a thing called community.

It doesn't take a master in CS to know that patching something like that is not beneficial.

Well, I only have a BS in CS but, as I my suggestion was to branch it, not patch it, it's a moot point.

And if you are insinuating that I am not for collaboration

Actually, I wasn't. Until you decided to attack me, I was actually fairly pleased with the direction things were going, just a bit sad about the current situation.

If you are holding a grudge because I didn't manage to take UR's maintainership

Nope. I was disappointed that didn't work out, but that's a far cry from a grudge. The only issue I have is your arrogant attitude that there is no problem with this situation because the code is all that matters and your harrassing me via email and IRC which, thankfully, you've finally decided to stop. You're so busy being nasty you didn't even stop to notice that I was on your side. But I've had enough. I don't want to deal with someone who treats people the way you do. Friendlist may be the better module but your attitude sucks. And, unlike you, I don't believe it's all about the code. I believe people are important, too.

Michelle


See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region

Alright

mercmobily's picture

Actually, I wasn't. Until you decided to attack me, I was actually fairly pleased with the direction things were going, just a bit sad about the current situation.

OK.

Nope. I was disappointed that didn't work out, but that's a far cry from a grudge. The only issue I have is your arrogant attitude that there is no problem with this situation because the code is all that matters and your harrassing me via email and IRC which, thankfully, you've finally decided to stop.

I find the situation exasperating. That's all. you know, it's really hard on you, when you spend countless hours working on a module that is much, much needed, and then somebody comes along and says "All you did was add confusion". Note the "all".
I am not sure what reaction you expect anybody to take after that. I have never behaved this arrogant before, ever. Have a look at my past posts. But, I must say, this situation got the worst out of me. Whatever arrogance was there, just got multiplied out of frustration.

You're so busy being nasty you didn't even stop to notice that I was on your side.

You are right, I didn't. I didn't notice you stopping saying that all I did was adding to confusion.

But I've had enough. I don't want to deal with someone who treats people the way you do.

I don't "treat people" the way you think I do. I just get immensely angry when people just seem to make judgments on partial facts, and make comments like yours, Michelle, "All you did was add to confusion", after dedicating all of my braincells to something like this for free.

Friendlist may be the better module but your attitude sucks.

My attitude towards you does, you're right.

And, unlike you, I don't believe it's all about the code. I believe people are important, too.

I think it's a matter of respect for other people's work.

But, once again, you are right. I was surprisingly nasty -- likely too much, considering. It was an over-reaction to something that I considered way unacceptable. And that stood like a mountain in front of me -- I didn't see much else.

Sorry about that.

I am not gonna be "nasty", but I hope you understand where it came from, and why.

Merc.

.

Michelle's picture

I don't recall ever saying "all" you did was add to the confusion. Yes, I was frustrated that you continually dismissed my concern that duplicating UR rather than branching it would add to the already problematic user confusion and, yes, did mention it a few times because you didn't seem to be getting the point. But I also backed you up on the activity log and was willing to give Friendlist a shot and push for that to become the standard despite the rocky start. And all I got from you is "Just look at the code and see how awesome it is." You kept emailing me and bothering me on IRC, implying that I was ungrateful and incompetent and I've since found out that you've insulted other people I respect as well. You may have a technically better module but your selling of it was obnoxious and insulting. This whole thread is a prime example of that. The post you jumped on wasn't even directed at you. I was co-miserating with Stephanie and grumbling a bit at Dries' decision. The only relation to you was that you happened to be one of the several people with duplicated "buddy" modules. You jumped on it and you made it personal.

Bottom line is that it's great you're working to get a quality module in this area, great that you're helping reduce the impact of your duplication by folding in some of the other dupes, but insulting people because they are more concerned about the comunity than the quality of your code is not going to make you any friends. It is not all about the code. It's about the community.

Michelle


See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region

Alright...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I don't recall ever saying "all" you did was add to the confusion.

I guarantee you did. Granted, it might have been later down the track, when you thought I wasn't getting the point. But you did -- more than once.

Yes, I was frustrated that you continually dismissed my concern that duplicating UR rather than branching it would add to the already problematic user confusion and, yes, did mention it a few times because you didn't seem to be getting the point.

OK

But I also backed you up on the activity log and was willing to give Friendlist a shot and push for that to become the standard despite the rocky start.

I didn't notice that. Maybe that wasn't clear, maybe I was blind, maybe a bit of both.

And all I got from you is "Just look at the code and see how awesome it is."

That's not what I said. Every time, or nearly every time, I said (take a deep breath) "The code is better, the API design is (in my opinion) better, the db structure is (in my opinion) better. And it has a workflow/status-oriented API that is important. I think it's what would have come out of User Relationships after a lot of patching etc.".

You kept emailing me and bothering me on IRC, implying that I was ungrateful and incompetent and I've since found out that you've insulted other people I respect as well.

I wonder who those "other people I insulted are". It's a very generic statement, you've made. Considering that the only people I've clashed with are you and Morbus, I can only imagine.

I didn't think I "bothered you by email". I sent you one email since the fire started, and all I said was that my attitude was going to stay. In IRC however, I might have sucked.

You may have a technically better module but your selling of it was obnoxious and insulting.

What you saw as "insulting and obnoxious" (which probably was insulting and obnoxious) was the result of what actually happened in the writing of this module.

This whole thread is a prime example of that. The post you jumped on wasn't even directed at you. I was co-miserating with Stephanie and grumbling a bit at Dries' decision. The only relation to you was that you happened to be one of the several people with duplicated "buddy" modules. You jumped on it and you made it personal.

I found it really hard not to make it personal.

I spent hours writing the module, because I felt that Drupal was lagging sillily behind in this area. Before starting I had a look, studied the existing stuff, and realised that there is nothing I would rescue. So, I did it.

Then... Here comes Morbus, who says "Oh, we will simply unpublish your project and mark it as duplicate". Luckily, he didn't _really- have a say on the matter.

Then here comes Michelle, the Social networking goddess, who first says "You should have patched UR". Then, later, for whatever reason, dismisses my work on the basis of "you should have branched, all you did now was add to confusion".

Then the abandoned module User Relationship, abandoned and disliked by me, gets a new maintainer.

I am not an obnoxious person. Ask anybody who has ever worked with me. But I must admit, I do tend to become obnoxious when I see that countless hours of good work go through a series of attempt murders or dismissals -- by Morbus first, and by you afterwards. And my reasons are simply not listened to.

That's why I turned like that. That's in fact probably the only way to make me really frustrated.

Bottom line is that it's great you're working to get a quality module in this area, great that you're helping reduce the impact of your duplication by folding in some of the other dupes, but insulting people because they are more concerned about the comunity than the quality of your code is not going to make you any friends. It is not all about the code. It's about the community.

I shouldn't have insulted. I probably did. Apologies.

Merc.

And in fact...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

And in fact, while we are here and I have your attention, I have a question that is actually technical.

Do you think it's worthwhile for me dedicating a good hundred hours on collaborating with some guys I don't really know much about (see: high-ish failure rate) on turning Drupal into a full OpenSocial container?

I researched and researched, and pretty much none of the existing projects are active or seem to be going the right direction. However, I am concerned that one of the following happens:

  • Somebody comes out with full fee code to do it
  • I discover that nobody actually gives a flying hack about OpenSocial
  • (something else that will effectively mean that I burned 100 hours of my life)

Bye.

Merc.

.

Michelle's picture

I'm not one to advise you in this area. Unlike the "buddylist" mess, I know very little about Open Social. I asked in your other post if you had contacted the maintainers and you said you had. Beyond that, I'll leave suggestions to people who are familiar with the software.

Michelle


See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region

I'm doing it...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I feared this response. I have no choice but actually code the beast if I want to see Drupal (and my own sites) with OpenSocial Apps.

Sandbox or project?

The trouble here is that I am not 100000% convinced I will succeed. However, the sandbox is likely not to help my morale and gain less interest. Plus, it will be nice to have an opensocial project with code... (I already have some)

Comments welcome...

Merc.

Go for it

earnie@drupal.org's picture

Create a project and run with it.

Answered here:

Possibly...

Lee-vit-Over's picture

Possibly you and Michelle could take your arguments elsewhere - I realize this is an 'old' argument, but it's still being read by people like myself who are trying to learn Drupal, and we don't need two coders arguing here. Drupal can be confusing enough, for one such as myself - we really don't need personal arguments of 'opinion' to make matters worse. There's a saying I use; "Opinions are like armpits - everyone's got 'em, but some people's stink." - Maybe we could keep some 'stink' out of the module forums? Thank you.

Check dates, my friend… most

Garrett Albright's picture

Check dates, my friend… most of the posts in this thread are over a year old. The argument has passed.

Good grief

Michelle's picture

Why are you dredging up a 1.5 year old argument? Let it rest in the dusty archives where it belongs. The whole thread is moot since the only modules that are still maintained are User Relationships and Flag Friend anyway.

The argument is long dead. Let it rest.

Michelle

"Then here comes Michelle,

Michelle's picture

"Then here comes Michelle, the Social networking goddess, who first says "You should have patched UR". Then, later, for whatever reason, dismisses my work on the basis of "you should have branched, all you did now was add to confusion"."

See this is where you went wrong. First off, I'm not a goddess. :P Second, I never dismissed your work. Yes, I think adding another module when we already had 5 that did the same thing added to the confusion and yes I was not thrilled with that. But my main concern was that you were going to follow through and finish it and support it and continue to maintain it so it didn't become yet another partial solution. So far it looks like you are. So, yeah, it sucks that we have two modules that do the same thing and it's going to be an ongoing problem for people to choose between. It's not an ideal situation but it's what we've got and we need to move forward. And that's all I really have to say on it. I've never been one to hold a grudge and already my anger at your insults has died off. So let's just be done with it.

Michelle


See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region

OK

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

OK.
"done"...

Merc.

BFF

dman's picture

I just find it amusing that this thread is under the title "friends"
Thank the gods for social networking!

... just sayin' ;-)

Friend might be deprecated

IceCreamYou's picture

Friend might be deprecated in favor of FriendList as well. It was originally created only as a temporary solution anyway. And at the moment, AjaxFriends is not a player.

That leaves FriendList and User Relationships. The modules are very similar. FriendList has slightly fewer "features" but a much tighter and more extensible codebase (so better integration), and it is almost ready for an "official" release. UR is still far behind in catching up to D6.

Flag seems like it would need a "glue" UI module to function well as a replacement, but the potential is great. It would need some development to get extra features though, like "friends of friends" and "recommended friends" (both features I recently helped develop for FriendList, and which I've written code for UR).

Hummmm

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I talked to the Friend maintainer. After an initial email to decide on a good conversion path from Friend to FriendList, he disappeared. So, that's stalled. The problem with Friend is that it does a lot of things, all included in one module: a chalkboard, for example. And no, AjaxFriend is not really a player (hasn't had a commit for countless months).

I am not sure about "flag". I'd love to integrate with it, but we'll see.

I think the real players right now are FriendList and User Relationships. Luckily, what was a very confusing situation in September is for some reason turning into a much clearer picture. Some developers are working hard.

Bye,

Merc.

Friend module gone?

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I noticed today that the module "Friend" has gone completely.
I emailed the author. I read somewhere that he was trying to lessen his workload because he was spreading himself too think. But I do find it weird that the module is just "gone".

Bye,

Merc.

Not weird

earnie@drupal.org's picture

You may find lots of good (relative) modules in http://cvs.drupal.org/viewvc.py/drupal/contributions/modules/ that are not given in the project/Modules list.

Ok, not weird but...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

OK, not "weird" maybe. But... who's ever gonna use them? No issue list, nothing.
Plus, the issue list from Friend is gone -- it was there a minute ago.

I still don't fully get it. Somebody give me a brain or a clue stick.

Merc.

Takeover

earnie@drupal.org's picture

If the author/maintainer has decided to remove the module; the code still exists in CVS. Just request that you become the CVS owner to the proper authorities. If the current CVS owner refuses to release his/her ownership, what then? Duplicate I suppose is an option but those that maintain can make a final decision.

I added this issue..

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I think Friendfield Ajax is dead.
I filed this:

http://drupal.org/node/316575

Let's see what happens in two weeks.

Merc.

thanks

catch's picture

Part of the motivation for this group is trying to sort some of this stuff out. I'd never heard of Friendfield Ajax until last night compiling this list, if it really is abandoned then we could perhaps move it to the 'abandoned modules' user and explain so on the project page.

It's encouraging that buddylist2 has a migration path to friendlist too.

That's what I am trying to do...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

That's what I am trying to do. That message is to follow the procedure -- if he doesn't respond in 2 weeks, we will pass it on to the infrastructure guys. It was a good catch though -- I had never heard of it either.

Now there is a migration path from buddylist 1 to friendlist. So, the only less-maintained module in the Drupal 6 picture is "Friend" .
I will do my best and sort things out with Friend module, although it might be a little complicated if he doesn't respond to email...

I'll persevere.

The goal is to have FriendList (the User Relationship rewrite) and User Relationship as the default modules, and then see which one is most supported, used and maintained in 6 months. As long as there is a migration path from one another, it should be sweet.

Bye,

Merc.

He responded...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

He responded. Let's see what he says.

Merc.

Two days later...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I wrote this a couple of days ago:

http://drupal.org/user/51849

The author didn't respond to my post nor to my email. Since it's not formally abandoned, I think we'll have to re-add to the duplication list.
We'll see...

Merc.

Flag FTW

NikLP's picture

Flag should be the one. It has provision for multiple relationships, and multiple types of relationship.

Personally I think we should be working towards more generic relationship modelling than focussing on users. I have some very funky ideas of how to use Flag for stuff that isn't remotely related to users. Well, mostly.

Web Development in Nottingham, UK by Kineta Systems

That would be great... with a "but"

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

This is the old "generic modules" issue...

Install Friendlist. Show me (and everybody else) how to do what Friendlist does with Flag. That will make FriendList obsolete... which would be great.

Trouble is, I tried and I don't think it's feasible.

I'd give you a list of things that will be roadblocks... but the risk there is that the list won't be comprehensive, and will be used as a reference.

I would love to be proved wrong though!

Merc.

A hint...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

A hint to make your comparison easier: have a look at README.txt and README.DEV.txt to see what FriendList does. The documentation is very complete, and it will give you a nice overview of what its potential is even without installing it. So, if you know "flag" well, you will be able to have a clear idea -- a report here would be great, actually.

I'd do it, but I am obviously biased. So, it's best if I don't.

Merc.

Should I wait

steven.nourse@drupal.org's picture

In your opinion is user relationships even worth the trouble or should I just wait for friendlist?

Try both and decide...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

Try both of them and decide, I suppose.

Merc.

Time..

stephthegeek's picture

I wish i had time to do this. That's a big part of the problem here. It takes a lot of time to wade through issues, code, use cases, and actually try these things out to make a decision as to which one's going to be around in 6 months.

~~~
{ Drupal Themes from TopNotchThemes } Gorgeous Drupal 5 & 6 designs with Views/Panels 2 support, plus Ubercart themes!

Trying is part of the deal

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

Trying modules is always part of the deal in Drupal. It doesn't always apply to code duplication etc.

I have been around for quite a while around here, and have supported Drigg users every day. But I can't tell you that I won't be in intensive care in 3,4 or 6 months. Nor can the developer of User Relationships. (However, good documentation, good code and good structure will definitely help if that happens. And this applies to ANY module).

Bye,

Merc.

..."wait"?

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

just wait for friendlist

Friendlist is so close to version 1 is not even funny. I am waiting for some last confirmations that the API is 1000% Drupal-like and makes absolute sense.

So the "wait" is probably extremely short.

Merc.

About Friend & notice modules

andypost's picture

I've tried to use this modules in one project some weeks ago. Both of them are very dirty unstructured code & weak docs - Looks like custom solution and no updates from 18 july. After of hours of work I take only needed and make my module.

As for me I prefer only one or two modules for relations, activity (which is alive now) most for Good API & db layer

PS corkboard from friend module is buggy and better make as contrib module

friend duplication and progress

nipsy's picture

Hi all,
Michelle and Merc display their own parts of this issue and the frustration/passion is evident. Perhaps before getting into a whole lot more "wasted hours" and to assuage Michelle's concern about community perhaps we could gather ideas regarding the desired functionality and cobble together an uber module that will provide solid code (yes Michelle, good code is more important because without it the community reaches frustration, seeks other solutions and Drupal dies) and provide useable function (yes Merc community is more important because elegant but unused features often result from perfectionism and poor communications leads to 'false starts' by people without coding skills making for confusion that leads people away from Drupal)

This list is not very well represented by the people who really need these features. Open Social functionality has not had much reaction IMO because not many people understand how powerful it is.

Merc, your logic and energy are much appreciated and your attention is essential because most of us 'lay' people don't know good code, we just see a slow server, customer complaints, and strange SQL error messages. So keep it up! If you don't mind adding a few extra words from time to time about your priorities I think we will be much stronger advocates for your approach.

These functions are exactly what my clients want and that I have spent 100+ hours trying to kludge. Can we get a little positive motivation and coalesce over the functions that are needed most then get it done?

Are there things us mortals can do to move it along - like email and pester? Michelle has proven herself a great documentarian so once this is accomplished we can promote it pretty well.

Not sure...

mercmobily's picture

Hi,

I am not sure I follow you here.
FriendList is finished. People are already using it even though there is no version 1. The documentation is 1000% complete.
From your post, I am not sure what you are talking about when you mention "these function".

I am open to discussion, but at this point it would be for FriendList 2.0 -- that's the most practical and reasonable thing to do, I believe.

Have you seen Friendlist's functionalities and documentation?

Anyway, I would open a new thread about this.

Bye,

Merc.

appreciate

najibx's picture

i appreciate what you guys have discussed and came up with. This is the first time, I read such a long discussion/dispute etc from various posts regarding this. Thank you, and thank you again ...

-najibx -
<a href="http://www.successideaweb.com>Drupal web developer | designer in Malaysia

Thomas_Zahreddin's picture

So in the moment it boils down to

http://drupal.org/project/friendlist
or
http://drupal.org/project/flag_friend (depending on http://drupal.org/project/flag)

or http://drupal.org/project/user_relationships

(development of UR is continuing, but it lacks of documentation)

for my case and my requirements my favourite is http://drupal.org/project/friendlist in the moment

without this page, it would have taken me much longer to find a appropriate module.

friendlist is the way to go

davidseth's picture

Just wanted to through my support in for friendlist: http://drupal.org/project/friendlist. I am using it in a major (to be released) site and it works great. It has Rules integration which means it easily plugs into Flag module, UserPoints module, anything really. It is well documented and the push to a 1.0 release is probably days or weeks away.

Cheers,

David

user_board

vinoth.3v's picture

HI

have any one of you tried user_board module?

Vinoth - வினோத்
Tamil2Friends.com

Vinoth - வினோத்
Tamilnanbargal.com

Not related

Michelle's picture

That module looks more like a guestbook kind of thing, not a "friend" module.

Michelle


See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region

2010?

deanflory's picture

So, now in May of 2010, what is the consensus of which one to use? I'm new at this and seemed to have some errors show up with UR but that could have been some issues with trying to make this all happen on a GoDaddy server (using MAMP now, much better and more reliable for dev).

DEAN FLORY
Cary, North Carolina, USA
Learning something every day...

User Relationships

Michelle's picture

UR is the only one still being actively maintained.

Michelle

Whoops

Michelle's picture

My bad... I totally had a brain fart on Flag Friend. Was just thinking of Friendlist. FF is a good lighter solution.

Michelle

UR threw up some errors for

handheld_car's picture

UR threw up some errors for me at least a couple times over the past few months. At first, it was because I was using PgSQL. The second remedy was to install the latest dev. The way to approach errors is to search for them on the drupal.org site and then search for some issues on the module page itself. If you don't find one, start an issue yourself.

Thanks for the updates

deanflory's picture

Thanks for the updates on what was current (seems that changes rather quickly with Modules even within a Drupal version cycle, did a whole lot of research on modules in September of last year before doing any dev and it seems things have changed since then, now that I'm actually building).

In general, is there a constant with "more reliable/less errors" with newer versions even if they're "alpha", "beta" or "rc"? I figured those would all be more buggy as they're not "accepted", but I have no basis for that assumption and I'm sure it varies from module to module/developer right?

Fun, fun, building my first site over again after finding there were just too many errors in my database from problems brought on by building the site on a shared hosting GoDaddy server, learned my lesson there, sad to see weeks of effort go down the drain since I don't yet know enough about databases to feel confident in editing them directly (but soon to come, leaps and bounds). Site is much faster and less errors this time around, loving Drupal.

DEAN FLORY
Cary, North Carolina, USA
Learning something every day...

I've only had to use one or

handheld_car's picture

I've only had to use one or two alpha/beta/rc releases and only used dev releases when prompted by the developers. ("This warning is fixed in the latest dev." Once, I found instructions on how to fix it myself.) Do you use phpMyAdmin? (or phpPgAdmin) I can do a few things in the command line, but I think the phpAdmins simplify tasks like dumping a table. It can be tricky to set up, but I documented everything that gave me problems.

Not really

Michelle's picture

It varies a lot on the maintainer and how carefully they test before doing named dev releases. For my modules, I try very hard to make sure there's no bad bugs even in my alphas and that any bugs have issues associated with them. I do that because I have very little time to work on them and they stay in alpha an extremely long time. My dev snapshots, though, are pretty iffy. I don't normally recommend them. :)

The best thing to do is have a development copy of your site and install modules there first to test. So much of contrib is written by volunteers so the quality varies widely.

Michelle

New article comparing friend modules

rfay's picture

See the article by IceCreamYou comparing friend modules: http://www.mediacurrent.com/blogs/comparison-friend-modules-drupal-6

Another comparison...

rickvug's picture

Also see this comparison between User Relationship API vs Friendslist API: http://groups.drupal.org/node/14625