Modules that are useful for Scouting sites

This wiki page lists modules that are useful for Scouting sites.

A few tips on choosing modules

• Make sure that the module fits the Drupal version you're using.

• Read the readme, to make sure that the module does what you want it to do. Some modules have quite misleading names.

• Check the feature-request list and bug report list for the module. If they are close to empty, it means that the module is barely used, and probably won't continue to be developed (unless you do it yourself). If the bug list contains serious bugs that haven't been fixed for some time, it means that maintainance of the module is poor.

• Be sure the module works with your version of PHP. Some modules, i.e., Date2 and FileField, require PHP 5.2 versus 5.1 or 4.x. Many ISPs are still using PHP 4, and RedHat Enterprise Server 5 ships with PHP 5.1.

• Always try the module on a test site for a while before installing it on your live site.

Content Delivery

• CCK, Content Construction Kit, is used to customize node types. Use with sub modules to create data fields with dates, links, buttons, etc. With CCK, you can create a article node type containing fields for section, lead image, editor, publish end-date, location, et cetera. Also, check out the Contemplate module for extended node template customization. There are a number of sub modules.

• Views module allows creation of lists of nodes based on flexible criteria, for example last commented articles, most popular articles, sports articles tagged as top stories. You can choose which fields to display in the lists, and the lists may be themed individually. Also, the lists may be displayed as blocks or pages, and lists can be exported as documents or CSV tables, and may also be broadcasted as RSS feeds. There are a number of sub modules.

• Panels module will help you to create complex, multi-column page layouts that can be managed by editors. With Panels, it's possible to change the layout of the homepage or section pages based on the needs of news content. Panels allows node, view, block or custom content to be assigned arbitrarily to zones in custom layouts, freeing you from the ordinary limitations of the 1:1 relationship between blocks and regions.

• The Pathauto module provides support functions for other modules to automatically generate aliases based on appropriate criteria, for example yoursite.com/year/issue/title-of-article. This is a huge boost when it comes to search engine optimization.

• Print Friendly Pages module allows you to generate printer friendly versions of any node by navigating to www.example.com/node/nid/print, where nid is the node id of content to render.

• Search 404 If an url doesn't exist, Search 404 makes a search using the terms in the path and presents the result to the visitor. If there is only one page hit, Search 404 can optionally take the visitor to that page directly.

Membership and Networking

• Logintoboggan module provides a number of neat functions for logging in and registrating, such as re-typing e-mail for verification.

• Invite module allows your users to send and track invitations to your site.

• Service links module enables admins to add links to a number of social bookmarking sites, blog search sites etc. Includes sites are del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, ma.gnolia.com, Newsvine, Furl, Google, Yahoo, Technorati and IceRocket.

News letters

• Simplenews sends html or plain text newsletters to the subscription list. It may be extended with the Simplenews template module.

Statistics

• Download count increments a download counter and logs a descriptive message each time an attached file is downloaded.

• Google Analytics module adds Google Analytics javascript tracking code to all your site's pages. This could be the best choice for sites where non-tech people would like to see statistics.