Can we list down the modules most frequently used while buliding social-networking sites ??

We encourage users to post events happening in the community to the community events group on https://www.drupal.org.
sourish20's picture

Apart from the most widely used modules like Views, CCK , Ctools etc... What are the modules which are specific to social-networking sites that enhance the sites' usability as well as feel....??

Comments

We Love Organic Groups

InfinityMark's picture

We've implemented OG into several social communities and it works really well to enhance social media functionality among groups of similar interests.

Some modules we use at Le Figaro

drines's picture

This is a list of modules we used or except to use soon in the community website we manage at Le Figaro.
We've presented some of them a drupal con cph2010.

User Relationships
http://drupal.org/project/user_relationships
Allows users to create named relationships between each other. It is the basic building block for a social networking site, or any site where users are aware of one another, and communicate.

Activity
http://drupal.org/project/activity
The Activity module keeps track of the things people do on your site and provides mini-feeds of these activities in blocks, in a specialized table, and via RSS. The module is extensible so that any other module can integrate with it. The messages that are produced are customizable via the admin interface and are context sensitive. Some theoretical example messages include:

* You wrote a comment in response to "example comment title"
* Jim wants to be your friend. Approve this friendship here
* Nancy is Phil's latest fan

Facebook-style Statuses
http://drupal.org/project/facebook_status
This versatile module can imitate Twitter or Facebook's "wall" feature: each user gets a "status" or microblog where they can express how they feel or what they're doing to the community. Users can also post on other users' profiles (like on Facebook) or make references (like @mentions and #hashtags on Twitter).

Organic groups / OG user roles¶
http://drupal.org/project/og
Enable users to create and manage their own 'groups'. Each group can have subscribers, and maintains a group home page where subscribers communicate amongst themselves.
They do so by posting the usual node types: blog, story, page, etc. A block is shown on the group home page which facilitates these posts. The block also provides summary information about the group.
Groups may be selective or not. Selective groups require approval in order to become a member, or even invitation -only groups. There are lots of preferences to configure groups as you need.

Private messages¶
http://drupal.org/project/privatemsg
Privatemsg allows your site's visitors to send private messages to each other. Perfect for community oriented sites, such as forums and social networking sites.

Messaging¶
http://drupal.org/project/messaging
This is a Messaging Framework to allow message sending in a channel independent way. It will provide a common API for message composition and sending while allowing plug-ins for multiple messaging methods.

Profile Privacy¶
http://drupal.org/project/profile_privacy
This module allows users to set privacy options for their profile when using the core profile.module. It does not create any settings pages or configuration screens, it integrates seamlessly with the existing profile module.

Profile Complete Percentage¶
http://drupal.org/project/pcp
Profile Complete Percent (PCP) is a dependency of the Profile module in core. It allows administrators who have access to use the module to tag created profile fields as items needed for a user to be 100% complete when filling out their profile information.

Flag (I Like)¶
http://drupal.org/project/flag
Flag is a flexible flagging system that is completely customizable by the administrator. Using this module, the site administrator can provide any number of flags for nodes, comments, or users. Some possibilities include bookmarks, marking important, friends, or flag as offensive. With extensive views integration, you can create custom lists of popular content or keep tabs on important content.

shorten (partager)¶
http://drupal.org/project/shorten
This module provides an API to shorten URLs via almost any service (over 25 services are available by default), as well as a block and a page to provide easy UI access to that API. Includes handling in case a service cannot be reached or is taking too long to respond.

login_destination & logintoboggan¶
Contrôle le parcours de connexion des internautes

avatar_selection¶
http://drupal.org/project/avatar_selection
When a user edits their account details they can choose to upload an image or photo of themselves, also known as an avatar. The Avatar Selection module allows the user to pick an avatar image from a list already loaded by an administrative user. It is also possible to disable the uploading of pictures by users and only allow them to select an avatar icon from this list.

workflow¶
http://drupal.org/project/workflow
The workflow module allows the creation and assignment of arbitrary workflows to Drupal node types. Workflows are made up of workflow states. For example, a workflow with the states Draft, Review, and Published could be assigned to the Story node type.

facebook_connect¶
http://drupal.org/project/fbconnect
This module allows users to login on a Drupal website through the Facebook Connect API – using their Facebook login and password.
The module also brings other extra features:
* Users can see which of their Facebook friends already have an account on the Drupal website
* Users can publish a customizable message on their Facebook feed announcing that they have created an account on the Drupal website
* Users can invite their Facebook friends to create an account on the Drupal website

Content profile¶
http://drupal.org/project/content_profile
This module builds user profiles as content (aka nodes), which opens the opportunity to use all the powerful modules for content for user profiles too, e.g. the Content Construction Kit (CCK). It's intended to be simple and useful, but extensible by further modules.
Content profiles can be restricted to certain roles; the module also supports separate content profiles for different roles.

Twitter¶
http://drupal.org/project/twitter
This module provides API integration with the Twitter microblogging service and API-compatible alternatives like Identi.ca. Out of the box, it allow users to:
1. Associate one or more Twitter accounts with their Drupal user account
2. Have their tweets displayed in a sidebar block or on their user profile, and
3. Post to their own Twitter account or a site-wide Twitter account whenever they create new content.

Chat/IM and messaging within OG

drtrueblue's picture

Thank you sandrine.crozat for an excellent listing.
I'm wondering if there is any recommendations for the following:

  1. A chatroom module (multiple users in one chat room)
  2. An IM module (one user can IM another)

Lastly, how is it best to set up organic groups so a user can send a private message to another user. I suspect there is a way to tweak the privatemsg module, but perhaps there is a better approach?

Thanks.

federation?

michaelmd's picture

i think I remember seeing something about a module for ostatus ages ago .. can't seem to find it now

but i think for people building social networks,
any modules related to federation may be of interest too

Heartbeat vs. Activity

zfactor's picture

sandrine.crozat , thanks for the comprehensive list. I would love to hear what people think of the Activity module in comparison to the Heartbeat module. I am looked over the two and cant see much of a difference.

I didn't know Heartbeat,

drines's picture

I didn't know Heartbeat, thanks !
It look likes very more powerful than Activity module.
I will read documentation on http://heartbeat.menhireffect.be/

See topics about : http://groups.drupal.org/node/18517

Thanks !!!!

sourish20's picture

Thanks for the superb description sandrine.crozat...... It really helped a lot !!

But there is kinda confusion between User Relationships and Flag Module...... Which is better ???

Great information..

jp2020's picture

Thanks a lot.