Drupal is an incredibly powerful and flexible opensource CMS. Much like there’s always “an app for that” there is also always a module for that when it comes to extending Drupal. The more I work with it the more cool & helpful extensions I find. Here are some solid ones that I’d recommend to extend your Drupal install:
admin_menu: Makes drupal sites so much easier to manage and find what you’re looking for. I refuse to manage a website without this module.
calendar: Works well with the date module to make a powerful calendar
captcha: Use math or Images to cut down on spam
colorbox: Lets you easily put internal or external links into lightboxes including drupal forms
conditional fields: Allows you to show or hide cck fields based on values of other cck fields.
context: A smarter way to place blocks.
content_access: specify view edit permissions per content type
ctools- Necessary for a lot of other good modules
custom breadcrumbs- If you have a shopping cart you’ll want this or you’ll be left with just “Home”
date- Allows you to use date as a cck field and uses really nice jquery ui calendars for selecting the date.
devel- Module that helps developers as site is being built
dhtml Menu- Used to be great for helping with the administration menu in the good old days to keep better track of where you were at when the administration menu was in the sidebar. Now it’s just a nice menu to use as an accordion.
entity- Turns things like nodes into entities so you can reference them later.
feeds- Allows you to turn xml feeds or csv files into nodes.
feeds_tamper- Tweak the feeds using this module.
fivestar- You can’t have reviews without the fivestar plugin.
field collection- combine multiple ckk fields- kindof like a fieldset where you
galleria- Great gallery plugin that has options so that you can use it in a lot of applications
global redirect- Essential SEO module… redirects node/xyz to the alias
insert- Allows you to insert photos much like you can with WordPress.
job_scheduler- essential for many great modules like the feeds module
jquery_update- cause you don’t want an out of date version of jQuery
libraries- Allows you to use javascript or other libraries with drupal
link- Turn links into click able links.
logintoboggan- enhances the drupal login and access denied workflow.
masquerade- Great for websites where you want to impersonate other users to debug issues they have.
media- Shows all media uploaded to the website and allows admins to upload media without ftp.
plupload- Allows you to upload media by dragging and dropping files.
menu_block- Because you might want to show children of a menu as a menu block
metatags- Another essential SEO plugin. Allows you to change page titles and meta descriptions
multiupload- Allows you to select multiple files to upload to a cck field
multipupload_imagefield_widget – an extension of multiupload. Allows you to select multiple photos and upload them to a cck field.
nice_menus- make dropdown menus so nice and easy to make. Start with this module!
pathauto- Creates nice auto alias’
porterstemmer- enhances search
rules- Required for modules like ubercart where you have conditional actions
taxonomy_menu- Creates menus out of taxonomies… nice for eCommerce websites.
token- Required for pathauto and other essential modules.
ubercart- A fantastic shopping cart with a great community.
uc_feeds- extends the feeds module so you can import products.
uc_coupons- Every eCommerce website needs coupons.
uc_node_checkout- Turn nodes that users create into products. Service tickets for example.
views- Why isn’t this built into Drupal? If you haven’t heard of Views you probably haven’t heard of Drupal. Never built a Drupal website that doesn’t use views.
views_bonus- As a bonus you can export views as a csv file.
votingapi- Required with fivestar. Allows you to do voting on nodes.
webform- If you have a form on your website this is the module to use.
wysiwyg- If you are into that sort of thing, this in nice.
xmlsitemap- Essential SEO plugin. Turn on the node xmlsitemap to get all your pages listed.
Drupal is an incredibly powerful and flexible opensource CMS. Much like there’s always “an app for that” there is also always a module for that when it comes to extending Drupal. The more I work with it the more cool & helpful extensions I find. Here are some solid ones that I’d recommend to extend your Drupal install: