Top 6 Drupal Modules To Build Any Website – Elf Knows It [ARCHIVED]
I have been doing large amounts of messing on on all my Drupal based sites lately (99%), but one thing I have been experimenting with mostly is building what I want from scratch by using nothing but a few, very powerful Drupal modules!
1 – Views
This is a must, anyone who knows Drupal knows the power that comes with Views, for those who don’t know, it basically gives you the option to create what you want, exactly how you want it, from post listings to image galleries, and even custom Feeds!
The Views module provides a flexible method for Drupal site designers to control how lists and tables of content (nodes in Views 1, almost anything in Views 2) are presented. Traditionally, Drupal has hard-coded most of this, particularly in how taxonomy and tracker lists are formatted.
2 – CCK (Content Construction Kit)
CCK is another one of them small, but oh so powerful modules, with CCK you can create custom fields for your content types, this gives you the option to add any type of input field for users to use, such as address, website, or numbers etc.
The Content Construction Kit allows you to add custom fields to nodes using a web browser.
3 – Pathauto
This module is simple and sweet and just runs in the background, Pathauto simply makes simple, search engine and eye friendly urls from any content submitted to your site, you can also customize what the "auto" path will be, you will see I have content for here.
The Pathauto module automatically generates path aliases for various kinds of content (nodes, categories, users) without requiring the user to manually specify the path alias.
4 – ImageField
ImageField is a simple field that goes along side your content and simply lets you add pictures to posts. (uses CCK!)
ImageField provides an image upload field for CCK. ImageField is a CCK-based alternative to the legacy Image project. It boasts features such as multiple images per node, resolution restrictions, default images, and extensive Views support.
5 – Imagecache
Image cache will go along side ImageField, what it does is give you complete control over images used on your site, you can se different profiles for image sizes, scaling, cropping etc. e.g. you could have a smaller image as a thumbnail, and a larger image inside the post, all pulled from the one picture.
ImageCache allows you to setup presets for image processing. If an ImageCache derivative doesn’t exist the web server’s rewrite rules will pass the request to Drupal which in turn hands it off to ImageCache to dynamically generate the file.
There are so many more modules you could call essential, but in my opinion I think with these you have the options and power to go to work and create a pretty decent website!
One project I am working on at the moment is http://leadb.com, a buy and sell website, most of it has been created with just these modules listed above, and some others to add features etc.
What other modules do you class as a "must have"? Let me know with a comment!
