How to Select Modules for New Drupal Users

Selecting the right Drupal modules

Heather James - Learning Services

Heather James

Contact me

@learningdrupal

on Twitter

Purpose: How to locate, evaluate and select modules

About you:

→ For those who are new to Drupal

→ Evaluating Drupal solutions

→ Know some Drupal essentials already: Blocks, content

types, Drupal building basics

In this webinar?

BEAN module?

(cc) BY 2.0 cookbookman17 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cookbookman/5535057893

https://www.drupal.org/project/bean

1. Define and discover

Define your requirements

Purpose?

Integrations?

Data for views display?

Fields?

Skills?

Templates?

Blocks?

Do you need a module?

You might be searching for

an all-in-one solution.

You can build with Drupal

out of the box

Three step solution

1. Model the data with fields and entities (usually content

types, there are others *)

2. Configure display

3. Create lists with Views

* Entities include Content types, Taxonomy, Comments, Profiles, Blocks (with a

contributed module :)

Example content types

training.acquia.com/course/site-building-drupal-7

2. Searching for modules

Drupal.org

https://www.drupal.org/project/project_module

Categories

Case studies

drupal.org/case-studies

Other sources of info:

Your local community!

Attend events.

Ask questions.

http://groups.drupal.org/

Search videos from DrupalCamps

YouTube

DrupalCon sites

DrupalCamp sites

Groups.Drupal.org

melbourne2015.drupal.org.au

3. Initial evaluation

Reading a

project page

Stump the chump!

Do you have a module you’d like to evaluate?

Ask a question now. We can look at the page together.

4. Test a module

Simplytest.me

insight.acquia.com/free/register?distro=acquiadrupal

Existing account?

Acquia Hosting

Free hosting

account

Install Drupal

docs.acquia.com/cloud/manage/code/install-module

Dev Desktop - Local

Download at

acquia.com/downloads

Manage your local copy

Connect to Acquia cloud hosting

5. Learn a module

What to look for?

Help / documentation

Configuration options

Review the permissions

Is there a block available?

Is there a new content type made available?

Is there a theme template available?

Modules list

Configuration options?

Help options?

Other modules includes?

People > Permissions

What permissions are available?

Structure > Content types

New content type available?

Structure > Blocks

Module folder > Templates?

Functionality

What is the module supposed to do?

Does it work as intended?

Questions?

Keep an eye on the Acquia Blog

I’ll follow each of these steps in depth in upcoming

tutorials.