Using Drupal Appendix B: Choosing the Right Modules

This page is archived

We're keeping this page up as a courtesy to folks who may need to refer to old instructions. We don't plan to update this page.

Alternate resources

In this short series of tutorials, you'll learn how to find and evaluate Drupal contributed modules.

See our guide Using Drupal Book by O'Reilly Media to access all of our tutorials related to this book. Each series covers a chapter (or appendix).

Tutorials in this course
More information

In this short series you will learn how to find and evaluate Drupal modules for your project. This first tutorial will show you where to find modules on Drupal.org, and various ways you can use Drupal.org's search tools.

Additional resources

Drupal.org Modules page
Drupal module categories
Similar modules group
Drupal case studies
Planet Drupal

More information

An open source project’s strength comes from the power of its base of contributors, and a Drupal project is no different. Although every line of code added or changed in Drupal core goes through rigorous peer review, contributed modules are more of a Wild West where anyone who jumps through a few basic hoops can add modules for everyone to download. Whether or not a module is well maintained, its overall code quality, and how well used it is in the overall community are all important factors for you to consider when selecting modules. This tutorial will talk about determining these factors by closely inspecting the tools Drupal.org provides, starting with the central feature of all Drupal modules: the project page.

More information

By far, the best way to keep up-to-date on which modules are the most useful, and to ensure that those modules do what you need, is to actually get directly involved and help. The Drupal community offers a myriad of ways for everyone, from the person who just installed Drupal for the first time yesterday to the person who has been coding since she was in diapers, to give something back. In this tutorial we'll look at all of these options and explain how you can dive in.

Additional resources

Drupal Getting Involved guide