Active menus Activemenus makes the standard Drupal navigation menu expandable. Clickable, highlighted regions are added to the menu. When a collapsed menu item is expanded, the child menu items are loaded dynamically through AJAX. Formerly part of the Javascript Tools package, Tabs is now an independent module as of Drupal 6. It requires the Javascript Tools module, which for Drupal 6 is a small collection of commonly needed utility functions. The module DHTML Menu handles expandable menus too, but it does not use AJAX and the entire menu tree is loaded in the HTML, so it may cause some issues with very large menus. Originally authored by Nedjo Rogers. version 2 This version allows to choose the menus on which the AJAX behavior should be activated and supports horizontal menus. Port to Drupal 7 just began, thanks to alexh.
Wysiwyg Allows the use of client-side editors to edit content. It simplifies the installation and integration of the editor of your choice. This module replaces all other editor integration modules. The Wysiwyg module supports any kind of client-side editor including HTML editors (a.k.a. The Wysiwyg module also provides an abstraction layer for other Drupal modules to integrate with any editor. Discussions happen in the Wysiwyg group, and in IRC #drupal-wysiwyg. Installation Download and install the module as usual.Go to Administer » Site configuration » Wysiwyg, and follow the on-screen installation instructions that are displayed there.Follow the on-screen installation instructions. Further documentation Supported editors/plugins Editors: CKEditor, FCKeditor, jWysiwyg, markItUp, NicEdit, openWYSIWYG, TinyMCE, Whizzywig, WYMeditor, YUI editor. Contribute To complete the big picture, this project not only needs hands-on development, it also needs funding. Maintainers Project links
Upgrading modules Updating modules can be a more involved process than installing or removing modules. Follow the steps closely, as they are necessary to ensure the stability of your website. To update a module that's used by your website: Check for module-specific update instructions First, check the module's project page "Read Documentation" link, as well as the instructions (for example, README.txt, INSTALL.txt, and UPGRADE.txt) that come with the module's installation file (tarball or zip)for any module-specific update instructions. This is typically necessary when updating modules that involve the usage of third party libraries. Back up your database and files Your website's database contains all of its content, as well as all of its settings and configuration. Put your site into Maintenance mode From the Drupal Administration pages, go to /admin/settings/site-maintenance and put the site into maintenance mode by selecting "Put site into maintenance mode". Replace the module code with the updated version
XML sitemap The XML sitemap module creates a sitemap that conforms to the sitemaps.org specification. This helps search engines to more intelligently crawl a website and keep their results up to date. The sitemap created by the module can be automatically submitted to Ask, Google, Bing (formerly Windows Live Search), and Yahoo! search engines. The module also comes with several submodules that can add sitemap links for content, menu items, taxonomy terms, and user profiles. Please read the included README.txt, the handbook documentation, and the current list of known issues for more information before using the module. Development roadmap The 6.x-2.x branch is a complete refactoring with considerations for performance, scalability, and reliability. Upgrade Paths Before upgrading, make sure to backup your site's database. To upgrade from version 6 to version 7, please make sure you use a 6.x-2.x to 7.x-2.0-rc1 path. Special thanks to:
Using distributed authentication Note: Drupal 6 installations should use the site network module : Distributed authentication One of most dreaded obstacles users are confronted with these days is the need to continually create new accounts for themselves at every website they come across. Logging into a website to check out it's features should be a fun process, not a chore. For example, on groups.drupal.org, you do not have to fill out a registration form if you are already a member of drupal.org. Enabling the feature To enable this feature, turn on the 'drupal' module at Administer > Site Building > Modules (D5), and configure it at Administer > Site Configuration > Distributed authentication. The Settings Authentication service: Enabled Default authentication server: (the URL of the master authentication server) Only allow authentication from default server: Enabled How it works Drupal knows how to communicate with external registration databases. Solutions: An Alternative
Making your own customisations to the default theme | ProsePoint Example subtheme released Over the last few weeks, we've received questions from interested users about ProsePoint themes, particularly about how ProsePoint themes differs from Drupal themes, and how to customise the default theme that comes with ProsePoint (tma2). After a few ad-hoc replies, we've decided it was time to devote some attention to ProsePoint themeing. In hindsight, we always knew users would enquire about themes, we knew users will want to change something about their theme. (Oops. We've since added a themeing section to the user guide, and with this article, we're now going to release an example of customising the default ProsePoint theme. A header image from the subtheme (Source: Wikimedia Commons) To understand this example, you will need to know some CSS. Before you proceed, you may like to download the example subtheme tma_custom (about 726KB). This example is implemented as a subtheme of the default theme (which is tma2). This example subtheme has two changes.
Media The Media module provides an extensible framework for managing files and multimedia assets, regardless of whether they are hosted on your own site or a 3rd party site - it is commonly referred to as a 'file browser to the internet'. Media is a drop-in replacement for the Drupal core upload field with a unified User Interface where editors and administrators can upload, manage, and reuse files and multimedia assets. Any files uploaded before Media was enabled will automatically take advantage of the many of the features it comes with. Media's aim is to solve Drupal's long standing media handling problem. Drupal 7 installation Quick install: Follow this recipe, or see online installation documentation. Drupal 8 Media for Drupal 8 is undergoing a re-architecture to individual components. Thank you Aaron Without his kindness, generosity, humility, and dedication, this module and many many others would not have been possible. You will be missed, friend. What is the difference between 1.x and 2.x?
Theming Views 2 Views 2 provides a well structured theming environment allowing presentation control for each element of your view. And in my humble opinion, it rocks! Those with no past experience with Views 1 will find Views 2 uses standard PHPTemplate theming techniques. All of your experience theming Drupal can be used with Views. Views 1 themers starting with Views 2 might be a bit confused at first. Overview Views handles querying the database and organizing the information for display. Generally speaking, the template levels are: Each level becomes input variables for the next level up. A template file naming convention is used to make the template highly specific or highly general. Template Files Each theming level has a default template file. Views Module Theme Files The theme information link on the Views 2 interface shows views theme file information. Theme Information Link Clicking the link produces a display pane (shown below). Theme Template Information Pane Template Variables <? <? <? Summary
SEO Compliance Checker The SEO Compliance Checker checks node content on search engine optimization upon its creation or modification. Whenever a publisher saves or previews a node, the module performs a set of checks and gives the user a feedback on the compliance of the rules. This module is supported by the UFirst Group. seo_checker.module The core module seo_checker doesn't implement any checks. Submodules The module comes along with two submodules (basic_seo_rules.module and keyword_rules.module) that implement checks for some basic SEO rules. The submodule keyword_rules.module requires a text field on the node where you enter your keywords. If you have ideas for further SEO rules this module should check, feel free to post them to #420312: Ideas and patches for further rules. Use jquery_ui for nice Sliders in Drupal 6 While Drupal 7 comes with jQuery UI included, Drupal 6 still requires you to install an additional module called jquery_ui. Preferred setup at the moment Setup using older versions
Open Source Micro-Blogging CMS Software & Twitter Integration With all of the news about a possible Twitter sale to Google, I am wondering if we will see an increased trend in clients looking for micro-blogging sites and “Twitter Clones” for local and niche communication. Already, I am offering Twitter and Social Network integration (Facebook, mySpace) to clients on blog and ecommerce sites, to easily connect with friends, community, marketing, communication, etc. that takes place on those sites from the main domain. More and more people are including their Facebook status messages and Twitter stream on their homepages, using the API & RSS feeds those sites offer to pull social content across network channels. WordPress Plugins: Xavisys, the web development company behind WebDevNews.net, has created a Twitter feed module for WordPress called WordPress Twitter Widget Pro. Drupal Modules: For Drupal, I find the best module to be Activity Stream. The Twitter module allows users to:
Panels An Overview of Panels The Panels module allows a site administrator to create customized layouts for multiple uses. At its core it is a drag and drop content manager that lets you visually design a layout and place content within that layout. Integration with other systems allows you to create nodes that use this, landing pages that use this, and even override system pages such as taxonomy and the node page so that you can customize the layout of your site with very fine grained permissions. Integration with CTools module Panels 3 utilizes the CTools' system of "context" so that the content you place on the page can be aware of what is being displayed. Panels uses Contexts - What are they? In a Panel, you can create contexts, which represent the objects being displayed. In addition, these contexts can be checked for information and use that not only to make content available to be displayed, but to choose which layout to display! Panels can also be used for items smaller than pages.
Workbench Moderation Workbench Moderation adds arbitrary moderation states to Drupal core's "unpublished" and "published" node states, and affects the behavior of node revisions when nodes are published. Moderation states are tracked per-revision; rather than moderating nodes, Workbench Moderation moderates revisions. About Workbench Workbench is a suite of modules which provide easier content management for content administrators. Each of the "Workbench" modules has been tested to work with the main Workbench module, and with the other modules in the Workbench suite. Workbench Moderation may be run as a stand-alone module with no dependencies; however, certain features are available only when the Workbench module is also enabled. Sponsors Development is sponsored by Palantir.net.
Tepmlate diagram Clicking on the "Theme: Information" link provides you with a listing of all posiible theming files. The highlighted files are the ones Views is currently using. All other filenames are suggested templates. You may use any of the following possible theme files to modify individual parts of your view. In total, there are four parts to theming a view. The display theme is usually views-view.tpl.php and it largely controls the decorations around a view; where the header, footer, pager, more link, feed icon, etc, will be placed. A breakdown of View output The link to the left of each type will give you information about the default template used for that type. Important note: You place your custom template files in your theme directory, not views/theme. In addition to this tool, the very useful devel module contains a tool called the "Theme developer" which does a good job of visually showing you which areas of your site use which themes.