Top Ten Best Drupal 7 Contributed Modules

Over the years I have used hundreds of Drupal contributed modulesand have written a lot of my own. However, I thought it appropriateto compile a list of my 10 best Drupal 7 contrib modules that Idon't think I could live without.

Criteria for my best drupal 7 modules list

First a little bit on how I selected these modules. I based theseselections on modules that I use most often in mydaily<wbr><a href="http://beginr.com/">webdevelopment</a>. I still work primarily in Drupal 6, however I havebeen doing my fair share of Drupal 7 development in the last 4 to 6months. I only wanted to focus on Drupal 7 modules for thispost.</wbr>

Basically if I had to start a fresh Drupal 7 website today and hadno idea what the site was going to be, these are the modules Iwould install.

Best Drupal 7 Module #1:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/views">Views</a></wbr>

I would be surprised if you weren't expecting this one. This moduleis essential in every website I build. It makes displaying lists ofcontent very easy. If you want an image slideshow, a list of blogposts, a list of products, etc., views is the best place tostart.

If you have been building websites for a few years, you probablyknow what it feels like to have to write custom SQL to pull prettymuch everything from the database (even for the simple things).Views solves 98% of those problems for you. It is a flexible anddynamic query builder that will help make even relativelyinexperienced web developers look like a pro.

Because of the underlying complexity of the module, it has a littlebit of a learning curve. It helps if you have some of theunderlying SQL knowledge so you can make sense of what some of theadvanced functions of the Drupal Views Module are doing in thebackground.

Best Drupal 7 Module #2:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/panels">Panels</a></wbr>

Panels gives you the ability to create custom pages easily. Thesecustom pages can have multiple regions of content. For example, youmay want to create a home page that has a Slideshow on the top, anda two column layout below. You could use Drupal's native blocksystem for this, but I would highly recommend using Panel'sinstead.

One of the most useful pieces of Panels functionality is theability to override the default node view for various contenttypes. My Drupal sites tend to end up having quite a few contenttypes by the time I am finished and the Drupal Panels module givesme the ability to easily change how each of those content typeslooks when viewed.

Best Drupal 7 Module #3:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/ctools">Ctools</a></wbr>

Views and Panels both require the Drupal Ctools module as adependency. It also worked out nicely to round out the top 3 withall<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/user/26979">merlinofchaos</a><wbr>modules.On its own, Ctools does not seem to do a lot. However, it isactually a very powerful framework if you begin developing your ownmodules. I have used Ctools in the past for developing multi-stepforms, modal dialog boxes, and even multi-step forms inside ofmodal dialog boxes.</wbr></wbr>

Best Drupal 7 Module #4:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/token">Token</a></wbr>

Tokens are little snippets of text that can be used as replacementpatterns. For example, if your website sends out emails and youwant to add in the users name, or you want fill in a link path witha node id to provide a helpful link to content, tokens will savethe day. It may sound confusing, but many modules have tokensupport and if you build a few sites you will most likely findyourself using them. There is also a fairly easy to implement APIfor exposing token values for your own Drupal modules.

Best Drupal 7 Module #5:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/pathauto">Pathauto</a></wbr>

The Pathauto module is a necessity for any website that frequentlyadds new content. It is also especially important if you have awebsite that allows users to create content using content types.Pathauto simplifies creating clean and search engine friendly URLSfor the various content you add to your site. For example, it canmake sure that all your blog posts are posted under"/blog/my-blog-title" (with the my-blog-title being replaced usingTokens). It is critical for creating and maintaining a welldesigned URL structure on any Drupal 7 website.

Best Drupal 7 Module #6:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/webform">Webform</a></wbr>

If you want to provide easy to fill out forms for the visitors ofyour site, the Webform module will help you out. The Webform moduleis great for contact forms, surveys, online employment applicationsetc.

The Webform module also proves to be very easy to use, even if youare not an experienced website developer. Simply build out thefields on your form, publish it, and you have yourself a workingform... about as simple as it gets.

Best Drupal 7 Module #7:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/rules">Rules</a></wbr>

The Drupal Rules module is not something I use on every Drupalwebsite that I build, however, it is such a flexible and powerfultool, I had to include it. Drupal rules will allow you to set upcondition actions. If you find yourself saying:

If ________ (this happens)

Then ________ (do this)

Rules can help you build it. You can use Rules in your Drupalwebsite to help you send emails, set messages, redirect to otherpages on your site, and much more. If you become an avid user ofRules you may hit the ceiling of what you can do, however if youget to that point you have to start asking yourself if a custommodule would be a better fit anyway.

Best Drupal 7 Module #8:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/features">Features</a></wbr>

If you are building a lot of similar Drupal sites, you may findyourself rebuilding a lot of the same content types, views, andpanel pages. Features helps solve those problems by allowing you toexport those content types, views, panel pages, and other settings,into a Drupal module. The next time you need that functionality,simply drop in and install your Drupal features module and you willbe good to go.

There is an even deeper level of respect for this module when youstart talking about development/staging and live/productionenvironments. If you create a content type and view in adevelopment environment, and want to get that synced to the liveenvironment, there is no better way than the Drupal featuresmodule. Any site that I build that needs a development environmentgets all the content types, views, panel pages, and settingsexported into one (or sometimes more than one) features module.This module then gets version controlled and can easily be pushedto the live environment. If you aim to become a serious Drupaldeveloper, you can't live without the feature module.

Best Drupal 7 Module #9:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/strongarm">Strongarm</a></wbr>

This might not seem like it belongs in the top 10, but if youexport as many features as I often do on some of the large sites Iwork on, this module is needed. I do not install features withoutinstalling the Strongarm module in tandem. This modules allows youto export your website configuration variables like your defaultemail address for the website, front page url, and numerous contenttype options. It was a little overwhelming to me when I first wasstarting with Drupal, but if you understand a little bit about howDrupal works and how the Drupal variable table functions, you willquickly see how helpful this module can be.

Best Drupal 7 Module #10:<wbr><a href="http://drupal.org/project/date">Date</a></wbr>

This is useful for allowing the easy selections of dates in contenttypes (with a nice date popup). It also integrates nicely with theviews module.

Other great modules

There are a ton of other great modules that didn't quite make mytop 10. I have listed a handful of them here.

• Drush<wbr>-I know this isn't actually a module, but its to great a tool toleave out. This makes the task of installing/uninstalling modulesand updating your drupal website a breeze. It also has a lot ofother handy functions. If you are module developer, you canalso<wbr><a href="http://codekarate.com/content/drush-integration-your-modules">write yourown drush commands</a>.</wbr></wbr>
• ViewsSlideshow<wbr>- Used to make nice looking imageslideshows using views. Used on most public facing business sites Idevelop</wbr>
• Entity<wbr>-this is required by a lot of modules so it ends up being installedon most of my Drupal 7 websites</wbr>
• EntityReference<wbr>- for the most part this replacesnodereferences and userreferences from Drupal 6. Helps you linkvarious pieces of content together.</wbr>
• Quicktabs<wbr>-Makes it easy to add tabbed content without having to write yourown Javascript/Jquery. What more do I have to say?</wbr>
• Libraries<wbr>-Makes organizing your various libraries of functionality easy (seeJquery UI above for an example).</wbr>
• GoogleAnalytics<wbr>- I don't build a Drupal websitewithout adding Google Analytics. This module makes it very simple.What gets measured, gets improved after all.</wbr>

There are many more that I use often that I neglected to mention,but the list is getting long enough. If you have others that wouldmake your top 10, leave them in the comments.