Podcast: Module A Day
#070: WYSIWYG ImageField
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/wysiwyg_imagefield
The WYSIWYG Imagefield module allows your users to upload images through the WYSIWYG interface while cleverly hiding it in your node under a CCK field.
- Who: Technical users
- When: Use this module when you want to allow your users to upload photos and use it in the WYSIWYG but you still want the image tied to the parent node.
- Why: There are many ways to upload an image and put it in the body of your node. This module gives you a different attack since it uses CCK fields but still interacts with the WYSIWYG
#069: Views carousel
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/viewscarousel
The Views carousel module allows your views to displays information as horizontal or vertical JavaScript carousels.
- Who: Technical and non-technical users
- When: Use this module when you want to have data scroll from side to side or up and down and you don't want to mess with JavaScript
- Where: Go into your favorite views and change the view style to be a Views Carousel.
- Why: All the hip kids want interactivity with their website and this module will let your users click on shiny things and make the things go wizzing by through the miracles of JavaScript!
#068: Sub-path URL Aliases
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/subpath_alias
The Sub-path URL Alias module maps "ugly" paths to more user and SEO friendly paths.
- Who: Technical and non-technical users
- When: Use this module if you don't want to see a URL like node/1/edit
- Where: I couldn't find any way to configure this module
- Why: Well, if I had to guess I would say it's more user friendly and hides things like the individual node IDs.
#067: CAPTCHA After
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/captcha_after
The CAPTCHA After module allows you to only display the CAPTCHA after X number of failed attempts so normal users don't have to deal with CAPTCHAs.
- Who: Technical and non-technical users
- When: Use this module when you want to protect your site from spammers but don't want to trouble your users with CAPTCHAs. Note: This doesn't necessarily protect your site from spam, more from manual brute force attacks.
- Where: You can modify the settings at admin/user/captcha/captcha/after
- Why: Asking a user to fill out a CAPTCHA after X failed attempts is not unheard of. It makes sure you are a human and slows you down enough if you are trying to brute force a form.
#066: Faceted Search
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/faceted_search
The faceted search module allows you to break up your default Drupal search into Facets (smaller pieces). These facets can then break down by content type, taxonomy, date and many other facets.
- Who: Advanced users
- When: Use this module when you have a ton of content in your site which makes it hard to find what people are searching for and you can't use Lucene API or Apache Solr.
- Where: You can add environments and change settings at /admin/settings/faceted_search
- Why: Larger sites almost require some form of faceting. When the search for ""Rodney Dangerfield"" returns 5k nodes you need to provide a better way to search for your users so they can find the content they need without going through page after page.
#065: filedepot
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/filedepot
The filedepot module allows you to upload files to Drupal as well as configure permissions, mark favorites, broadcast messages and even version files. (It has a Windows client too)
- Who: Technical users* (This is too generic, you'll have to listen to the podcast)
- When: Use this module when you want to allow users to upload files and create folders and need very fine grained permissions as well as versioning.
- Where: You can find your configuration options at admin/settings/filedepot and you can upload/modify files at /filedepot. I couldn't find any real CCK or WYSIWYG integration so /filedepot appears to be the only place you can access it from.
- Why: Drupal does need a strong file manager that works well remotely with a multi-user environment. This module is a half step in this direction. If it could provide good CCK and WYSIWYG integration this module could be the de facto file manger for Drupal.
#064: CacheExclude
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/cacheexclude
The CacheExclude module allows the site administrator to exclude specific pages from being cached. It works on a very simple pretense of changing one global variable.
- Who: Technical users
- When: Use this module when you have things like random views that change out per page view on a specific page but you want to allow the rest of the site to be cached (for non-logged in users).
- Where: All you need to do is go to admin/settings/cacheexclude and enter in the URLs to exclude (with wildcards)
- Why: Sometimes a page is too dynamic to be imprisoned by Drupal's default caching, use this module to free your page from the shackles!!!
#063: Heartbeat
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/heartbeat
The Heartbeat module allows you broadcast actions that you've done on the site.
- Who: Technical users
- When: Use this module when you want to let your users see what other users are doing like saving nodes, adding friends, commenting, etc.
- Where: You can configure this module by going to admin/build/heartbeat but don't forget it adds options to the user profile and you're going to have to work with views to display people's activities
- Why: Personally, I blame Facebook for this one. Now all social websites have to broadcast every single movement you make.
#062: Activity
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/activity
The Activity module allows you broadcast actions that you've done on the site.
- Who: Technical users
- When: Use this module when you want to let your users see what other users are doing like saving nodes, adding friends, commenting, etc.
- Where: You can configure this module by going to /admin/settings/activity but don't forget it adds options to the user profile and you're going to have to work with views to display people's activities
- Why: Personally, I blame Facebook for this one. Now all social websites have to broadcast every single movement you make.
#061: EPSA Crop - Image Cropping
Module Link: http://drupal.org/project/epsacrop
The EPSA Crop module allows you to crop uploaded images via JavaScript.
- Who: Technical and non-technical users (a technical person must set this module up)
- When: Use this module when your users will be uploading photos but you'd like to allow them to crop the image but you want to force them to use a specific aspect ratio.
- Where: You can configure this module by going to /admin/settings/epsacrop but the real magic happens in ImageCache when you define a crop. Then just configure a File Field in CCK for your content type and choose the Image Widget.
- Why: I used to be a proponent of allowing the user to upload an image and have imagecrop crop the image to the center of the photo but that doesn't always cut it if the focus of the image isn't in the center.
