You Should Know...

June 19, 2009 - Ronn Abueg

You should know....

Views, Panels, and CCK are the foundation of all modern Drupal sites -- They do all most of the work for you

• tip: Reality check -- build as much of a site as you can using JUST contrib and core. Make sure your first question is "How can I implement this with existing modules like views, CCK and panels? Then, and only then, once you establish a gap, produce custom code. Custom code should only be used if you can prove that you were not able to use Views and CCK to create the equivalent functionality.
• tip: Learn how views export module works. It's bundled with views and allows you to literally turn your views into "versionable code".
• tip: Panels and blocks are a powerful combination. Learn it.
• see: Listing of "Essential Drupal Modules"
• see: Panels Video Tutorial from Oregon state Univ.
• see: Views + CCK Tutorial

Static nodes can be exported using the node_export module

• see: Install Profile API for importing node exports

CCK types can be exported and imported with content_copy module, ships with CCK

• tip: Again, the Install Profile API module makes importing CCK types easy.

i18n + views is the easiest way to build a multilingual site

• tip: Use the views language filters to build language aware views

Image module is one of the longest running, and best supported modules ever

• tip: If you're not using image module to handle your uploaded images, think again.

imagecache module is the long-run simplest way to handle multiple image sizes

• tip: Sure, there's a little configuration pain up front but your site will be extremely flexible

That pathauto is almost always the easiest SEO win

• see: Pathauto tutorial, a fairly good one

logintoboggan module solves 80% of the registration related requests from the client

• see: LoginToboggan Project on Drupal.org

admin_menu module makes administering and building Drupal sites easier and faster It is more attractive that simplemenu (and more logical and Acquia supported!)

• see: Admin Menu on Drupal.org