So Drupal 8 is in RC now! Yiiihaaaaa! And since the Drupalcon madness is con quiet: time for my monthly overview of cool Drupal modules. These updated modules caught my attention in september 2015:
1. Drupal 8 Editor File upload
Small but effective module: add inline images to your text Drupal 8 website. You can configure what files are allowed.
2. Color Field
Add a color picker field, so content managers can choose colors easily. It's a populair module; you can for example enable content managers to choose page colors for a specific node.
3. OpenLucius time tracker, budgets and reports
A homegrown module we released last week, that we of course have to mention here :)
- Start and stop timer realtime
- Synchs on all devices: if you clocked in on your desktop, you'll see active timer on all other devices
- Add time manually
- Set budget for a todo-list
- Set budget for a todo
- Reports: todo-list budget
- Reports: global overview with breakdowns and filters (date ranges, users, status)
- Reports: tracked time per todo
See also this blog
4. Pathauto persistent state
The populair Drupal module Pathauto comes in handy when it comes to automatically build your url's. You can also exclude certain content items from this 'automatic alias' and manually set it.
Pathauto does sometimes have the behavior to 'forget' that you set the url of a certain content item manually. This results in an automatically generated new url without you knowing that. So dead links can occur in this scenario.
This module solved that, it makes sure Pathauto will remember wich nodes are set to manual provided url.
5. Facebook pull
Show posts of your Facebook page in your drupal website or social intranet.
6. Browsersync
Cool module for Drupal testers, it makes sure that browsers sync realtime in scrolling. So when you scroll in for example Firefox, it will automatically scroll in Safari. This is great to test your code in different pages.
You do need a Node.js server for this. For more info check this site.
[edit] @marcvangend feedbacked:
- "If you check the Aurora basetheme, it has browsersync pretty much out-of-the-box."
- "Saying you need a node.js server for browsersync sounds a way too scary. I run bs with gulp, all on localhost and really easy"
[/edit]
7. Moderation Dropbutton
A backport of the Drupal 8 button, this means a function from Drupal 8 build for Drupal 7. In this case it's the 'Save' button under each node. In Drupal 7 it's just a 'save', in Drupal 8 there are more moderation functions under that button like ‘Save and publish’ en ‘Save as unpublished’.
8. Mandrill
Do you send a lot of emails from your Drupal website or social intranet? Maybe it's a good thing to do this via an external, specialized service like this Mandrill (from the makers of Mailchimp)
This module integrates Mandrill, that has features like:
- Send emails better, so they don't end up in a spam-box
- Dashboard with statistics: opened, clicked, bounced, etc.
- Templates
9. Self Documenting REST API
If you use the REST API of Drupal 8, then this module can automatically document your web service. If external developers are going to work with your API, they need documentation.
Because it's being generated for you, it save a lot of time. And remember, you API is as good as it's documentation: nobody will use your API if it isn't well documented.
Want to know more about a Drupal RESTful API, aka 'headless' or 'decoupled' Drupal. Related: Headless Drupal. Why & how a RESTful API in Drupal?
10. Patch Status
Never-ever-ever hack the Drupal core or a contrib. If you really need to change some code, than use a Drupal patch. A patch can be attached to an issue on Drupal.org. If you do apply patches, than make sure you document that. And this module might come in handy: it shows applied patches on the Drupal 'status report' page.
11. Drupal Module Upgrader
Since last week Drupal 8 is in RC, this means it wont be long before the stable release :D ! This means a lot of modules have to be ported from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8. This module upgrader module provides a kick-start for that.
Wrap up
Alrighty, that’s it. Next month another module update, stay tuned!
