Drupal/C3/Finding-and-Evaluating-Modules/English

Title: Finding and Evaluating Modules

Keywords: Drupal, Finding and Evaluating Modules

Visual Cue	Narration
Slide 1: Finding and Evaluating Modules	Welcome to the Spoken tutorial on Finding and Evaluating Modules.
Slide 2: Learning Objectives	In this tutorial, we will learn to Search for a module and Evaluate a module
Slide 3: System requirement	To record this tutorial, I am using Ubuntu Linux Operating System Drupal 8 and Firefox Web browser You can use any web browser as per your choice.

Time	Narration
00:09	Earlier in the series, we’ve talked about extending a website through Modules.
00:14	And we have covered some of the Modules that come with Drupal.
00:18	We’ve even installed the Module devel earlier in the course.
00:23	But now we’ll understand how to evaluate and find great Modules.
00:28	Let’s go to drupal.org/project/modules
00:34	There are almost 18,000 Modules available for Drupal here.
00:40	Please note that a Drupal Module only works with the version of Drupal that it’s intended for.
00:47	So we have to update the Core compatibility to the version of Drupal we’re using.
00:52	This tutorial has been recorded before the release of Drupal 8. If we look for Drupal 8, we see only 1,000 Modules that match our search.
01:02	For this demo, I’ll switch back to Drupal 7, in order to show you some great things about Modules.
01:12	Click Search.
01:15	And there are 11,000 Modules for Drupal 7. That’s a huge difference.
01:21	With time, we will see the number of Drupal 8 Modules rapidly increase.
1:29	Meanwhile, let’s learn how to evaluate good Modules.
1:34	On this page, let us filter on the Core compatibility of the version of Drupal we are using. The list is sorted by Most installed or Most popular.
1:46	Chaos tool suite or ctools and Views are the all time popular Modules of Drupal.
1:56	Let’s click on Views.
1:58	There’s a simple 3-step approach to evaluating a good Module.
2:05	Suppose we go to the licensing bureau to get a new license to drive or register a car. In most US states, it’s called the dmv or the Department of Motor Vehicles. So, we’ll keep that in mind d m and v.
2:21	d stands for documentation m stands for maintainers and v stands for versions.
2:32	Look at the information given under the Project Information and Downloads.
2:39	Let’s start with d. Views is the second most popular Module of all time.
2:44	In fact, it’s being incorporated into Drupal 8 and we’ve actually used Views a lot, in this course.
2:54	There is no other shortcut in open source to understand whether a Module is right or not, except to read the documentation.
3:05	Always, read the documentation to know what a Module does.
3:10	Read the documentation to know what the issues are.
3:14	How do we know there’s help available? Read the documentation.
3:20	Once we install a Module, we should read the documentation to know which parts to turn on.
3:28	Reading the documentation is extremely important.
3:34	Please note, in open source, there is no-one to sue if a Module destroys your site.
3:39	You have to read the documentation. And determine whether the Module is compatible with what you’ve done on your site already.
3:47	So, I can’t emphasise it enough. Read all of this information by clicking on this Documentation link The issue queue And the bug reports to find out what is in this Module. So that’s the d.
4:03	The m stands for maintainers.
4:05	This particular Module was started by merlinofchaos.
4:11	Now, when we click on his name, it takes us to his Drupal profile.
4:17	Later in the course, we will learn how to have our own Drupal profile.
4:23	Here we see that Earl Miles is a big contributor to the Drupal Project - over 6300 commits. And he is the main creator of Chaos tools and Views.
4:37	There are a number of other maintainers for this particular Module.
4:41	With Modules you might see just one person maintaining it or you might see a group of people maintaining a Module.
4:50	Both are ok.
4:52	But say, a Module happens to be mission-critical, and the maintainer is unable to continue with it. Then we might be in trouble.
5:01	So, that’s something to consider.
5:04	Finally at the bottom, is the Project information and the Versions or our v.
5:12	The maintenance status of v is, right now, seeking co-maintainers. We need not worry. Views has already been incorporated into Drupal 8. So, they’re probably just looking for some help there.
5:23	It’s under active development.
5:25	It’s on almost a million sites. And the stats show 7 point 6 million downloads already.
5:32	Now - this is important. If a Project says “abandoned” or “I’ve given up”, then avoid using that Module.
5:43	You won’t see that very often, however.
5:47	Always use the Version of the Module that is the same as the Version of your Drupal installation.
5:58	There is no Drupal 8 version here because Views is already in core.
6:02	But if I was installing this on a Drupal 7 site, I would not click on this link.
6:09	It will take us to a node that gives detailed information about this Module.
6:14	Instead, right-click on the tar or the zip, and click on Copy Link.
6:20	This was mentioned earlier when we installed devel.
6:24	How do we determine if a Module is right for us?
6:28	As simple as d m v.
6:33	One of the frequently questions is, "How does one find a Module"?
6:39	One option is to go todurpal [dot] org slash project slash modules
6:45	And filter by Core compatibility - Categories, of which there are many.
6:53	Otherwise, it is impossible to find Modules that we need at drupal [dot] org.
7:00	If you are good at it, you will be able to find them. But when new users might get confused with the number of Modules listed there.
7:09	Again the question will be - which Module is right for me?
7:15	Google is your friend!
7:17	If we’re looking for a Drupal Module with a Date field then just type drupal module date.
7:30	And the first thing that comes up is the Date Module.
7:32	We know that because the URL is drupal [dot] org slash project slash date
7:39	What if we need a Rating system?
7:44	Type drupal module rating system
7:49	Now, we get 2 options here- The Fivestar Rating Module or The Star Rating Module
7:57	So, we have 2 Modules that we can look at, to determine which one might be better for us.
8:02	What about if we need a webform?
8:04	Again type drupal module webform.
8:08	And we get a project named Webform.
8:11	This is probably the best way to find Modules, for beginners.
8:17	Drupal module and a description of what we need our Module to do.
8:22	I hope that’s been helpful. Remember, to find Modules, Google is your friend.
8:27	And to understand which Module is best for you, remember d m and v.

	With this we come to end of this tutorial.
Slide 5: Summary	Let us summarize. In this tutorial we have learnt to Search for a module and Evaluate a module
Slide 6: Acknowledgement	This video is adapted from Acquia and OSTraining and revised by Spoken Tutorial Project, IIT Bombay.
Slide 7: Acknowledgement	The video at this link summarises the Spoken Tutorial project. Pls download and watch it.
Slide 8: Spoken Tutorial Workshops	The Spoken Tutorial Project Team conducts workshops and gives certificates. For more details, please write to us.
Slide 9: Acknowledgement	Spoken Tutorial Project is funded by NMEICT, Ministry of Human Resource Development and NVLI, Ministry of Culture Government of India.
	This is Vanessa Varkey signing off. Thanks for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

Nancyvarkey, Priyacst