Useful Drupal modules

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You can hide a node's title field (for reference, every node has to have a title) and generate it automatically, similar to pathauto.  No-one's porting this to D8 yet.

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Not recommended

Migrate views from D7 to D8.
Once installed on D7 - you need to go to /admin/config/view-migration 
It outputs multiple YML files and you're specifying a directory to put them in, which you need to create first.

My experience of the YAML output has been:

- incomplete (e.g. multiple missing displays in a complex view, views without a machine name)
- invalid UTF8 due to the next and previous arrows in pager.options.tags being encoded wrong
- the dependencies section at the top of the file not being set out correctly

It doesn't look like there's much current development activity (likewise migrate_views, which is the other plugin people usually mention).

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Protect against brute-force login attacks. Unclear what's happening with porting of this.

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Provides extra options for aggregating data in tables - e.g. grouping sets of rows together and summing the values of particular fields.

Has a hook - hook_views_aggregation_functions_info() - which lets you add your own options to the table aggregation settings - e.g.  supposing you have a limit for something (number of tickets, nights of accommodation) and want to decrement it - you can write a method to sum the matching rows and then do a calculation on the total.

Also supports 'add column function' - adds a grand total (or other summary field) at the very bottom of the table.

Caution - this module breaks hook_views_pre_render() - you can write your own pre_render method to remove or shuffle entire rows, but any chances to values will be overwritten (discovered this by looking through the source and looking for the use of that hook).  The workaround is to try and do what you need to by using hook_views_aggregation_functions_info() instead.

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There's a D8 version but I've only tested D7.

It's a filter that fixes incorrect paths in your content - e.g. if you have content with an old domain or IP address specified, you can redirect it.

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"Essential"

Allows you to use an entity reference field on a node to allow (or deny) access to that node to the users you have selected.  Extremely useful for giving selected people access.

This isn't available in D8 or above (though it ought to be) - there's a note in the issue queue about it.  #2655426

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Tto actually export node content. An 8.x version has begun development:

composer require 'drupal/node_export:1.x-dev'

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"Essential"

If you have a Drupal 6 site, this modifies your Available Updates page (/admin/reports/updates) with direct download and release note links to all the D6 LTS (Drupal 6 Long Term Support) releases. 

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Can specify single IP address or ranges. Two modes: restrict login, so they can only login from certain IPs, and restrict role, so they can login from anywhere but only access a role's permissions from the defined IPs. There's a D8 dev branch, last updated June 2016.

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Allows you to insert a Global PHP field in a view in D7, so you can have conditionals etc.

Note there's a bug in 7.x-1.1 (Jan 2022) - you need this patch.

(Not available in D8, you should use Twig instead).

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"Essential"

Adds an checkbox labelled 'Retain /node as an active url?' to /admin/config/system/site-information

This lets you disable the /node page which would otherwise list all published content.

Note it doesn't let you individual disable /node/xxx access by content type - see restrict_node_page_view or rabbit_hole for that.

This is for D7 only - in D8 you go to /admin/structure/views and disable /node there.

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"Essential"

If you want to manually refresh a series of nodes.
Mainly useful if you have a rule or a hook that relies on a node being saved, to update a computed field etc.

You can choose the node type.

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Autofocuses the first field of form (forms can be specified).  No sign of a D8 port.

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Add extra tables JS support for views (and many other pages) - e.g. search box, dynamic column sorting, rearranging columns, exporting to clipboard etc.

If you get "TypeError: tables.DataTable is not a function" when using datatables module, first, try going to /admin/config/content/table_trash/global_settings and saving the existing settings.

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"Essential"

D7 only (as this is in D8 core as standard).

Converts /admin/people into a fully-fledged configurable view (i.e. fields, filters, exposed filters, header/footer, pagination settings etc.) 

(Dependency: views_bulk_operations)

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Saves snapshot of content type form using AJAX.  Content types and save frequency can be configured.  No sign of a D8 port yet.

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"Essential"

Allows you to browse the site as another user (to see what they see) and then quickly switch back again.  A general Drupal recommendation is to create test accounts for each of your roles, so this is useful for testing them.  (As per notes, don't use it for anonymous access, just log out.)  Replacement for 'Switch User'.

Patch and known bug:

• Unmasquerade link appears for users with the permission: 'link to any page', regardless of masquerade status - patch #17 - the bug is as per #22 - Unmasquerade links aren't being shown correctly. 

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"Essential"

This comes with a whole series of modules, including metatag_verification that will allow you to insert a google-site-verification tab. Instructions

How to add it to a content type/bundle:

• You need to add the metatag field to the content type and position it on the form (it'll display as a disclosure triangle in the sidebar)
• You also need to configure the level of available options at /admin/config/search/metatag/settings

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"Essential"

Now in core, but you need to enable it.

Adds an 'all-day' option.

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"Essential"

Add group' button to /admin/config/people/accounts/form-display (or any other form), can then group fields inside fieldset/other HTML wrappers.  

• Bug and workaround: https://drupal.org/project/field_group/issues/3064890
• Also, field groups sometimes have the wrong default tab - my bug report (patch now committed to dev)

Types of groups:

• Fieldsets
• Horizontal tabs
• Vertical tabs
• Details
• Accordions
• Divs
• HTML elements

In theory can use this to add <div>s with css styles such as flexbox, like webform uses, but CSS to support that needs to be present on the page.
 

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"Essential"

This module logs events and sends them to Sentry.  Sentry is an open source application you can self-install, but also a free/paid SaaS version.

For a content management framework as complex as Drupal it's worth logging errors.

Tips:

• In Raven config, recommend not logging debug and info messages, but do select Enable fatal error handler and Enable stacktraces.
• You can enable the javascript error handler as well, but personally I only use PHP.

Drupal benefits:

• logs the Drupal uid
• logs referrer URLs
• you can tag versions (e.g. commits) as well as different environments
• you get a full breakdown of AJAX requests

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• supports both a 'Load more' button and automated load
• need to turn AJAX on for the view
• patch needed to support back button (adds a preserve history option to settings, which then needs to be turned on)

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Adds Twig syntax to insert views, view results, regions, entities (e.g. nodes, blocks, webforms), menus, images, image styles, tokens, breadcrumbs, messages, contextual links and more.

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"Essential"

Gives you a checkbox for 'Unique' when editing fields - can have it checked during form entry (via AJAX) and specify a custom error message per field.  Seems to have bug where field you're checking is sometimes refocused (even if no errors) if you've already tabbed away from it and continued typing.

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Deprecated

Not recommended

DO NOT USE - security issue and Acquia will no longer support or maintain it.

Spam filtering SaaS from Acquia. Free for up to 50 "ham" messages a day.  Scans message then provides a captcha if appropriate, scores each message for reputation, spam etc.  I never tried this module and anecdotally I've seen mixed reports / people suggesting it's not all that good.

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"Essential"

Allows users to receive emails for replies to their comments (or optionally for all comments on a node).  Can be toggled by content type (although not by comment type, if you have more than one comment entity).  In permissions, you can also control which roles can subscribe.  Can also set it so the author of a node also automatically gets emailed for every comment.

I'm using three patches:

• User without Subscribe to comment notifications sees setting in profile (authored by me)
• False positive notifications with multiple comment types (authored by me)
• Notifications not sent when user chooses 'Replies to my comment'

I also have a site which uses two comment types; I wrote a patch to turn off the notification checkbox for one of them.

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Checks your code against Drupal coding standards.

No need to install this - isn't actually a module, it's a set of phpcs rules installed as standard in /vendor/drupal/coder/coder_sniffer

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"Essential"

Key features:

• Kint (enable kint submodule, for pretty variable printing, way to view properties and methods)
• DevelMailLog (redirect all mail to text files instead, specify location directory, specify filenames using tokens for recipient, subject, timestamp) - DevelMailLog requires that you also install the MailSystem module to activate it
• Config Editor and State Editor (enable via /admin/config/development/devel/toolbar)

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"Essential"

For this to work for any content type after you activate it, you have to manually edit and save that content type's settings, otherwise the buttons will be missing.

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This uses a JS library and works without a second copy of the menu in the HTML, and you don't need to make any changes to your existing navigation menu.

Look at the README file for instructions.
You need to install mm_menu and superfish in your libraries folder.

Note you're forced with the mobile version of the menu to have it expand to full depth (although the hack/workaround, if you want a top-level menu only,  is to hide the lower elements in CSS)

For hand-crated CSS / minimal javascript solutions, see https://css-tricks.com/responsive-menu-concepts/

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Shows a long checklist, split over a series of tabs, you can tick off items and some (e.g. modules you need to install) are auto-detected. See Module of the Week blog post. 

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Rather than change visibility for individual blocks, you can group them together and assign complex visibility settings to all of them. Module page promotes it as a simpler alternative to Panels.

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You also need to enable config_update_ui, which adds an 'Updates report' tab to Config Sync (/admin/config/development/configuration/report)

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"Essential"

My recommendation - safe to use but understand it's currently pretty limited due to bugs.

To activate, change a view's Exposed Form style (Advanced column) to 'Better exposed filters'.  

• Lets you enable AJAX auto submit. The difference is without BEF, with Use AJAX, an AJAX request (vs a full page reload) is made but ONLY when you click 'Apply'.  With BEF, as soon as you change a dropdown the view updates (like the filters on this site).  
• You can change the input method for each field (e.g.a single checkbox for what would otherwise be a True/False dropdown), make them "collapsible", add select all/select none links where appropriate.  
• Rewrite option that lets you reword all the options for the filter and also delete some.

Limitations:

• If you have a search field - e.g. Combine fields filter - you MUST turn on 'Exclude Textfield' if you are using 'Autosubmit'  
• Most of these options *aren't* available for taxonomies (e.g. webform where  
• If you use the default views single or grouped exposed filters, with selects/radios, they work correctly, but when you change them to BEF style, with checkboxes and AJAX, they don't (form is submitted and the checkbox has disappeared)
• Bug: reset button doesn't use AJAX, it sends you to a view URL instead (disable it in settings)

So all you can really do with BEF at the moment is use the AJAX setting.

Documentation 

d.o. page

Use tokens to merge first name, last name or any other fields.
Then you can display the realname field in various places.  

Note: you have to add code to substitute the default username in the title of user node views - e.g. in mytheme_preprocess_block(&$variables)

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Add a field whose value is calculated using raw PHP; specifically $value = 'foo';

(The recommendation is you write your PHP in a module of your own, and then call that method from the UI - for security and version control reasons).

Note: value is only calculated when nodes are saved (i.e. will initially be empty for existing content).

D8 status; alpha but working.

d.o. page

"Essential"

Add extra menus (which appear as cog icons with a title, which you can click and expand) to the admin toolbar at the top of your site.

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"Essential"

By default if you add multiple contextual filters to a view, they must all pass (AND).
This gives you a checkbox in Advanced > Query Settings for the view which switches it to OR.

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"Essential"

Keyboard shortcuts. A bit like Spotlight/Alfred/Launchbar.

Alt+D to launch (memonic: alt + D = coffee!)

Handy as it doesn't clash with browser keyboard-shortcut extensions such as Vimium.

Tips:

• April 2020: 8.x-.10 released, means you no longer need this patch to fix CSS colours
• remember that you can/should add your own menus to the search index

d.o. page

"Essential"

Displays a message on config pages indicating which config settings have been override by settings.  
There's a config setting where you can hide the actual values (so you can hide API key - you need to use config editor to edit that, there's no admin page)

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Adds options should as choice of target, title, class ID etc. to the link dialog in CKEditor.

Needs configuring after install.

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Snippets are Twig templates that can be managed using the UI.  They can be inserted in various ways including via CKEditor, tokens.

Support for HTML, CSS, JS, and variables.

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"Essential"

Change the colour of the admin menu according to whether you're using dev, staging, production etc.

(You can also add 'switcher' menu links, e.g. Open in dev, Open in Prod). 

Notes:

- need to reset the cache after you've made changes [#2406619]

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"Essential"

Set permissions by content type (with the option of overriding node by node)

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Patch needed (the pages and roles tabs are missing on block editing form otherwise):

https://www.drupal.org/project/rules/issues/3160347

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Hours/minutes/seconds field type (formats: h:mm, h:mm:ss, m:ss, h, m or s). Drupal 8 in beta.

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"Essential"

install tfa and ga_login (TFA is just a framework, it doesn't come with it's own login plugins.)

Use this patch I wrote - it adds display of validation skip times and an admin reset button for users who are got locked out.

My installation instructions:

Next you need to generate an encryption profile.
First you need to generate a key - key type needs to be Encryption (not Authentication).
A 128bit key = 128/8 bytes = 16 characters - so generate a random 16 character string.

Set key provider to File rather than Configuration, this means the key won't end up in your version control.

Tick the 'strip trailing line breaks' box to avoid the "The selected key size does not match the actual size of the key." error

Key path should be relative to Drupal so the config will work on multiple sites
e.g. if you have created a file called /app/tfa.key on a lando container, set the key path to ../tfa.key
I'm actually creating mine in a keys directory.

Remember to save the key somewhere in your password manager, or your ansible variables, in case you lose the files later.
Remember to add /keys to your .gitignore file, so it won't get stored in version control.
Remember to copy it manually onto your production server.

In the TFA settings (/admin/config/people/tfa) you probably want to increase the number of times a user can skip validation.

Note that TFA has a separate 'Tfa user login' block (replacing the ordinary 'User login') 

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Not recommended

Not very actively maintained and it can be quite buggy.

Needs this patch:

Reply button can be pressed multiple times, resulting in multiple comment forms

I abandoned it for a project because the admin XHR response when you submit comments sends back comments you've already filtered out (I had written code to restrict visibility of certain comments).   Also had a problem where the initial comment form was left in place rather than being replaced, so you ended up with duplicates.

d.o. page

"Essential"

Removes the 'Username' field from registration form.  Use in conjunction with a module that allows users to login with their email address.
Generates a username in the background (Drupal still requires one) - adds 'Patterns' tab to Account settings for configuring the name.

Patches:

• Module does not load pattern from configuration (ignore my confused posts on this issue, just use patch #3)
• (The 'Incorrect callback given to token replacement patch in issue #2918391 is no longer needed)

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"Essential"

As of Sep 2018, up to alpha3 in D8 (but not personally tested).

Lets you import CSV/RSS etc.  files and various other formats and map them to nodes/user/taxonomy terms, either one-off or periodically.