Useful Drupal modules

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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"

Selectively ignore configuration entries during an import - e.g. site settings / the system.maintenance message.

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Ordinarily, if you grant a user "Administer Users", they can do everything *except* change the roles (they don't even see the checkboxes).  You could give them 'Administer Permissions', but that also allows them to do other things.  

This module lets you set which roles they are allowed to enable for a user.  Administrators still see the roles checkboxes in the usual place (below 'status' on /user/123/edit), but everyone  gets a new 'Roles' tab.  

Works with D8 but not updated since April 2016.

Patches:

I'm not using any patches, but there are a couple RTBC-ed  the queue.

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"Essential"

Control which text formats are available per field. (Often you'll want some fields to be simpler than others - e.g. you might want restrict everyone to a single format so they don't see a dropdown menu. 

You can hide the 'About text formats' link and the list of available HTML tags, again per field, in the Form Display tab using the widget icon.

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"Essential"

The admin permissions page can get pretty long. 

This lets you narrow it down by typing permission names into a text field.

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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"

Control editing/visibility of individual fields by role.  

As well as custom settings ('create own', 'edit own', 'view own', 'edit any' and 'view any' - all per role), there's a Private setting which gives access to the author and administrator only. 

These are automatically applied to views.

Finding the setting: Look for  Field visibility and permissions – on the Edit tab, NOT Field Settings.

In /admin/people/permissions there's also a Access other users private fields permission.

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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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Only loads the parts of page that change when navigating between pages.

Unclear if still being maintained (no updates since Sep 2016) - part of the issue is it requires a core patch.

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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"

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.

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(based on ffc which hasn't been ported to D8).  

Allows you to configure field display based on value.  Adds a 'Conditions' pane to the cog in Manager Display of all entities (so content types but also comment types, e.g. if you have comments with multiple fields)

Requires Display Suite (ds)

Note: if you wanted to hide say a checkbox when it's value is false - you can do in it core with Manage Display - turn the label off then set (via cog wheel) the output format to Custom, and you can enter a value for true and leave false blank - exactly the same widget for boolean values you use when setting the output of a field in a view.

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Add tokens, such as a user ID, to text or URL paths of menu items. 

Be wary of this issue: Current-user:uid not correct

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Not recommended

Layouts for exposed filters - i.e. you can move each filter into a region (supports Panels and Display Suite).

When I tried this (Summer 2018) the D8 branch wasn't really there yet - you could only rearrange the basic filter components in D8 (like search term, submit button, reset button), not all the extra ones you've added.   I went with using CSS (e.g. clear: both) instead.

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Lets you insert any entity type (supposedly) via the WYSIWYG editor, and like images you can set alignment etc.  It creates a toolbar button that can be added to the toolbar configuration in 'Text formats and editors'.  The strings needed can be pretty long - e.g. 

<drupal-entity data-embed-button="snippet" data-entity-embed-display="entity_reference:entity_reference_entity_id" data-entity-type="snippet" data-entity-uuid="216914ab-1bc2-4a73-975b-dc1de79e849a"></drupal-entity>
 

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Generate customisable Nagios reports for things like module updates, cron not running etc.  

The D8 version is now compatible with NRPE because there's a Drush command to generate the Nagios string. 

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"Essential"

Store all contact form messages in the database (as an entity), rather than just emailing them.

Integrates with views, if you want a view of messages.

Messages are accessible (can be edited or deleted) at /admin/structure/contact/messages.

(May be useful considering From: address SPF/DMARC problem with contact forms, i.e. there may be cases where some emails aren't delivered.)

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This is a way of visualising - via grids of ticks and crosses - which roles have access to different operations on different entities.

Introductory blog post

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Adds a trash bin for all content, so you may later restore (or permanently delete) it.  Depends on Content Moderation module.  Alpha in D8.

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"Essential"

Provides:

• /admin/reports/fields/tools - new Tools tab contains a more detailed field list that lists the instances (e.g. entities/content types) where each field is in use
• editing individual fields in a content type - new Clone tab which will let you copy it to other Bundles (it also copies form and view display options)
• Manage Fields page of a content type - new Clone tab where you can selectively clone multiple:
  • fields
  • displays
  • copy display settings

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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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For those familiar with WordPress, this is the equivalent of the ACF repeater field.  You can create paragraph types, which are collections of one or more fields, and the user can add as many of them as they like.  So you could have distinct paragraph styles, e.g. with images aligned in a certain way, or a page consisting of parallax backgrounds etc.

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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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An implementation of  OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework RFC - based on a PHP League package.

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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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"Essential"

Creates a field with a serial number, so you can have the equivalent of a MySQL AUTO_INCREMENT field for a content type (if nodes are deleted the old serial number is not reused).

Although this only has a dev branch which hasn't had updates since April 2016, it does work in D8.

There's no direct migration path previous versions, but people have written their own migrations.

Check issue queue for patches - including:

• Support migrating existing values
• Removing deprecated entitymanager
• Serial module field tables not created during config synchronization
• Type not found for custom Entity

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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.

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Used to be called addressfield.  Adds one dependency - commerceguys/addressing.

This is a bundle of address fields, the correct combinations are shown depending on which country the user selects via a dropdown.
You can configure which countries are allowed per field instance.
To set the default, use the Manage Form Display tab.

It validates postcodes are in the correct format. 

Also supports 'zones' (groups of countries/subdivisions) for shipping/tax purposes.

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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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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.

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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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Not recommended

There are still quite a few bugs open. I dropped this for a project, partly because it adds a load of clutter with the 'resets' and reset dates.
The minimum password policy in Drupal is already 12 characters anyway (and one issue is changing the minimum length doesn't change the help text.) 
You need to enable the submodules to use the various constraints:
drush pm:list | grep 'password_policy_'
Admin users see password policy stuff on the user profile page.
You need to set password reset days to 0 if you don't want to enforce a reset policy.
Policies can be applied by role.  
You get a generic warning about the password 'not matching the password policy'. Suggest using string overrides to change the "To change the current user password, enter the new password in both fields." message users see.
Instructions: add/edit the policy, click next, choose constraint then click 'Configure constraint settings' otherwise you won't be able to change anything.
It also lets you do a forced reset by role.

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Benefits:

• Build layouts using GUI - arrange fields in columns/blocks (or add a block, or menu, or tag cloud, user info etc.) 
• Easily override layout of individual nodes without needing to clone/design/apply a template (and reset to default easily afterwards)

Status:

Nov 2018: core, experimental in 8.6.x
May 1 2019: due for stable release in 8.7.0

Issue queue

Installation:

• Enable the layout_builder module (which also enables layout_discovery)
• Clear cache.

• Activation:  Content type -> Manage Display -> scroll down to Layout Options - tick Use Layout builder

By turning on Layout Builder, you switch from the standard Manage Display view (field, label, format/widget settings) and the layout builder GUI.

Resources:

• Explanation by Dries of key features
• OS Training tutorial
• Layout initiative

Compatibility:

• A migration path is being built for Panels / Panelizer.
• Undecided (Nov 2018) how Layout builder will work in conjunction with Paragraphs

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"Essential"

This module lets you add fields from submissions to view, and sort/filter the view on them, in the same way you would standard fields from the Field API.

It's still alpha and not as polished/robust as the webform module itself - but it's certainly OK to use in production provided you test things first - check every combination of exposed filters works, and double check you aren't seeing duplicate rows (right now I've locked it to a recent commit on the dev-5.x branch, which doesn't need any patches).

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Adds word/character/paragraph count to the CKEditor status bar (can optionally enforce a word/character limit)

Configured via Text formats and Editors (/admin/config/content/formats).

Requires the ckeditor wordcount library - example composer.json for that (put this in your 'repositories' section):

        "ckeditor.wordcount": {
            "type": "package",
            "package": {
                "name": "ckeditor/wordcount",
                "version": "1.17.4",
                "type": "drupal-library",
                "extra": {
                    "installer-name": "wordcount"
                },
                "dist": {
                    "url": "https://download.ckeditor.com/wordcount/releases/wordcount_1.17.4.zip",
                    "type": "zip"
                },
                "require": {
                    "composer/installers": "~1.0"
                }
            }
        },

and then require:

"ckeditor/wordcount": "1.17.4",

Patch needed:

https://www.drupal.org/files/issues/2018-12-06/ckwordcount_plugin_path_2850845-9.patch

(to ensure modules gives browser correct path of plugin.js - if your ckeditor input disappears, check console.log and it's probably that)

The notification module is a dependency.

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I've not actually used this but I adapted it's code to enforce a configuration setting (I wanted to remove the HTML dom elements that are shown in the status bar).

The module allows you to supply your configuration using the UI.

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Lock all configuration changes via the admin UI - e.g. if you need to lockdown a production environment.

config_readonly now has a whitelist, added via an array in settings.php.

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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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"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"

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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"Essential"

Framework for using (many) different types of captchas on forms such as user_registration.
e.g. try 'reCAPTCHA' which is Google's "I am not a robot" captcha.  Personal experience is that's much better at preventing spam than the standard "image" one.

Tested with D7.

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"Essential"

Block registrations (wildcards on email address and username)

Useful if you're getting persistent spam registrations from certain domains.

Tested with D7.  This used to be in core in D6.​​​​​​​

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"Essential"

Scans email addresses/usernames/IP addresses against the stopforumspam.com database and then blocks or deletes the accounts.
You can set the threshold - i.e. how many times an email address needs to be listed in the spam database before action is taken.
You can also have it scan your entire existing database, not just new users. (It does this via a configurable cron run.)

Tested with D7.

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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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Allows you to use /my-view/foo instead of /my-view/123 when adding a contextual filter based on taxonomy terms

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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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"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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"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"

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

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"Essential"

Self-explanatory.