You guys are the greatest. <drunken slur> No, really, I mean that. <spills beer>

Here are some of the user-contributed modules I've come to love over the year. (Yeah, about a year of Drupaldom.) I use them on some or all of my projects. Got a question about any of them? Ask, and maybe I can help.

The Love List

Sure, there are many, many more modules that I generally use. No need to discuss mundane core modules that everyone deploys.

But the below are optional ones that I always use, or which otherwise merit special comment.

Protected Node

Used it once for a site with a few password-protected pages, and it worked great.

CCK

This module, like Views, needs no introduction to anyone who's even once asked "How do I...?" on the Drupal.org forums. A workhorse toolbox for many a Drupally need.

Aggregator and Aggregation

I've only begun playing with news feeds, but will do more. (Note: in the future, it'd be nice to have the several RSS-related modules and admin functions brought together more closely. It's a slightly confusing bunch of squirrels for the newbie.)

Blog API

I'm not yet thoroughly happy with the state of blogging clients on Drupal (see http://www.drupalace.com/content_topic/client), but the fact that it works at all is nifty. I've tried two blogging clients so far, and look forward to the inevitable seamless match between Drupal and a dream client.

Locale and Localizer

I'm not using it on this site (sorry, English only for the present), but on sites where I've used it it's worked like a champ. A multilingual champ – or as we say in French, a champignon. (Or maybe not.)

The modules have done a great job of keeping content and menu titles aligned in the target language. I'm not sure about blocks yet. In any case, I hear that Drupal 6 will move more international capabilities into core, so I don't know what the fate of Locale and Localizer are. But for now, my polyglot module friends, I raise a glass of tipple in your direction.

Adsense

It's easy to use, and lo, the ads do appear. Sometimes it goes wonky for a while; switch the position of ad blocks, and the site can start spitting up ad formats that don't at all fit into the block formats. But then Google and/or the module appear to work things out, and the ads settle into proper appearance.

In any case, I love the ease of experimentation that this module allows. Then again, I'm truly a newbie at the whole advertisement and SEO and revenue thing; there may be flaws in the module which set the pros' teeth gritting but which I'm not aware of yet.

Download Count

Not a necessity for every site, but for sites dishing out the 'loads, this has provided a nifty way of seeing how little attention my downloads get.

Feed Buttons

First used by me on this very site. I like the ease of use – though how do I tell whether people actually find this buttons useful, or just an annoyance? And of the zillion buttons offered, how to pick the most important 10 or so?

Google Analytics

It works, and that's what counts. Thanks to this module, I can visit my Analytics account, and see just how pathetically insignificant each of my sites is.

IMCE

Okay, this one's not a love fest. But so far IMCE is the best way I've found to put images into nodes. Which isn't saying much; from the standpoint of a site client who's not too hep to fiddly tech stuff, I've found that the combination of TinyMCE and IMCE remains a daunting way to input images, with head-bursting levels of clicking required.

Oh well, for now it's the best.

Node Teaser

An imperfect solution, but gotta have it. See Drupal Mystery #1: Teasers.

Pathauto

I think there's much, much more I should be doing in setting up my sites to use this flexible and powerful module properly. For example, I still haven't completely grokked the use of Pathauto to create fake "directories" of content, so that all my Drupal articles (for example) would have a virtual "/drupal/" directory before their names. But for the simple creation of readable (and SEO-friendly) URLs that I currently employ, I owe Pathauto a big hug.

Service Links

A nifty way to finish off nodes with "service links" – you know, those Technorati and other links that I used to make fun of before I discovered that this module let me easily sport them too. Actually, I don't know how many users even make of of them, and I don't consider them terribly important, but this module makes them easy enough to merit inclusion on the "eh, why not?" principle.

TinyMCE

See IMCE above. TinyMCE has caused me to nearly pull out my eyebrows in ongoing frustration – I jumped through hoops within hoops to finally get it working acceptably. There's no love between us, yet I use it on all my sites as the best solution available.

The best solution so far, TinyMCE. So far...

Double Click

I usually forget to make use of this feature as I go about my edits, but when I do remember: Neat, a double-click took me right to the node's edit form! Hence the module's uncontested seat in all of my sites.

Views

See CCK above. What can you do with Views? What can't you do with Views? I'm barely scratching the surface so far.

 

 

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This list is bound to change over time, so check back!

 

Fellow Drupalese! What modules inspire your puppy-eyed ardor?

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