drupal theme for boran.com: acquia_marina, marinelli

I like dropdown menus and am not a fan of the way the core Drupal themes do it.

Just came across the acquia_marina theme having just migrated two sites to Druapl 6.5 where the garland dropdown with nice_menus / submenutree modules were used for dropdowns (See http://boran.ie and http://funbugs.ie)

With Drupal 6 not as many non core modules are needed, current favourites are node_privacy_byrole, admin_menu, imce, tinymce. The devel module is causing problems, sometimes freezing a site, seems to do massive mysql queries.

• This acquia_marina is very nice out of the box and highly flexible (many settings can be made from the GUI, even setting meta tags or title formats), so lets try to use it on this site? :-)
• The default colours and layout are nice indeed.
• My first problem was that I had problems making changes to the block layouts and the only theme settings I could see were global theme settings. Upgrading to v1.2 fixed this.
• I'd like to have the submenus of the primary menu displayed on the left and tried several ways. A) Add "Siblingmenu Tree Display" as a block on the left, B) Added submenu module, and added to the left. C) Add "Extended Primary Links" to sidebar first. Option C) worked.
• At the bottom I want to display my address, and a link/reference to both drupal and Acquia theme. The problem is that the current Acquia message is not configurable ($vars['closure'] in template.php). I could just print out $footer where $closure is in page.tpl.php. Hmm. Finally I configured the entire footer in Site Information, and removed the Acquia text added to $closure in template.php.
• Be careful when upgrading themes... I renamed themes/acquia_marina to acquia_marina1.1 and uploaded the new (1.2) version. This caused havoc. A better idea is first to set another them as default, then renamed acquia_marina to ".acquia_marina1.1" (note the DOT so Drupal will not parse it) and then upload the new version.
• When using the TinyMCE rich text editor, images could not be insert as a button was missing. The fixed was to add a function  phptemplate_tinymce_theme() to template.php as described  http://drupal.org/node/241753#comment-792305

To do

1. When editing a page, the "view as text" is not visible in this theme.
2. Find a way to save my mods to the theme (see footer mods above) so that they will survive upgrades to new versions of the theme later.
3. The default Drupal User  Login box is big and clunkly, I'd like it to be much small and more discreet.
4. Modify colours, bring them closer to the BC logo.
5. Change the background on the menu tabs on the top from white to transparent.
6. UPgrade to latest acquiam marine: but the structure of the header divs has changed, my image will no longer work. Why were such incompatible changes made?
7. ==> I think its time to create a new, personal, Theme.

An interesting Swiss reference implementation: Edipresse

Edipresse have jumped into drupal big time: http://digital.edipresse.com/tag/drupal/

Example: http://new.lematin.ch/

It will be interesting to follow their blog and see what modules they contribute back to the community.

Update Jan'2010: Edipresse were present at the Aarau camp, and a recent Drupal meet in geneva.

drupalmodules.com

Just came across this drupalmodules.com which allows easier searching and classification of Drupal modules.

As an example, I looked up editors and looked at the reviews. While the comments on TinyMCE were a bit too positive in my opinions, I agree with the FCKeditor ones. A site that I'll come back to for my next drupal project.

drupalcodesearch.com also looks interesting..

Further reading

This should grow to a useful list of reading /listening material...

• Drupal.org
• Mustardseed podcast (why did I only find this in March 2010! :-)  )
• Lullabot podcasts, videos, blog
• Drupaleasy podcast
• Drupalmediacamp 2009 in switzerland - proceedings http://drupalmediacamp.ch/presentationen

Books

• The "Using Drupal" book is useful, it can bought as a PDF too. As I was used to Drupal 5, this helped by providing examples that work well on Drupal6 and explains Views and CCK.
• Pro Drupal Development (available as PDF)
• Front End Drupal (available as PDF)
• Drupal 6 - Hagen Graf (introduction in German: not as good as the to above)
  http://drupal.cocoate.com/de/node/1

D6 Fixes

"Access denied" when user/register is accessed by a user that is already logged in:
http://drupal.org/node/118498#comment-2024826

(Update: use the Already In module http://drupal.org/project/already_in)

 

See also the forum project page

D6 issues

This page should be a collection of issues, not covered in the "fixes" page.

The profile module does not allow field defaults to be set
http://drupal.org/node/116513
http://www.drupalcenter.de/node/22451

 

I've many issues that I follow at this stage. Its easiert to track them on d.o (Drupal.org) in "MyIssues". I also find the rss feed useful (rss feed icon on the bottom left of MyIssues), its the only way to being alerted if a new comments have appeared in a thread that interests me.
 

Data importing

As Drupal moves more from a website tool to an application framework, its generic data interfaces and handling tools become more important.

 

Backup and Migrate: is one of the first tools to look at, allowing manual and automated backup/ restore. A good way to transfer a site from one provider.

 

As regards data importing, the basic steps are:

1. Get your data into a MySQL table (Table Wizward can import CSV)
2. Create tables keys, change column types if needed (via mthe ymsql command line, or the Data module).
3. Use Table Wizard (tw) module to expose the Table as a View.
4. Use Migrate to map the a View of external data to native Drupal data, then run the import.

Lets look at the modules found in this domain so far…

 

The Table Wizard can views-enable any table, even those not in the drupal db and not known to drupal.  It performs analysis of the tables it manages, reporting on empty fields, data ranges, ranges of string lengths, etc.. It provides an API for other modules to views-enable their tables. Can work with the Migrate module.

• I used it to:
  - link in a external table and create a view.
  - Import a CSV file to a new table (it creates the new table, but with all field types as text) and create a view.
• Issues: The CSV import or external table must have a single (numeric) primary key field though (which can be an issue: Excel can help there). The separator must be a comma (it cannot be ";" for example). Troubleshooting tw's refusal to create some views is not so easy.

 

The Schema API allows modules to declare their database tables and provides functions for creating, dropping, and changing tables, columns, keys, and indexes. It examines (and can compare) the live database and creates Schema API data structures for all tables that match the live database. Used by tw.

• Its useful to analyse the existing dataset.
  Limitations: it does not have a way to remove old/unused tables that are identified.

The Data module helps model, manage tables and an API for accessing their contents.

• Once a CSV file had been imported with tw above, the table could be 'adopted' then: the type of the key changed to index and marked as primary key. The old field types can be tuned too. 
  Field type could also be mapped to views handler type.
• Once a primary key has been defined, go back to tw.
• Issues: The date field type was not available though and an email field could not be defined as a primary key. It can relate data to node types, but not users/profiles. Its views can conflict wuith tw, disable it if in doubt.

 

The Migrate and Migrate_extras modules (which depend on tw and schema) provide a flexible framework for migrating content into Drupal from other sources.

• Once a view has been made with tw, Migrate sees it and can be used to map the source and destination fields. Default values can also be set.
• Issues: test on a sample data set, not your live system… Plan lots of time to get this working 100% :-). Multiple source fields cannot be mapped to one destination, key mapping is quite primitive.

The print module allows "printer friendly" pages of nodes or views to be shown.

 

The views_export_xls module allows a view to be exported in an XML format that Microsoft Excel understands.

 

Uses cases not yet examined: data export to csv (views_bonus module?). Import/export from/to postgres

& xmlrpc (e.g. openerp). Creating a UI for editing data in non node tables.

 

Further reading:

• DrupalCon DC 2009 - Migration: Not Just for the Birds, Mike Ryan, Moshe Weitzman.
• Lullabot podcast on tw and migrate.
  Anglie talks us through the principles and an example of data migration.
• Migrating your website to Drupal, stella on July 25, 2009

Duplicating sites

A quick way to copy new site and hit the ground running is to install the Backup and Migrate module.

• Backup the master site.
• Install the new virgin site via the usual install.php. Enable the Backup/Migrate module.
• Restore from the backup.

Change key parts of the site that must be different

• Site Information (title, email)
• Actions  (email alerts)
• Users: delete unneeded users
• Content management - content list: delete unneeded pages
• Menu: names
• Theme: logo, name, settings.
• Disable or adapt the Back/Migrate scheduled backups
• Content of /files and theme specific directories
  (if this procedure if used to make a test copy of a production website, ensure the file path is the same on both of images and so will now display correctly on the restored website. Do no put test and productiion on the same shared hosting!).

And some specific modules may need changes, like:

• admin/settings/file-system  (files path)
• admin/user/login_destination    (user's landing page)
• admin/settings/register_notify   (alert email may contain specific links)

 

Update 28th March 2010:
The above method is only used for very simple sites, at there often more to it that above (e.g. changing patches to images in content), it would seem more promoiseing to start with a really blank install and use drush to automate standard module enabling, export/impport content types and look at using features to copy over more sttings.

Improve the user login experience in Drupal

Drupal core requires users to login with a username, but they also need an email. Usernames are easy to forget, and their structure is difficult to enforce (but hook_user() can be used for this). This page lists some tips to improve the experience.

Profile core module:

  create "personal information" fields such as Forename and Family name.

Email Registration module:

  Allow email instead of username.

The Register with Picture 'reg_with_pic' module adds the user picture to the registration, making it more likely that users will add pictures.
After installation, visit admin/settings/reg_with_pic.

 

LoginToboggan module: generic user login improvements
        admin/user/logintoboggan 
                Allow email login
                Use two e-mail fields on registration form
                Delete unvalidated users after: 6 months
                Display login successful message
                Min. password length: e.g.  6

RealName module
        Settings in admin/user/realname/general
            Show realname in nodes
            Overwrite user fields in view to show realnames
            Disable: Show "Not verified" for anonymous users
            Fields: User Forenam + Familyname to create the 'real name'

User registration notification      admin/settings/register_notify

Change the subject to: !site: account requested by !user_name
Body:

The following person has requested an account:
!profile
The members website username is !user_name.

Next steps:
- Verify the user's details (see also !user_view).
- Decide on whether the account is to be allowed...
- If not, just leave the account blocked (for reference), or delete the request (see !user_delete)- If some correction to the User's details are needed, visit !user_edit.
- If yes, visit http://example.com/admin/user/user, highlight the user, and select "Unblock".

Login destination
    admin/user/login_destination

 

Persistent Login:

   add a "remember me" below the login box, allow logins to be cached in the browser.

The Already In module
  redirects authenticated users who attempt to visit the login, user registration, or password reset URLs to the /user page instead. This prevents authenticated users from getting an Access Denied error message. Optionally, the module can display a "You are already logged in" message when redirecting users.

 

Mass_Contacts

  is a module to send an email to all users belonging to a specifc role. Its seems a bit dated and  am not so sure it works correctly yet. There's not much doc on how to use it: see admin/build/mass_contact, visit the permissions page and the (disabled) Navigation menu item. See also 746114.

 

Further reading:
   http://www.lullabot.com/articles/user-management-real-world-groups

Improving useability

Below are references to modules that can help to simplify the user interface, making it easier for non techies to edit or add content.

 

Vertical Tabs rearranges the (many) sections of the content add form into tabs, making it more compact.

 

Simplify Node add: allows sections of the Node Edit/Add form to be hidden. For example perhaps your normal content editors don't change the url, revision, comment and publishing options. So these hide these sections making it simpler and easier to understand.

• Only sections added by core modules are supported at the moment (v1.1), but its easy to change the module to hide more, see #718828 (and the recent dev release).
• It would be nice to hide section on a per role basis, see #718820

 

String Overrides: allows standard text to be changes, e.g. if "My Settings" would be easier to understand than "My Account"

 

Bookmarks: can allow the user to mark what is interesting on the site (specific pages, comments, forums..).

Menus

This page covers module relating to menus / navigation.   Lets start off with 'menu block' a nice simple, but effective module to display menus in a block. For example when nagivating the primary menu via a bar on the top, the block contains siblings if the primary item has a submenu.

Project: Building a forum with drupal

The following are some notes from a project to build a multi-lang forum in Autumn 2009.

Key features: 4 languages, bookmarks, lots of views (member lits, posts sorted in different ways), improved navigation, solr search, notify users when thread change, mark comments as solutions.

Difficulties: multi-lang. Mark comments as solutions. Getting a pretty layout.

Hacks:

One should not hack core, but I was not always able to find alternatives..

• Fix to /var/www/includes/bootstrap.inc
  http://drupal.org/node/525036#comment-2144000
• /var/www/modules/forum/forum.module had to be hacked
  http://drupal.org/node/584356
• locale module hack: http://drupal.org/node/615868
   ensures that new forum posts have the current language
   Internationalization 6.x-1.2 fixes the above bug http://drupal.org/node/626836
• To change 'Edit' menu in the User Profile page to 'Change my Settings', change user_menu()
  /var/www/modules/user/user.module 
  rcsdiff user.module
  1080c1080,1081
  <     'title' => 'Edit',
  ---
  >     #'title' => 'Edit',
  >     'title' => 'Change my settings',

New Modules:

• "Solve Thread": should be released to the community by Tobi soon, hopefullly.
  Allows marking specific comments to a topic / thread, as the 'solution' which also marks the whole thread as solved. The idea is to make the key replies to a question more visible. The number of solutions posted by a user can also be used in rating.

Modules enabled:

 Name                   Enabled  Description                                   
 ACL (acl)              Enabled  Access control list API. Has no features on   
 Administration menu    Enabled  Provides a dropdown menu to most              
 Advanced Forum         Enabled  Enables the look and feel of other popular    
 Advanced Forum More    Enabled  Additional Advanced Forum Styles              
 Advanced help          Enabled  Allow advanced help and documentation.        
 Aggregator             Enabled  Aggregates syndicated content (RSS, RDF, and  
 Apache Solr framework  Enabled  Framework for searching with Solr             
 Apache Solr search     Enabled  Search with Solr                              
 Author Pane            Enabled  Gathers information from user related contrib 
 Backup and Migrate     Enabled  Backup or migrate the Drupal Database quickly 
 Block (block)          Enabled  Controls the boxes that are displayed around  
 Color (color)          Enabled  Allows the user to change the color scheme of 
 Comment (comment)      Enabled  Allows users to comment on and discuss        
 Comment upload         Enabled  Enables file attachments on comments          
 Content (content)      Enabled  Allows administrators to define new content   
 Content Copy           Enabled  Enables ability to import/export field        
 Content Permissions    Enabled  Set field-level permissions for CCK fields.   
 Custom Search Box      Enabled  This module allows a user with admin page     
 Database logging       Enabled  Logs and records system events to the         
 Devel (devel)          Enabled  Various blocks, pages, and functions for      
 Devel node access      Enabled  Developer block and page illustrating relevant
 Diff (diff)            Enabled  Show difference between node revisions.        
 Drupal for Firebug     Enabled  A helper extension for the Drupal for Firebug 
 FCKeditor (fckeditor)  Enabled  Enables the usage of FCKeditor (WYSIWYG)      
 Filter (filter)        Enabled  Handles the filtering of content in           
 Flag (flag)            Enabled  Create customized flags that users can set on 
 Flag actions           Enabled  Execute actions on Flag events.               
 Forum (forum)          Enabled  Enables threaded discussions about general    
 Forum Access           Enabled  Allows forums to be set private and allows    
 Help (help)            Enabled  Manages the display of online help.           
 Internationalization   Enabled  Extends Drupal support for multilingual       
 Block translation      Enabled  Enables multilingual blocks and block         
 Content type           Enabled  Translates content type related strings: name,
 Menu translation       Enabled  Supports translatable custom menu items.      
 Profile translation    Enabled  Enables multilingual profile fields.          
 String translation     Enabled  Provides support for translation of user      
 Synchronize            Enabled  Synchronizes taxonomy and fields accross      
 Taxonomy translation   Enabled  Enables multilingual taxonomy.                
 Views translation      Enabled  Translation of views strings and content      
 Image (image)          Enabled  Allows uploading, resizing and viewing of     
 ImageAPI (imageapi)    Enabled  ImageAPI supporting multiple toolkits.        
 ImageAPI GD2           Enabled  Uses PHP's built-in GD2 image processing      
 ImageCache             Enabled  Dynamic image manipulator and cache.          
 ImageCache UI          Enabled  ImageCache User Interface.                    
 Locale (locale)        Enabled  Adds language handling functionality and      
 Menu (menu)            Enabled  Allows administrators to customize the site   
 Messaging (messaging)  Enabled  Messaging system. This is the base module for 
 Simple Mail            Enabled  Mail Sending Method: Integration with Drupal  
 Messaging Privatemsg   Enabled  Sending Method: Integration with Privatemsg   
 Node (node)            Enabled  Allows content to be submitted to the site and
 Notifications          Enabled  The basic notifications framework             
 Notifications          Enabled  Provides automatic notifications.             
 Content Notifications  Enabled  Allows users to subscribe to content related  
 Taxonomy               Enabled  Allows users to subscribe to taxonomy terms.  
 Notifications UI       Enabled  Provides an UI to notifications               
 Path (path)            Enabled  Allows users to rename URLs.                  
 Pathauto (pathauto)    Enabled  Provides a mechanism for modules to           
 Persistent Login       Enabled  Provides a 'Remember Me' checkbox in the login
 Block user messages    Enabled  Allows users to block other users from sending
 Privatemsg Email       Enabled  Notifies users about new Private Messages via 
 Private messages       Enabled  Allow private messages between users.         
 Privatemsg filter      Enabled  Allow users to filter messages using tags or  
 Profile (profile)      Enabled  Supports configurable user profiles.          
 Search (search)        Enabled  Enables site-wide keyword searching.          
 Solve Thread           Enabled  Allows marking specific comments to a topic / 
 Statistics             Enabled  Logs access statistics for your site.         
 String Overrides       Enabled  Provides a quick and easy way of replacing    
 Syslog (syslog)        Enabled  Logs and records system events to syslog.     
 System (system)        Enabled  Handles general site configuration for        
 Taxonomy (taxonomy)    Enabled  Enables the categorization of content.        
 Text (text)            Enabled  Defines simple text field types.              
 Token (token)          Enabled  Provides a shared API for replacement of      
 Content translation    Enabled  Allows content to be translated into different
 Translation helpers    Enabled  Provides methods for other modules to use with
 Translation overview   Enabled  Provides an overview of the translation status
 Translation table      Enabled  UI for quick translation of taxonomy, menu and
 Update status          Enabled  Checks the status of available updates for    
 Upload (upload)        Enabled  Allows users to upload and attach files to    
 User (user)            Enabled  Manages the user registration and login       
 User badges            Enabled  Enables assignment of graphical badges to     
 User registration      Enabled  Notifies administrator of new user            
 UR-Blocks              Enabled  Blocks that can be used with User             
 UR-Defaults            Enabled  Allows admins to specify relationships that   
 UR-Elaborations        Enabled  Allow users to elaborate on their             
 UR-Implications        Enabled  Lets admins create implied relationships. For 
 UR-Mailer              Enabled  Gives the option to mail users when about     
 UR Migrate Buddylist2  Enabled  Allows admins to migrate buddylist2           
 UR-Node Access         Enabled  Provides per node access control based on     
 UR-Views               Enabled  Integrates User Relationships with Views      
 UR-API                 Enabled  API for User Relationships. This will only    
 UR-UI                  Enabled  User Relationships UI. This enables basic UI  
 Views (views)          Enabled  Create customized lists and queries from your 
 Views exporter         Enabled  Allows exporting multiple views at once.      
 Views UI (views_ui)    Enabled  Administrative interface to views. Without    
 Voting API             Enabled  Provides a shared voting API for other        
 

FCKeditor: WYSIWYG editor for Drupal

[Oct.2008] I've been working with Drupal for over two years now and one area that sometimes frustrated me was providing a workable WYSIWYG editor for end-users to update content.

Until now I use TinyMCE and kept coming across problems its a bit of an art to get it to work correctly.

After another bout of TinyMCE problems with Drupal 6.5 and the Aquia theme, I though my Friday afternoon was going to finish on a sad note, when I came across FCKeditor, it was installed and up running in about 10 minutes. Magic!

http://drupal.org/project/fckeditor

In fact I'm writing this post now using the new editor, in FF3. It just seems to work, without any fuss.

Simple things like have it off by default and enabling wysiwyg when needed works... Mind you it seems a bit slower though.

ckeditor

Intro

The follow on to the fckeditor in Drupal, is the ckeditor.

Its has similar options to fck but it prettier (colours can be customised).

With marinelli based themes there is a bit of tuning to do though.

There is a quick reference for end-users.

Issues

After some initial tests:

• Format type is always plain text, has to be set manually on new content.
• The tool bar is very simple despite having selected "Druapl Full"
• I find myself with extra blank lines.
• I've not yet tested file /image upload, not to mention the (not expensive) commercial ckfinder tool which looks like its nice for image browsing.

 

Related Modules

Another related tip is to use the better formats module for handling what input format is used per role and content type.

 

[2010.03.16]: So it seems the wysiswyg module is the unified way to go for long term compatibility, will try that on the next few sites. Seems to work fine, but is less configurable. What is nice is that the configuration is linked to input formats, not roles.]

Wysiwyg module

Started using the wysiwyg module which in turn uses (for example) ckeditor (the follow-on for fckeditor), via a common api.

Some tuning is needed: 

• If there is a background image on body, to prevent it from appearing in the editor window too, tie the background image to body.not-front, body.front instead of just body.
  See also http://drupal.org/node/487704.
  This fix worked with some thems, not with others (e.g. giordani: in this case the only fix seemed to be not to use the fckedit input format... must get to the bottom of this..)
• Install imce_wysiwyg as well as imce for image browsing/upload to work.
  See also http://himerus.com/blog/himerus/inline-images-drupal-wysiwyg-api-tinymce-and-imce
• Paths to exlcude from the editor:

*edit-user-registration-help*
*edit-code*
test*

Input formats: Filtered HTML

<p><br><table><tbody><tr><td><span><div>
<a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><img> <div> <pre> <address> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5>

Issues

Which editor to best preserve source?
http://drupal.org/node/789172

Website project: Le pan

The site lepandevevey.org is a relatively simple one containing several "static" pages, a forum, news items and so.

However all members of the association are managed via the website: new users join via the website, the membership card is printed from the site (a special view with some custom php), profile fields are used to track membership payments.

Membership lists can be exported via to Csv (excel). One use for this is to send a paper letter to all members at the end of each year: a Word template is used to mailmerge with the CSV .

Before this site members were managed in Filemaker: a difficult enough challenge was importing the data of the 150 members from that tool. No way way found to import users pictures form Filemaker though, that had to be done manually.

The site is in French, which allowed me to realise how translation into French is incomplete, in core and contrib.

The site operates on shared hosting, with the boost module to improve performance (most access are anonymous).

Theme: stock theme (Zeropoint)

Programming: None custom modules needed. A few theme .tpl files and a script to update profile payment fields were the only programming needed. No core or standard modules were hacked.

Standard Modules used (key ones in bold):

 ACL (acl)                                                         Module  Enabled        6.x-1.2
 Administration menu (admin_menu)                                  Module  Enabled        6.x-1.6
 Admin Role (adminrole)                                            Module  Enabled        6.x-1.3
 Advanced help (advanced_help)                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-1.2
 Already in (already_in)                                           Module  Enabled        6.x-1.0
 Backup and Migrate (backup_migrate)                               Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Better Formats (better_formats)                                   Module  Enabled        6.x-1.2
 Block (block)                                                     Module  Enabled        6.19
 Boost (boost)                                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-1.18
 CAPTCHA (captcha)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Color (color)                                                     Module  Enabled        6.19
 Comment (comment)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.19
 Contact (contact)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.19
 Content (content)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 Content Access (content_access)                                   Module  Enabled        6.x-1.2
 Content Copy (content_copy)                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 Content Permissions (content_permissions)                         Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 Content Profile (content_profile)                                 Module  Enabled        6.x-1.0
 Content Profile User Registration (content_profile_registration)  Module  Enabled        6.x-1.0
 Chaos tools (ctools)                                              Module  Enabled        6.x-1.7
 Date (date)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-2.4
 Date API (date_api)                                               Module  Enabled        6.x-2.4
 Date Locale (date_locale)                                         Module  Enabled        6.x-2.4
 Date Timezone (date_timezone)                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-2.4
 Database logging (dblog)                                          Module  Enabled        6.19
 Diff (diff)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-2.1
 Email Registration (email_registration)                           Module  Enabled        6.x-1.3
 Fieldgroup (fieldgroup)                                           Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 FileField (filefield)                                             Module  Enabled        6.x-3.7
 Filter (filter)                                                   Module  Enabled        6.19
 Forum (forum)                                                     Module  Enabled        6.19
 Gallery Assist (gallery_assist)                                   Module  Enabled        6.x-1.15
 Help (help)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.19
 Image CAPTCHA (image_captcha)                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 ImageAPI (imageapi)                                               Module  Enabled        6.x-1.8
 ImageAPI GD2 (imageapi_gd)                                        Module  Enabled        6.x-1.8
 ImageCache (imagecache)                                           Module  Enabled        6.x-2.0-beta10
 ImageCache UI (imagecache_ui)                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-2.0-beta10
 ImageField (imagefield)                                           Module  Enabled        6.x-3.7
 IMCE (imce)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-1.4
 IMCE Wysiwyg API bridge (imce_wysiwyg)                            Module  Enabled        6.x-1.1
 Insert (insert)                                                   Module  Enabled        6.x-1.0-beta6
 Lightbox2 (lightbox2)                                             Module  Enabled        6.x-1.11
 Link (link)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-2.9
 Locale (locale)                                                   Module  Enabled        6.19
 Login destination (login_destination)                             Module  Enabled        6.x-2.10
 LoginToboggan (logintoboggan)                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-1.7
 Mass Contact (mass_contact)                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-1.0
 Menu (menu)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.19
 Menu Block (menu_block)                                           Module  Enabled        6.x-2.3
 Messaging (messaging)                                             Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Simple Mail (messaging_mail)                                      Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Simple messaging (messaging_simple)                               Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Migrate (migrate)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.x-1.0
 Migrate Extras (migrate_extras)                                   Module  Enabled        6.x-1.0-beta1
 Node (node)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.19
 Node Reference (nodereference)                                    Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 Notifications (notifications)                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Notifications Autosubscribe (notifications_autosubscribe)         Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Content Notifications (notifications_content)                     Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Taxonomy Notifications (notifications_tags)                       Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Notifications UI (notifications_ui)                               Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Notifications Views (notifications_views)                         Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Number (number)                                                   Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 Option Widgets (optionwidgets)                                    Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 Path (path)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.19
 Pathauto (pathauto)                                               Module  Enabled        6.x-1.5
 Persistent Login (persistent_login)                               Module  Enabled        6.x-1.4
 Poormanscron (poormanscron)                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-2.2
 Printer-friendly pages (print)                                    Module  Enabled        6.x-1.12
 Profile (profile)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.19
 RealName (realname)                                               Module  Enabled        6.x-1.3
 Reg With Pic (reg_with_pic)                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-1.7
 Schema (schema)                                                   Module  Enabled        6.x-1.7
 Search (search)                                                   Module  Enabled        6.19
 Simplenews (simplenews)                                           Module  Enabled        6.x-1.3
 Simplenews action (simplenews_action)                             Module  Enabled        6.x-1.3
 Simplify node add (simplify_node_add)                             Module  Enabled        6.x-1.4
 Skinr (skinr)                                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-1.5
 System (system)                                                   Module  Enabled        6.19
 Taxonomy (taxonomy)                                               Module  Enabled        6.19
 Text (text)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 Token (token)                                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-1.15
 Tracker (tracker)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.19
 Content translation (translation)                                 Module  Enabled        6.19
 Trigger (trigger)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.19
 Table Wizard (tw)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.x-1.3
 Table Wizard Import Delimited Files (tw_import_delimited)         Module  Enabled        6.x-1.3
 Update status (update)                                            Module  Enabled        6.19
 User (user)                                                       Module  Enabled        6.19
 User registration notification (user_register_notify)             Module  Enabled        6.x-1.11
 User Reference (userreference)                                    Module  Enabled        6.x-2.8
 Vertical Tabs (vertical_tabs)                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-1.0-rc1
 Views (views)                                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-2.11
 Views exporter (views_export)                                     Module  Enabled        6.x-2.11
 Views Export xls (views_export_xls)                               Module  Enabled        6.x-1.1-beta1
 Views UI (views_ui)                                               Module  Enabled        6.x-2.11
 Wysiwyg (wysiwyg)                                                 Module  Enabled        6.x-2.1
 Zenophile (zenophile)                                             Module  Enabled        6.x-2.0
  

Project time: Apr-May 2010, with more tuning in Nov'10. Probably at least 2 man weeks.

To do

• An easy to use newsletter module would ne nice (simplenews is not so easy I find: more now a view exports a list of email addresses, that a Content Editor pastes into his own Email program).
• The design/theme could be nicer
• The "realname" module was used to make reading username easier, but I regret this, since new users now have cryptic names, even though forename/family name and thus realname are fine.

admin tools

Admin

I'm not such a fan of the admin module, but admin menu is great.

The devel module is essential for deep digging.

Admin Role is a module to maintain an administrator role which has all available permissions. Configured in the user settings screen. Included in D7 core.

User testing

The masquerade module allows a user with the right permissions to switch users.

Cron

Historically in Drupal 5 & 6, the cron.php was called from a unix cronjob somewhere.

The Poormanscron module allow the cron task to be kicked off automatically without configuring cron. This module is being integrated into Drupal7 core.

So it make sense to useit as standard in Drupal 6 sites too.

After installation & activation of the module, visit admin/settings/site-information and change the interval to get it activated.