The much-awaited, much talked about and supposedly innovative Drupal 8 is stil “too shiny and new” for you? Still a bit „nostalgic” about the good old, so familiar Drupal 7?
Well, don’t be! We’re going to point out to you 5 of its coolest modules which will make your life as a websites builder a lot... simpler (for, besides flexibility, simplicity has always been one of the Drupal community’s ultimate goals).
Now let’s just dive into our selection of “juicy”, highly useful, won’t-be-able-to-live-without-anymore Drupal 8 modules!
1. Views
It’s by far one of the most used modules in Drupal, so no wonder that the worldwide team behind Drupal 8 strove to improve it.
Probably one of the best news regarding this module is that it’s a core module now! You do realize what this means, right? You’ll get it by default, along with the whole installing package, no need to add it yourself, manually, afterwards anymore.
And since Drupal’s all about „empowering the non-technical end-users”, you’ll be glad to hear that the Views module comes equipped with some new too-hard-to-resist-to „powers” for you:
- as a content editor and site builder it enables you to filter and to display information depending on your predefined parameters: you can create a block listing the most recent posts, you get to „play with” your taxonomy listing, to put together a slideshow with the best images of the last month or a sidebar with the most recent/longest/interesting/useful comments on your website etc.
- as an admin, you get „spoiled” by all the „responsibilities” that the Views takes in Drupal 8: it controls content admin page, user admin page, lists, blocks and more. Moreover, you get to „work your magic” without even having to write a single line of code, just by “playing” in its admin interface: configure lists, calendar, create photo galleries etc.
2. Rules
You may not be inclined to follow rules in your life outside Drupal’s world, but how about the power to set up your own rules for your website?
This contributed module allows you to create three types of rules which, put together, create a complex, logical sequence: you can set up an event (first rule), a conditioned one (second rule) in fact, which leads to a certain action (third rule).
Here’s a suggestive example for you: you’re a website’s admin, right? Well, imagine now that someone posts a comment on your site (event) and, thanks to your configured rules, you automatically get an email informing you about this posted comment (action). Got it?
The whole "attraction" for the Rules module is the fact that it enables you to create and to manage automated workflows on your website.
3. Features
Now here’s another super useful contributed module that Drupal 8 „spoils” you with!
It will be extremely useful in your work especially if you have a whole portfolio of Drupal websites to juggle with (as 99% of organizations do). How precisely?
You’ll get to import/export your multiple configurations and all your code as whole packages that you can then move across your whole collection of websites.
Enlightening example: just imagine that you’ve come up with a rule (you know, we’ve just talked about that module). Ok, now the great part is yet to come: you can export it so that it can get imported to all the other websites that you might administer, simultaneously. Time-saving and efficiency-boosting, wouldn’t you agree?
4. Admin Toolbar
Ok, ok, so you think that it has been improved and yet that it could have turned out much better.
Still, we can’t underestimate the role it plays in your work as a Drupal site developer: it’s menu (replacing now the old admin menu module) is now responsive. It sure fits the whole Drupal 8 „mobile-first philosophy” right?
5. Pathauto
If the whole „SEO is dead” nonsense hasn’t got to you, you’ll find this module to be so helpful.
What does it do exactly? It upgrades your website with search engines-friendly, clean URLs for your content. Of course, you’ll be lending this specific module a decisive helping hand to enable it to get your site SEO-friendly, since you’ll be the one predefining the page path patterns.
The result? Standard Drupal links turn into readable links that your visitors will love and since happy visitors means a better Google rank, you do the map!
These are our top 5 Drupal 8 modules. How does your own top 5 list look like? Is there anyone of our preferences listed there or not? Feel free to share it with us.
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