Top 10 Most Popular Drupal Modules

Modules are like Lego building blocks. They fit together perfectly by following a predefined set of guidelines, and with a combination of modules, you can build rich and complex solutions.

There are two general categories of Drupal modules — core and contributed. Core modules are those that are shipped with Drupal and include modules such as polls, menus, taxonomy, search, feed aggregator, and forums. Contributed modules are all of the modules created by the community that extend and enhance the functional footprint of Drupal core.

In this blog post, I will share with you the Top 10 most used contrib Drupal modules:

1- Views

The views module is one of the most used modules for Drupal, and one that you will want to install right away. This module is essential in every website you can build.

2- Token

Tokens are little snippets of text that can be used as replacement patterns. For example, if your website sends out emails and you want to add in the users name, or you want fill in a link path with a node id to provide a helpful link to content, tokens will save the day.

3- Chaos tool suite (Ctools)

This suite is primarily a set of APIs and tools to improve the developer experience. On its own, Ctools does not seem to do a lot. However, it is actually a very powerful framework if you begin developing your own modules.

4- Pathauto

The Pathauto module automatically generates URL/path aliases for various kinds of content (nodes, taxonomy terms, users) without requiring the user to manually specify the path alias. Pathauto simplifies creating clean and search engine friendly URLS for the various content you add to your site.

5- Date

This is useful for allowing the easy selections of dates in content types (with a nice date popup). It contains both a flexible date/time field type Date field and a Date API that other modules can use.

6- Webform

If you want to provide easy to fill out forms for the visitors of your site (contact forms, surveys, online employment applications), the Webform module will help you out. After a submission, users may be sent an e-mail "receipt" as well as sending a notification to administrators.

7- IMCE

IMCE is an image/file uploader and browser that supports personal directories and quota.

8- Google Analytics

This module makes it very simple to integrate the Google Analytics web statistics tracking system to your website.

9- Wysiwyg

Allows the use of client-side editors to edit content. It simplifies the installation and integration of the editor of your choice. This module replaces all other editor integration modules. No other Drupal module is required.

10- Libraries API

The common denominator for all Drupal modules/profiles/themes that integrate with external libraries. It introduces a common repository for libraries in sites/all/libraries resp. sites//libraries for contributed modules.