[support] navigating through Drupal modules (was Drupal for image management, with metadata)

[Peter Dowling]

I've found Drupalmodules.com very helpful (http://drupalmodules.com/).

Perhaps the new d.o. work will make it obsolete, but in the meantime it
is certainly an additional tool to look at as far as finding the right
module.

- Peter

On Wed, 2009-05-06 at 00:21 -0400, John Callahan wrote:
> Thanks Larry.  Had a feeling that was the case.  I've seen some Exhibit 
> based sites perform OK with 800 - 1000 items and hoped that would fit 
> here.  4500+ and growing is definitely out of range. 
> 
> I do like the Apache Solr faceted search much better than when d.o was 
> at D5.  More metadata about projects would help.  Possibly less 
> information returned per project to make it easier to scan.  Searching 
> through all of the modules and finding the ones you need is a problem 
> that I hope gets easier, especially for those new to Drupal.  I'm 
> looking forward to the new design and trying it out. 
> 
> - John
> 
> 
> 
> Larry Garfield wrote:
> > No we can't.  There are over 4500 modules.  A page listing all modules and 
> > providing anything even resembling useful data would be several megabytes in 
> > size just to view, to say nothing of the processing costs.  We used to have 
> > pages like that.  They didn't scale. :-)
> >
> > The in-progress site redesign includes much more metadata on projects and ways 
> > to search projects, in addition to the new solr faceted search that was added 
> > recently.  Searching large data sets is not an easy problem.  But simply 
> > dumping the entire dataset to the page is not a solution at 4500 modules, and 
> > it certainly won't be a solution as the number of modules continues to rise.
> >
> > On Tuesday 05 May 2009 11:13:50 am John Callahan wrote:
> >   
> >> Yet another potentially extremely useful module I didn't even know
> >> existed!
> >>
> >> Can I make suggestion?   Can we have a simple, one-page listing of all
> >> Drupal modules, with appropriate tags, to allow for easy navigation and
> >> visualization?  Users can sort the list as they want.  With a few
> >> additional tags/facets (like core version supported, date, author,
> >> etc..), imagine how fast you can find what's available and start digging
> >> further.
> >>
> >> Here is a test I quickly put together for a subset of modules:
> >> http://geo42.com/sites/drupal-modules.html
> >>
> >>
> >> IMO, an automated list like this one is more helpful than any rating
> >> system (almost always fraught with problems) or the current d.o module
> >> lists (page-based, too much information, hard to quickly navigate.)
> >> Ratings systems, blog posts, projects like drupaltoughlove.com, usage
> >> statistics, etc..., are all great but only should be considered as part
> >> of the whole.  For me, they simply help direct where to look deeper.  A
> >> list like the above would make things simpler, faster.
> >>
> >>
> >> We all know that finding modules to use with Drupal is a difficult task,
> >> one with real consequences. There are no easy answers yet.   It's a task
> >> that turns some first time users away from Drupal and continues to
> >> frustrate some current Drupal practitioners. It's especially frustrating
> >> when trying to convince others in your organization (like the IT
> >> department) to go with Drupal; they start to delve into it and get lost
> >> in what can be done practically and securely via Drupal.  It's a great
> >> development design but difficult in practice.
> >>
> >>
> >> - John
> >>
> >> **************************************************
> >> John Callahan
> >> Geospatial Application Developer
> >> Delaware Geological Survey, University of Delaware
> >> 227 Academy St, Newark DE 19716-7501
> >> Tel: (302) 831-3584
> >> Email: john.callahan at udel.edu
> >> http://www.dgs.udel.edu
> >> **************************************************
> >>
> >> Justin Gruenberg wrote:
> >>     
> >>> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 8:20 AM, John Callahan <john.callahan at udel.edu> 
> >>>       
> > wrote:
> >   
> >>>> 1) batch upload, even if only one directory
> >>>>         
> >>> http://drupal.org/project/image_fupload
> >>>
> >>> That module provides a pretty nice way for you to upload images.
> >>> Probably not 11k at a time nice, but it does work well and does allow
> >>> you to fiddle with some attributes per image when you upload.  It
> >>> works with ImageField (CCK) and image.module.
> >>>
> >>> If you go the image.module route, theres some other batch upload
> >>> modules that can work with a directory on the server.
> >>>
> >>>       
> >>>> 2) reading EXIF/IPTC image metadata and mapping them to taxonomy terms
> >>>> and/or CCK fields. 3) syncing attributes (i.e., edits to raw image
> >>>> EXIF/IPTC can update/reimport the node fields/tags and edits to node
> >>>> fields/tags can update the EXIF/IPTC metadata.)
> >>>>         
> >>> I haven't done anything this complex with image galleries, but I can
> >>> say... expect to do a good amount of fiddling and possibly writing
> >>> some custom code to get what you want.
> >>>
> >>>       
> >>>> I'm using Gallery2 right now (http://gallery.menalto.com/,
> >>>> http://drupal.org/project/gallery) and it does some (item #1 and
> >>>> partially #2) of what I need.  It even integrates nicely with Drupal for
> >>>> users and display of images and albums.   However, I use Drupal for many
> >>>> other sites (and I'd like to use views, lightbox, tags, etc...) and
> >>>> wondering if I can bypass Gallery altogether.  Any thoughts or
> >>>> experiences out there?   Thanks.
> >>>>         
> >>> I'd say if gallery2 works for you, stay with it.  That's a package
> >>> thats built for hosting images.  If you're not afraid of getting your
> >>> hands dirty, drupal might meet your needs closer.
> >>> --
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> >>>       
> >
> >   
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