Week 5

I found myself browsing through the list of module downloads for Drupal for a long time. Kind of like Wikipedia, where one item leads to another to another to another. Many modules offered tools I didn’t know about or understand. Many were named in ways that didn’t make its purpose clear (personal favorites include Bad Judgment, Bespin (planet home of Lando Calrissian’s Cloud City from the Empire Strikes Back) and Awesome Relationships. One way I thought would help me find a useful module was to think in terms of the collection content, specifically the webcomic format. Two modules looked promising, Webcomic and Comic, but neither were supported in the current Drupal version and so could be downloaded but not enabled. I was able to find a module that supports a type of animation process called page-flipping that was compatible. But I don’t have a collection example to test it on so it is only theoretically helpful at this point. Another approach was to think of features I use consistently in my own life, which led me to the print-friendly module. The install was successful even if the purpose is a little dull. However, it is an option I use often online. Another idea I thought would be helpful was a module for Site Documentation. Ironically, the documentation for that module was incomplete and so it seemed suspect. One tool I looked for but could not find was for a random button, a common feature on most webcomic sites. I went about it as logically as I could but I did not find anything by name or keyword. While it could certainly be that I misunderstood the description of the correct module, a possibility being Random Viewer, but I honestly don’t think so. Which made the inability to search the (thousands) of modules disappointing. However, given the active support community I feel confident that someone will point me in the right direction. All in all, Drupal was a success.