Module Categories?

Module Vocabulary

Benefits

Use of categories would present a organizational method to a long list of available modules and a user may feel overwhelmed by such a large list. By selecting a category appropriate to his or her needs, a user may view or sort only relevant modules, thereby improving the likelihood of a user finding a suitable module.

Risks

Initial category association with a module would likely be required by a maintainer/manager of a module; such association is likely subjective and a person may not select a category that is not as intuitive as one selected by another person. A module, furthermore, may be more difficult to locate than the current method (a single list). Currently, all modules are located on one page and user may find a module with keywords inserted into a browser "Find" feature. If modules are only displayed by a selected category, a user may not see/find a module if a module is not present in a category he/she feels it should be associated with. Also, a list of categories may be as exhaustive as a list of modules, given module diversity.

Suggested Vocabulary

The following list is merely a suggestion and modifications are expecte; there are likely terms better than those presented. Each proposal includes possible associated modules and not all modules are included on this list. Possible associated modules are meant to provide examples per category. Also, it is assumed multiple category associations will be used and it would be difficult to include a method of categorization for modules without multiple category selection because many modules cross various functionalities

(See Full Version for Suggestions)

• Ad and Affiliate Management (Affiliate, Banner)
• Administration and Analysis (Poormanscron, Simpletest, Spam, Term statistics, Themedev, Webserver Auth)
• Article / Node Management (Article; Attached Node, Attachment, Book Review, Collimator, Comment Closer, Daily, Excerpt, Feature, Flexinode, Forms, Mailhandler, Menu on-the-fly, mypage, Node Moderation, Node Privacy Byrole, Node Type-Categories, node_import, Organic groups, Path, Periodical, Printer Friendly Pages, Quickpost, Quote, Quotes, Recipe, Related links, Scheduler, Series, Side Content, Subscriptions, Summary, Taxonomy Browser, Taxonomy image, Taxonomy on-the-fly, Title, Trackback, Translation module, userposts, webform, weblink)
• Bookmark and Watches Management (Bookmarks, Buddylist, weblink, Workspace)
• Calendar and Events (Event, Over text)
• Contact and Chat (Chatbox, Feedback, Form_mail, Instant Messenger, Mail, Mailalias, Mailhandler, Notify, Opt-in, Postcard, Privatemsg, Subscriptions)
• Database Tools (Database Administration, node_import)
• Documentation Generation (API)
• E-Commerce and Payments (E-Commerce, paypal framework, PayPal subscription, Paypal tip jar)
• File Management (Attachment, Filemanager, Filestore2, FSCache, Inline)
• Image Handling (Image, Image filter, Img_assist, Inline, Pblog Power/Photo/Picture Blog, Summary)
• Input and Content Filtering (Bbcode, Codefilter, Contextlinks, CSV-filter, dKosopedia, Glossary, HTML Corrector, Htmlarea, Markdown with SmartyPants, Quote, Smileys, Spam, Textile, Title, Translation module, Urlfilter, wmfilter, wiki)
• Input Management (Listhandler, Variable)
• Polls and Questionnaire (Survey, webform)
• Project Management (project)
• Search, Site Mapping and Navigation (Jsdomenu, Menu on-the-fly, Path, Pop Up Navigation, Site map, Taxonomy Browser, Taxonomy context, Taxonomy dhtml, Taxonomy html, Taxonomy Menu, Trip Search, Workspace)
• Syndication / RSS (Atom, Comment RSS, News Page, Syndication, TrackBack, Weather)
• Taxonomy (Glossary, mypage, Node Type-Categories, Series, Summary, Taxonomy Access Control, Taxonomy Browser, Taxonomy context, Taxonomy dhtml, Taxonomy html, Taxonomy image, Taxonomy Menu, Taxonomy on-the-fly, Term statistics, Trip Search)
• User Management (Automember, FOAF, Mailalias, Members, Node Privacy Byrole, Role to file, SXIP, Taxonomy Access Control)
• User Registration and Authentication (Captcha, FOAF, Legal, SXIP, Webserver Auth)

Perhaps vocabulary should be added for Drupal versions.... in addition to a module's category? For instance, if foo.module is a Calendar and Events module compatible with Drupal 4.5 and 4.4, then it would be associated with Calendar and Events, 4.5, and 4.4. If so, modules could be organized by Drupal version and a user may see modules only compatible with a recent version.