By bradleyg on

I develop Drupal systems for groups around my company, releasing a new system every month or two (knowledgebases, intra/extranets, e-learning, user management, etc). I'm on my 16th system. The problem is, upon creating each new system, I browse through nearly every single module in Drupal's user contributed module repository because I fail to properly document which modules I've used. At one point, I was using an excel document to track all of the systems/modules with the system names on the top line and modules below each system. This was very tedious and it really didn't give me an idea on how useful each of the modules were.

What I would like to do is pull all html module titles/descriptions from the "Browse by name" section and insert each as a node into my own Drupal system. I could then do my own taxonomy assigning, ratings, and system tagging so that I don't lose track of what modules I've used for each of my systems.

I noticed there is no feed for user contributed modules. What is the best way to do this? Should I just scrape the HTML from 'Browse by name' on http://drupal.org/project/Modules/name and convert it to XML on a daily basis?

Does anyone have this situation where they need to keep track of modules they've used for systems they develop?

Any help would be appreciated!

Comments

bradleyg’s picture

bradleyg commented

Moreover, wouldn't it be great to rate modules to get an idea of which ones add value? Why is there no feed for modules?

vm’s picture

vm commented

I disagree with user rating of modules.

new users who are easily frustrated, tend to rate low. Get enough of them with some of the more involved modules like views and panels and the asssumption would be that the modules arent good, when they are.

user ratings can be too skewed in my opinion when it comes to modules.

bradleyg’s picture

bradleyg commented

That's exactly the reason I want to bring the module list into my own system... so my development group can do the rating....

MGParisi’s picture

MGParisi commented

I am not affiliated with the site, but find it as an excellent resource, and besides for a small ad for ANHosting, the site seems majorily Non-For Profit. Anyways, the link would have a no-follow on it.

I agree that the solution to the problem is not one Drupal should solve. Drupal has no right reviewing modules, and I even would argue for the Archiving of the Document Section that compares some modules on this site. With that said, if you would like to review and rate modules, goto Drupalmodules.com! I love the site even though I generally stand alone in this stance.

Most contributors of Drupal dislike Drupalmodules because the rating system is not fair. Views and CCK is not on the top 10 list for best modules, but I find that the rating system is not that important. What I do suggest is that you take the source of information DrupalModules has provided with there rating system as one aspect of information when choosing a module. I do not believe it shouldn't be the only method in choosing a module but does provide additional information that could be helpful.

Mike