Both Drupal and contributed modules have benefited greatly from its long-time involvement with the Google Summer of Code program since 2005. This section is an archive of this past involvement.

For information about future Google Summer of Code participation, see:

Here is an overview of the node object broken down into Drupal 7, Drupal 6 and Drupal 5.

The Video module "transcodes" nearly any video format to H.246, Theora, VP8 (and many others) using either Zencoder cloud transcoding service or the open source FFMPEG project on your server. Site builders upload videos to nodes via a video field (which is part of the Video module) much like they would with the file field. When videos have finished transcoding, the Video module automatically creates thumbnails and will embed a video player into the theme layer.

The Privatemsg module allows users to send messages to each other without having to share their e-mail addresses. Once the module has been enabled, an inbox link will appear in the navigation menu. "Write to author" links are included in posts, allowing users to write private messages instead of commenting openly. Allowing users to communicate directly with each other is an important part of community building.