{"id":3717,"date":"2024-01-24T02:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=3717"},"modified":"2024-01-18T19:41:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T00:41:37","slug":"project-browser-finding-and-installing-drupal-modules-in-a-few-clicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=3717","title":{"rendered":"Project Browser: Finding And Installing Drupal Modules In A Few Clicks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image by: Opensource.com CC-by-SA 4.0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Drupal CMS is built on a modular principle, empowering users to extend websites with an endless array of functionalities. However, it can be overwhelming for beginners or non-developers to find, choose, and install contributed modules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Browser comes to the rescue! This is a truly remarkable Drupal innovation on the journey from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11<\/a>, designed to make the CMS easier to use for anyone. In this article, you\u2019ll discover more about Project Browser Initiative\u2019s goals, why Project Browser is important, how the tool works, and when it is expected to become part of the Drupal core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Browser Initiative: goals and importance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Project Browser Initiative is one of the key strategic initiatives for Drupal, aimed at providing an easy workflow of finding and installing contributed modules. Without going to drupal.org, it will be possible with Project Browser to search for the needed modules directly from your Drupal admin dashboard and then install them in a few clicks. This eliminates the complicated steps, gives people a good start, and adds more consistency to the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned on the Initiative\u2019s page<\/a>, Project Browser is primarily meant for people who are new to Drupal and for site builders. It\u2019s worth mentioning that \u201cambitious site builders\u201d is a category of Drupal users that Drupal’s creator Dries Buytaert often mentions as a strategically important user persona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the project\u2019s co-leads, Leslie Glynn, at the Florida DrupalCamp 2023 session<\/a>, discussed the key problems Project Browser Initiative aimed to solve. She said that creating a Drupal website became relatively easy, but what happens next when users want to extend it with more functionality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leslie creatively compared the process of getting new modules for a website with going to a grocery store with an overwhelming amount of different cereal boxes. So, she said, the creators of Project Browser strive to help people narrow down their search among dozens of thousands of Drupal modules and find exactly what fits their requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to making it easier for users to browse for great modules, Project Browser also helps the community highlight and recommend these great modules, thus attracting more people to Drupal.
In his DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023 keynote, Drupal\u2019s creator Dries Buytaert called<\/a> Project Browser a great way to highlight innovation. \u201cRight now, Project Browser is focused on helping people install, update, and find Drupal modules,\u201d<\/em> said Dries, \u201cbut in the future, we can do more to spotlight great innovations.\u201d<\/em> Dries also made a comparison with an app store on your phone, which doesn\u2019t immediately make updates but helps you discover great new things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How Project Browser works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For today, Project Browser exists as a contributed module with a plan to become part of the Drupal core soon. You can already see how it works. Either install it on your Drupal website via Composer or click the \u201cTry it now\u201d button on the project\u2019s page<\/a>, which creates a Drupal site on Gitpod with Project Browser installed.
The project\u2019s co-lead Leslie Glynn told<\/a> the audience about that at DrupalCon Lille 2023\u2019s session \u201cProject Browser Initiative: Where We’re At and How You Can Help,\u201d<\/em> encouraging everyone to try Project Project out and report any found issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Project Browser provides a UI for browsing contributed Drupal projects with a set of useful features to optimize the process. First of all, it\u2019s easy to notice a new \u201cBrowse\u201d tab on the Extend page of the Drupal admin dashboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Project Browser\u2019s UI shows you suggestions for contributed modules based on filtering and sorting features. The default sorting is by usage, which means that the most popular modules show up first. The recommended default filters are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n