Foundational Modules for a Social Networking Site

As you may know, I am presently working on a rather involved social network. It is currently built on Drupal 5.x, and we are considering moving up to Drupal 6.x. In order to do this we have to asses which of the "crucial" modules have been ported to 6, and the amount of work involved in those that haven't. So this post will have 2 purposes. First, to comment on what I feel are the "foundational" modules for a social networking site using Drupal. Granted this will vary depending on the type of network involved, but I think many of these modules will be common to most social network sites. Secondly, to enumerate the status of these modules in the Drupal 6 environment.

Functional:

• CCK and Views

  I'm grouping these two together as they are common to almost all Drupal sites, and are modules that nearly everyone is familiar with. Both have yet to have "official" releases, but are functioning in Drupal 6. Both CCK and Views now have official releases in D6.

• Node Profile

  Uses to store user profiles as nodes. A handy thing indeed on sites when user profiles start to become more intricate. The Bio module is the alternative to this module, and does basically the same thing. However Node Profile (and supposedly Bio) will not be upgraded to D6 but instead will be assimilated into the Content Profile module, which is in beta and seems functional on D6.

• CAPTCHA

  Spam control. Any site with any amount of traffic and the ability for people to generate content is vulnerable to spammers. It really is amazing how a simple CAPTCHA can reduce this. There is an active release candidate for D6 and seems to be working well.

• Organic Groups

  A popular module, and critical to further user interaction. Allows for a group type environment to which users can create, subscribe, and interact (see groups.drupal.org for an example). This has been receiving a lot of attention in the push to D6, and has an active release candidate. Will supposedly "officially" release when views does.

• Voting API

  Enables development of a voting engine. Allowing users to vote on various things, thus allowing content (or really whatever) to be ranked. There is a release candidate for D6 and seems to functional.

• ImageCache

  Allows setup for "preset" image processing. Very useful for standardizing user submitted images. A VERY versatile module. There is an alpha release for D6 and seems to have all basic functionality operating.

• Image

  Often used in conjunction with ImageCache. Allows users, with appropriate permissions, to upload images and insert into content. There is an alpha release for D6 and seems to be functional.

Needs Some Work:

• Invite

  A module used for exactly what you would think. Sending and tracking invitations for users. Something all but required in any social network. There has yet to be a D6 release of this module, though it is under active development and seems to be functioning on some level. Only a few bugs in the issue cue.

• User Relationships

  Allows users to create "relationships" between one another (ie friend, co-worker, associate, etc...) There is a D6 beta release, and seems to be functional, and not too buggy.

Put on the Coffee:

• Panels

  Not really too critical to a social network site, or any site in my opinion. Our site uses it, and I kind of wish it didn't. Nothing against Panels, but I could do everything it does using CSS with less markup. However it is a very popular module, and is useful for those who don't want to get bogged down in themeing. It is under development in D6 but is unstable.

• Userpoints

  Userpoints allows the ranking of users based on various site-wide actions (ie posting content, commenting, etc...) Has a nice api and is a very common feature on many sites to reveal active users. There is some work being done in D6 here but it is not in a stable state, would probably take some work to be able to realistically use in D6.

• Pageroute

  Used to create a wizzard for content editing and creation. Useful to improve UI. Very nice in conjunction with Node Profile. D6 version currently under development, but is unstable and needs work.

• Privatemsg

  Allows users to send private messages to one another. Provides a sort of in-site mailing system, common on many social sites. Is currently being developed for D6 but needs quite a bit of work, and is far from stable.

It should be noted that this is the status of these modules as of the date posted 9-29-08, and may change on a daily basis. You can check the Contributed Module Status Group or the actual module project page (linked above) for further updates.

Well assembled list. Thank