Overview

Now that you are done Installing Drupal you can add additional functionality to your site by Installing contributed modules, or you can customize the look and style of your site by Installing contributed themes.

The standard installation of Drupal core is both limited in functionality and is rather plain-looking. Drupal has been designed, however, to be modular so that it is easily extensible with additional modules and themes.

Each of the multitudes of additional modules and themes available at Drupal.org is referred to as a 'project', and all of them are free of charge. They are often called 'contrib' because they were contributed by Drupal community members just like you.

In many cases, you will discover that someone has already written, and uploaded to Drupal.org, a project that provides exactly what you are looking for.

The process of finding a module or theme to use, and the process of importing it into your site, is essentially the same for both modules and themes.

Modules

Modules provide the functionality to your site and the 'core modules', which are included in a standard installation, provide all of the basic functions that most sites need.

Some of the core modules, however, are not enabled (turned on) by default. Therefore, you might want to examine the module list on the 'Extend' page of your site to see whether or not some functionality you seek is available from a core module that is not enabled before you spend time investigating contrib modules.

Themes

If your primary interest is installing a new theme, the Installing contributed modules page provides detailed instructions on finding and importing a project, whether that be a module or theme. Currently, the Installing contributed themes page is incomplete but is where you can then continue after you have your theme imported into your site.

'Custom' projects

You should not directly alter core modules or core themes because those changes would be over-written every time you apply a security/ bug-fix update for Drupal, which is released every month or so. Instead, you should either find a contrib project that provides what you need or create your own custom project.

For more advanced 'development' information about customizing existing projects, or creating your own, visit:

• Modules: Module Development with Drupal
• Themes: Theming and Front End Development with Drupal

Warning

Backup your site, and test your backup to see that it works before you use a module that you have not used before, especially if it is an 'Other releases' or 'Development releases' version that has not yet been released as being suitable for a live website.

Before using a contrib module that you have not used before, you should always back up your site first, in particular, your database with a record of which version of Drupal core that was used with that database.

Also, critically, you should always test the contrib module on a test site (also known as a 'development' site), not on a live site (also known as a 'production' site), just in case the module breaks your site.