Finding Contributed Modules

To search for contributed modules, go to Download and Extend page

As you can see there are many search options, but the most important is Work with. Set it to the Drupal version you want to find modules or themes for. Feel free to change any of the other search items. You can also put a keyword or two in the text area box for 'Search modules'. The item 'Sort by' is, by default, set on "Most installed", which means that the search results will be sorted by the most popular first.

On the search results page, the 'name' of each module (or theme) is a link to its home-page, known at drupal.org as its project page.

Module project page

Module project pages vary in depth of detail, however, because the content of each project page is created by one of the module's developers.

The project page is usually worth reading carefully.

Among other things, if the module is dependent on another module(s), or possibly an extra 'library'(s), that information will be posted. It is not critical if you forget about a module or library dependency, however, because later when you try to enable or use the module, you will get a notice about what you are missing.

'Releases' section

If the project has a release this section provides information on the various versions that are available for that module.

'Issues for...':

The module's project page will always include links under the heading 'Issues for...'. Those links are in the right-hand column when your browser window is wide enough, or they are near the page bottom under the 'Downloads' and 'Maintainers for...' sections when your browser window is narrower.

The 'Issues for...' links take you to the issues queue for that specific module project. The issues queue is the official place where all of the problems ('Bug report'), support requests, ('Support request') and new-feature requests ('Feature request') can be found and searched for.

So, if you run into problems with a module, search the module's issue queue. If your problem (or request) has not already been addressed, post your question or issue using the link 'Create a new issue', and someone will try to help you out.

Resources:

Just under the 'Issues...' section, in the section under the heading 'Resources', I always look for the link 'Read documentation'. That link will not always exist, but if it is there, it is a link to what the project's developers consider the most useful information for their project.

The 'Read documentation' link might take you to a page on drupal.org in the 'Documentation' section, or the link might take you to a page off of the drupal.org site.

Generally speaking though, every contrib module will have a "README.txt" file and/or an "INSTALL.txt" file in its top-level folder that you can view after you download the module, or after you import it into your site.

The various Documentation resources available for a module (or theme) are discussed elsewhere. For now, note that you can view any project's 'README.txt' file, or see its other documentation without downloading anything, by following the instructions below in the 'Module documentation and help'

Understand the various module versions available

On the "project" page, see the section 'Releases'. Here each version of the project is listed with information about the version of Drupal it is compatible with, testing results, and links to the production and development versions.

Version information

The version number and the release date are the first item listed for a version. For projects compatible with Drupal 7 the version number will begin with '7'. For projects compatible with Drupal 8 or higher the first number does not indicate the Drupal version it is compatible with. In all cases, the version of Drupal the project is compatible with is on line 'Requires Drupal: '.

The version you choose must be compatible with the version of Drupal you are using.

For more information about the version numbering scheme that is being used, read What do version numbers mean on contributed modules and themes?.

Recommended releases

A recommended release is indicated with a check mark and the text 'Recommended by the project's maintainer' and a background green color.

Other releases

If no 'Recommended releases' is available, your next best option is to try another release, if available.

Non recommended releases are generally on their way to becoming a 'Recommended releases' version.

But, on the other hand, on a rare occasion, an older version is an older stable version of the module before major changes were made to it. In that somewhat rare case, the older stable version will have been moved from the 'recommended releases' when the newer version was ready. One reason for keeping an older version around would be if some other separate module projects were dependent on the older version for that dependent module to work properly.

Development releases

The 'Development releases' version of the module is in some stage of development. It is the current 'state of the art of development' version, as the developers are working out bugs, or are adding new features.