Contributed modules extend the functionality of Drupal and our Contributed Modules components will teach you how to use the most versatile and flexible tools offered on top of Drupal. This component starts with a discussion on identifying, researching and selecting contributed modules for use on your site.

Content Construction Kit (CCK)
CCK is a way to create types of content, like dated nodes and events, image and media nodes, user forms and more. CCK meets the needs of developers building specialized sites in which the standard story, blog, page and forum topic will not suffice. CCK trainings can be extended with any of the 100+ sub modules built for CCK, including Imagefield, Videofield, Embedded Media Field, Date and a whole lot more.

Views
As the module description says, Views is "a flexible method for Drupal site designers to control how lists of content are presented." Views presents a complicated array of options for filtering, sorting and displaying content based on content type, tag, date, and more. This module seems to present a very high percentage of solutions for special site design needs, and many of the later modules discussed will hook into Views as well.

Panels
In some cases, carving up a single page to contain multiple sections of data is very desireable and the Blocks system just sometimes doesn't cut it. The Panels module is where it's at. Without complicated Theme development you can create any size, shape or number of interior content areas in which to place different kinds of content.

Understanding how these few contributed modules can extend the functionality of Drupal is invaluable.