10 Must-Have Drupal 8 Modules in 2018 to Boost Your Web Projects With

A whole new world of possibilities opens up for you around this time of year, can you feel it? Shiny and new challenging web projects to delve yourself into, new tools to try, brand new programming languages to learn... And definitely so many promising Drupal 8 modules to explore and to boost your projects with. Speaking of which, here's a list of 10 must-have Drupal 8 modules in 2018 that I look forward to implementing.

Scan it through and see if it's an inspiring and solid enough resource for you to jumpstart your next web project with!

 

1. Drupal Commerce 

Why I (so) look forward to implementing this Drupal 8 module in my first Drupal e-commerce website project this year?

Because:

  1. it's been rebuilt, from the ground up, with Drupal 8 in mind

     
  2. meaning that it's no longer designed to follow a certain pre-established e-commerce business pattern: you're free now to adapt it to fit each one of your project's particular needs

And it's precisely this higher level of freedom (or should I say “empowerment”?) that made me place the Drupal Commerce at the very top of my personal list of best Drupal 8 modules!

 

2. Pathauto, One of The Must-Have Drupal 8 Modules in 2018, Too

SEO is definitely not dead. Moreover, it will continue to remain relevant and the SEO efforts to be thriving as long as there's... web!

And so, the Pathauto module will continue to be listed among the top 10 Drupal 8 modules. 

For it's a crucial role that it plays:

  • it allows you to define the patterns for each one of the paths on your site, corresponding to specific content
  • then it automatically generates Google-acceptable (meaning relevant, meaningful and easy to remember) aliases for your URLs
  • and implicitly give your site's a boost in rankings

Note: it's a “trio” of Drupal powers that you'll need to unlock; you'll be leveraging the Chaos Tools and the Token dependencies, as well, along with the Pathauto module!

 

3. Configuration Split

I tell you: once you've integrated this module into your Drupal 8 site development workflow, you won't be able to imagine your work without it!

Here's why:

 

  • it empowers you to define sets of configurations

     
  • … to import and export them to specific directories on your site

     
  • … to edit them right on the live website

     
  • thus leaving the “old practice” behind, the one where you'd be importing/exporting a site's whole heavy configuration set

     
  • since now, once you import new configuration sets to multiple directories, they will automatically (and nonetheless, “conveniently) merge together again

     
  • all this without any impact whatsoever on your configuration management workflow

     

Which translates into a conveniently customizable configuration management of your Drupal 8 web projects.

 

4. Webform

Here's another one of those “can't live without”/must-have Drupal 8 modules in 2018! 

The Webform module has proven its “power” and has quickly made most of the Drupal 7 developers out there fall under its “spell”.

And it looks like it's got even more powerful in Drupal 8!

Practically, its maintainers have turned it into the ideal form-builder that you can supercharge your Drupal 8 website with. 

And so:

  • setting up new web forms
  • duplicating the existing ones
  • integrating the newly built ones into your website
  • sending automatic confirmations to your site's users
  • managing submissions

… turns into a streamlined process when using the Drupal 8 version of the Webform module at its full potential!

 

5. Features 

You can add to/keep Features on your “best Drupal 8 modules”  list this year, too! On your list of modules built specifically to ease developers' “burden”.

To streamline our day-to-day work.

Now let me detail:

  • practically the Features module makes suitably easy transferring and using the configurations and components on your current site to/on several other websites

     
  • it enables you to bundle up the needed functionalities and import/export (and identify) changes from one site to another quick and easy 

     
  • now in Drupal 8 it comes with a new bunch of “tempting enough” enhancements while keeping the same UI for editing your features that we've all grown used to

     

In short: integrating the Features module into your workflow this year will help you deliver better-structured results. 

Is this goal, as well, listed on your 2018 work-related resolution list?

 

6. Deploy

“More” is the word to define the Deploy module in Drupal 8: more flexible, more efficient...

And so, I'm more excited than ever to harness its power in my planned web projects for this year!

It's going to be my trustworthy ally in staging, previewing content and deploying it from one Drupal website to another. 

Oh, and I almost forgot: the new “revamped” version for D8 is “powered” by the Replication and the Multiversion modules.

And this pretty much explains where its boosted flexibility comes from!

 

7. Paragraphs: On Top of My “Must-Have Modules in 2018” List

Not just one of the must-have Drupal 8 modules in 2018: THE “rockstar" module itself!

Can't imagine building Drupal 8 websites without it anymore.

Here's why I'm so hooked on it:

  • it makes adding chunks of content (e.g. sets of time-slots to events, calls to action to landing pages) to the already existing content on a given site “nothing but a child's play”

     
  • it empowers me to put together highly flexible content types with compound fields 

     
  • it “spoils” me with flexible and ideally customizable paragraphs to handle however I need to

     
  • it makes applying atomic design's principles so much easier

Are these strong enough reasons for turning the Paragraphs module for Drupal 8 into your main site-building tool in 2018?

 
8.UI Patterns

And yet, the Paragraphs module is not your only great option for easily complying with the atomic design's principles in your work this year.

UI patterns, too, makes a highly “tempting” project to consider implementing into your workflow. Here's why:

 

  • it's a “cluster” of six different modules which turn your site building process into a highly modular (nonetheless more standardized) process

     
  • basically, they enable you to define the UI patterns as Drupal plugins 

     
  • … template-like ones, that you can simply drop into your field groups, views, paragraphs

     

A modular and standardized way of building a website! Aren't these the main goals of any Drupal site builder?

 

9. JSON API

Toying with the idea of decoupled Drupal? Well, then it's time you turned this idea of yours into... Drupal reality!

Drupal + The JavaScript front-end framework of your choice

Especially since the JSON API module, another must-have Drupal 8 modules in 2018 on my list, makes venturing into headless Drupal projects even more “tempting”!  

   

And what it does, more exactly, is formatting your JSON requests and responses so that they automatically comply with the JSON API specification.

This way, setting up Drupal as your site's back-end and “grabbing” the framework of your choice as its front-end becomes more streamlined than ever. 

 

10. Metatag 

Not only that the Metatag module won't “grow out of fashion” anytime soon, but it's still on top of any Drupal developer's “10 Drupal 8 modules” list.

Let it guide you —  in 2018 as well —  into putting together properly SEO-optimized page titles and descriptions. And also, turn it into your guarantee that your content will look great on social media, too!

Since it's this kind of details that can either “fuel” or break a whole online marketing strategy, don't you agree?

 

And these are, in my humble opinion, the must-have Drupal 8 modules in 2018.

What do you think? Have I missed any other “can't live without” modules for Drupal 8? Which are the ones that you're looking forward to tapping into while working on your Drupal projects this year?

Feel free to “unveil” your favorites in the comments below!