Then three come all at once

I have been doing some work on the field_extract module, a few minor fix-ups most of which wouldn't be noticed and added support for the entityreference field. You can find this module here: http://drupal.org/project/field_extract

Someone I worked with recently has put out my "deeplink" module which allows otherwise hidden content to be made available on a specific trackable URL. My version was Drupal 6 (that's what I was working on at the time) he's doing the D7 upgrade, you can find it http://drupal.org/project/deeplink

But deeplink needs my Controls module, and that's a baby that needs explanation. And that explanation is available on the project page http://drupal.org/project/controls there's both a D6 and D7 version both written by lil ole me.

Briefly: Controls is an API module which provides a similar function to CTools plugins (they have a lot in common), but requires virtually no setting up and is much easier to use. Now I always say that to people but I did seriously wonder whether it was true, so for the last commercial project I worked on I didn't use Controls, I went back to using CTools plugins instead. I desperately wished I hadn't.

So I'll stick by my statement - I think Controls is easier to use and in some ways more versatile than CTools plugins.


However they are also more easily abused. It's something for developers working on an end-client's website. Anyway I'll let you be the judge.

Ssssh

I've not posted recently because my current job involves Drupal 6 so I've done virtually no D7 work for a while. However I do have a new set of modules for developers coming soon which will be in both D6 and D7 varieties.

Essentially it's a system that does a similar job to CTools plugins but is lightweight and standalone. It's very good for de-coupling dependent custom modules, essentially very simple but very versatile.

There's a core module that provides the API (a very small module indeed) and then some other modules that demonstrate how to use it and provide handy facilities at the same time.

Hopefully I'll have that out by Christmas. I'm also happy to say that my field_extract module is doing very nicely  in the module usage charts currently standing at 99 sites.