How+to+Install+Service+Links+&+Why+They+Are+Useful

=How to Install & Configure Service Links (Drupal Module) and Why it is Useful=

By: Michael Graham
Hello everyone! This is a module I originally thought that, after first assignment, would not be of much use to me -- as I already had my social media buttons on my CV page (which led to my own pages, which, at the time, is what I wanted) but as I started coming up with ideas for this second site I began to realize that if I wanted to retain a social media aspect to my site, I would not only want my own social media connections to be available -- but also to make my pages/content/articles easily shared among the larger social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google+. Delicious, etc.

Service Links is a great little module that pretty much solved my problem in about 10 minutes (as I had originally tried doing this with the Social Media widget/module and quickly discovered that it would not work, as you have to have set links for that module!)

So here we go! :) Service Links & why doing this is worth your time, if you want to have share-ability on your site.

1) Installation!

>> Visit the module homepage here and navigate down to the bottom of the page. You'll find the downloads section for the module, as is pretty much the same case for every other module:



As we are using Drupal 7, Alt-click and "Copy Link Location" the "7.x-2.1" tar.gz file.

Migrate to your Drupal site and navigate to your Modules page in the Dashboard. Click "Install New Module."

Command/Ctrl-V / Paste the link into the "Install from a URL" text field, as seen below:



Click "Install." Type in your FTP username and password and voila! It has been installed. Now to enable it and customize it!

2) Enable It!

Click on the "Modules" tab on your Dashboard once again. Here, a long of the installed modules currently available to you will appear. Scroll down until you find the **first** of **two** Service Links modules:



Here you will need to hit the radio boxes for two of the four available options for the basic install: "Service links" and "Service Links Sprites". The Sprites option can be left unchecked, but without it you would be unable to use the CSS-configured images and styling available through this option. However, the module will function without it.

Next, scroll down a little further. The next Service Links module should be located right underneath the one pictured above, this one with more options. Most of the choices from this second box are multilingual options, available if needed and not required so as not to slow down the rendering processing by allowing you to choose the languages you want! How thoughtful, right?

However, it is still slightly confusing. There is no blatant "English" option, where the other languages are listed by name. To get the English install, you must click on these radio boxes:



(That would be the "Favourite Services" and "General Services." Again, "Favorite Services" is not required -- though it does give the user an easy way to let them add your site/article/page to their bookmarks/favourites for viewing later or over the long term.)

>>> As a sidenote, if you already have the Social Media app/module installed, there is an additional option you can select from this box:



This option is at the very bottom of the "Service Links -- Services" box. This pretty much serves as an alternate, stream-lined way to insert the Facebook/Twitter/etc. buttons leading to your own accounts through the same module and can be configured in the settings of the module, which will be covered later (though not for the self-links, as those are covered in this tutorial).

Once you have selected the appropriate options, hit "Save Configuration" at the bottom of the page. Now the module is enabled and ready to go!!

3) Implementation

This bit is a little tricky unless you've got quite the watchful eye.. I didn't the first time I tried to get this to work, and found myself looking all around as to how to get the buttons to show up. Turns out the implementation of this module is very easy once you figure out where the settings have gone!

Step one is to click on "Configuration" in the Dashboard. Scroll down until you see "Service Links" as one of the options under Web Services. Click on it!

You will be greeted at first with this:



Right away, you will be prompted for what content types you want the social media links to be attached to. This is very useful for quick and easy implementation -- just be sure to have made your desired content types before-hand! (This can be anything from an article to blog to customized content types, such as the "review" one I use here.) Choose whether or not you want the links to incorporate tags.

Next, you will be presented with these options as you scroll down:



The first option gives you the ability to choose whether you want your social media links to appear only in **full-page view**, **teaser view**, or both **teaser and full-page view**, which is important to consider if you want to display your selected content through Views. If you are showing only the teasers in a list, you may want to have the links available only once the user has accessed and read/interacted with the full text... or otherwise! This is why the option exists, so that you can fit it to whatever kind of content you want to make share-able.

The second option simply gives you more customization options in terms of when (under what conditions) the links appear.

Like many other modules, the Service Links module then asks you if you want to have the links appear only on certain pages. This is up to you, depending on how you want to work with your content types, though keep in mind that the links will only appear with the content types you chose in the Configuration stage!

Next, you will find this part of the form:



Very useful for deciding how the links will be displayed! The module gives you a number of options, as seen in the pull-down menu. I would personally recommend sticking to the "Only Image" option -- only text will give you, obviously, only text links that may or may not work with your design -- your choice. The Sprites, however, seem to give you a mix after some experimentation: some links will be images, some will be text Therefore, I recommend sticking to the uniform "Only Image" option if you want a more clean and recognizable look.

Secondly, keep in mind the weight of your links -- if this is higher, the chances of the links appearing lower on your page / below most of your content is pretty high. Likewise, if it's lower, the higher they will appear. Keep in mind what is best for your design and for your own interests!

The rest of the settings are optional and up to you to configure with what works best for your purposes/design. Save your settings and have fun/ experiment with the other settings!

4) The "Services" Tab

So, now that you've got all that configured and saved, it's time to move on to actually implementing the module on your pages!

At the top of the Service Links Configuration page, find the Services tab:



Click it and behold! You now have a massive list of social media networks at your disposal! Select the radio buttons of those you want your users to able to share your content to:



Scroll down and hit "Save Configuration" once you're done! And now you are all set -- let the sharing begin!!

Here's an example of what everything should look like (I have use a Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, and Delicious combo here):



5) Why is this useful?

Well, though it really depends on the site you are trying to build, social media is a huge part of the internet and of the web. The ability to have your content shared across social media platforms at the click of a button is a very powerful and very effective tool not only for the distribution and advertising of your own content, but also for promoting interactivity and the option for your users to engage and spread your material across the web to their friends, families, and colleagues. Almost every article, blog post, news column, and whatever else you can find on the Internet can almost be guaranteed to have some way to share it here's a quick and easy way for you to be able to do the very same thing!!

I hope this helped! :D If you have any questions about the module or the setup process, or even some of the features I didn't touch on here, feel free to ask! I will do my best to respond in a timely manner.