There are many Elgg plugins to help you add additional functionality to your Elgg core. The idea of this post was not to put together “the best” list of Elgg plugins, only it’s a list of 10 Elgg Plugins that I have found to be extremely useful. I have used and tested each of these plugins with the most recent version of Elgg which at this time is Elgg 1.1. All have installed and worked perfectly and have been a great advantage to the Social Networks I have used them with. I hope they will do the same for you!

1. Default Widgets

This plugin gives you the ability through a web interface to control the default widgets for new users profile and dashboard. This is an extremely helpful plugin because you can’t always assume that your users will know how to customize their profile & dashboard pages. (even though it’s quite easy).  Default Widgets

2. Custom Index

Most likely you are going to want to customize the homepage of your social network. This Elgg plugin gives you an easy way to do that wihtout totally hacking your Elgg platform. The author includes some demo code to help you in creating your custom homepage as well. Custom Index

3. Invite Friends

Kind of surprised this is not a in the Elgg core by now. Anyhow you will definitely want this plugin. Gives your users a new option where they can send out mass invites along with a message for the email to invite more to the social network. Invite Friends

4. Friend Requests

By default with Elgg (as of the date of this post) the friends functionality does not quite work the same as your typical social network. You can add users as your friends without their approval. Many people don’t like this part of the Elgg framework. This Elgg plugin gives users the ability to moderate who their friends are. Friend Requests

5. User Validation

This Elgg plugin gives site administrators the ability to moderate users as they come in/register. In some cases you may want to limit or control what the users that come into your social network. Kind of like a private social network of some kind. That’s where this plugin would come in helpful for you. UserValidation

6. Form & Related Plugins/ Flexprofile

The Flexprofile plugin gives you a web interface to control the Profile Fields for your users. This is another bit of functionality that should be in the Elgg core. I use this often to actually add additional fields to users Profile so they can give more information about themselves. Flexprofile

7. Embed Video

A widget for users profile pages so that they can embed a YouTube (and other types) video of their choice. If you are going to have a social network you have to give your users video capabilities. And what better than pulling YouTube video over.  Embed Video

8. TidyPics Photo Gallery

There’s a file functionality built in already with Elgg where you can upload files. But this particular plugin is more specific to uploading & sharing photos and creating photo albums and galleries. TidyPics Photo Gallery

9.  Higher Walls

This plugin for Elgg hides your entire social network to the public. So by combining this plugin along with the UserValidation plugin you can create a private social network. Higher Walls

10. Twitter Widget

Need I explain the reason to have Twitter integrated within your social network? Well with that aside let me expalain this simple Elgg plugin. It basically takes a users Twitter Feed and displays X ammount of hte most recent “Twits” on the users Profile page. Twitter Widget