Display Suite vs Panels

Ever since the first release of Display Suite, people have been asking if it is a replacement for Panels, and what the differences are between the two. The answer is not an easy one since each module has its own strengths, but there is an overlap too. Without going into a detailed write-up of  the two modules, I will focus on pointing out their main strengths and main differences, so that it might be easier to choose which one you need for your project.

Panels

Panels is a very powerful module with a huge amount of options. Let's look at it's main features:

• You can create a Mini panel, which is a block that you can assign a layout to (e.g. three columns with a header above), and then in each of the regions in that layout, you can combine several pieces of content such as a node, another block, custom content, a View etc.
• You can also create a Panel node, which is very similar to a Mini panel, but instead of a block, you create a node, giving the benefit of having a URL and page title. In a Panel node it is just as easy to choose a layout and assign all kinds of content to it.
• Even more powerful is Panel Pages. Without it being an actual node, you can build up your entire page with all kinds of content and elements and assign a URL to it. The drawback against a Panel node is that this Page will not show up in search results for example.
• Important in the comparison with Display Suite is the fact that the Pages system also allows to overtake default system layouts such as the node detail layout. That means you can restructure the way a node is displayed on its detail page e.g. put the comments on the right, the links just below the title etc. Based on a variety of parameters such as the language or node id, user id etc, you can even create several versions of the node detail page.

To summarize, Panels offers the option to mix together different objects together on one page.

Display Suite

For those who don't know the Display Suite, I advice to read my short introduction on it. For others, I will make a short recap of it's features in light of the comparison with Panels.

Display Suite allows you to manipulate the way objects such as nodes, users, comments etc. are being displayed in several different locations throughout your site. Two examples of its usage:

• Rearrange how the fields for a certain content type are being displayed on the node detail page, in a teaser view or in the search results.
• With the custom build modes, you could create a 'Block list' build mode and configure it to show just your node title and its taxonomy tags.  The Views integration then allows a View with for example 'related content' lists in the sidebar to use this build mode instead of being limited to 'full' and 'teaser'.

The differences

1. The Display Suite always starts with a single object such as a node and offers a way to configure its display by rearranging the fields for that node in a fixed 5 column layout.
   Panels is focused on combining different objects such as blocks, nodes, Views etc. together in a variety of layouts.
2. As mentioned, Panels Pages offer the option to change the layout of the detail page of a node and you have the option to create several variants based on arguments.
   With the Display Suite you can define the layout of your node detail, but it does not take any arguments. On the other hand, through its 'build mode' system, it extends far further than just the node detail page but is able to configure the layout of your content in the search results, teasers etc.
3. Double nesting: In DS, you can put your fields in one of the 5 regions, but inside those regions, you can also group them together in fieldgroups.
   Panels is restricted to one level of grouping.

Making them work together

Ironically, the best way to explain the difference is to show how well they integrate with each other. Two examples:

1. When you create a node panel for the homepage, you can decide to throw in some custom blocks and some nodes. For those nodes, Display Suite adds a 'build mode' dropdown to the panels form, offering the option to decide which display to use for that node in the Panel. So Panels allows you to combine everything on one page, and the Display Suite handles the way the nodes in that panel are displayed.
2. Panel Pages allows to take over the Drupal search page, so you could move around all elements of that page. For the actual display of the search results, you can use the 'search' build mode in Display Suite to define what fields to show for which content type.

Conclusion

If you only want to take control of the display of your nodes in different build modes and get rid of template files, use Display Suite.

If you need to make complex pages where different elements have to be combined together, use Panels.

Personally I prefer to use the two of them together, where Panels is a great help in building a homepage and landing pages, and Display Suite helps to keep the management of the layout of all the different objects easy as pie.

Do you agree, or have I missed out on something? All feedback is welcome!