This page outlines Tridion design approaches and trade-offs with two approaches to managing JavaScript.

JavaScript is code for which a Tridion developer is responsible for maintaining, and possibly writing. JavaScript is a dynamically typed programming language which is used predominantly for interactions in the web browser. Like any quality code, it should be well-architected so that it is flexible, maintainable, and sustainable. This will outline patterns for managing JavaScript.

There are two approaches for managing the JavaScript for a website in Tridion

• Multimedia Components
• JavaScript Schema

This approach is often used with a code repository.

• A developer uses WebDav to transfer JavaScript files from a code repo.
• JavaScript is put into Tridion using multimedia schema
• Default Multimedia Schema is used or a JavaScript multimedia schema is created

• The JavaScript binaries can be published to the web server
• JavaScript component template can be created, JavaScript components added to a page template for JavaScript, the JavaScript page is published

• Code Schemas
• Plain text Schemas

This approach is often used without a code repository.

• A developer copies and pastes JavaScript from a text editor into a code component.
• JavaScript is managed in Tridion as either a generic "code component" or a custom JavaScript component which contains a large plaintext field

• JavaScript components must be added to a JavaScript page template with a JavaScript component Template
• A JavaScript page is published

	Pros	Cons
Binary File	Easy to migrate from code repo, no risk of errors in migration	Cannot edit JavaScript in Tridion front-end debugging goes more slowly
Code Component	Easy to migrate from code repo, no risk of errors in migration Can edit JavaScript in Tridion front-end debugging goes quickly Tridion can automatically publish the javascript in the correct encoding	difficult to migrate from code repo risk of migration errors Difficult to write completely modular JavaScript for many front-end designers