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File Organization

Below is an overview of file organization in Tridion, and why we recommend adding triple digits in front of your content.

Tridon Uses an Alphanumeric Numbering System

Like most computer systems, Tridion uses standard alphanumeric patterns for organizing components and pages. This means that when you view a component or page in the system, the items in a folder will organize themselves based on what the filename starts with. Numbers always come first (0-9), followed by alphabet letters (A-Z). 

So for example, if you had the following items in a Tridion folder:

  • 72 hour log
  • Xylophone sheet music
  • 123Magic
  • John's trip photos
  • 48 hour log

Tridion would organize them like this:

  • 123 Magic
  • 48 hour log
  • 72 hour log
  • John's trip photos
  • Xylophone sheet music

As mentioned above, the reason why they organize themselves like this are because items named with numbers come first, and they proceed in order of the first number in the file name (starting with 0, ending with 9). Items named with alphabet letters come after numbers, and those organize themselves in A-Z fashion.

The Impact of Order on Navigation

When it comes to your website's top and left menu navigation, Tridion will generate the navigation based on how items are organized in the pink 050 [Your Website] > root > structure group folders. 

If you have the following pages in a structure group:

  • Business Guidebooks
  • Starting a Business
  • Financing a Business
  • Finding Workers

Then Tridion will organize them in alphanumeric order, like this, and this is how they'll appear in your navigation:

  • Business Guidebooks
  • Financing a Business
  • Finding Workers
  • Starting a Business

But what if you want "Starting a Business" to be first? The way to do this is to insert numbers before the content, so you can control the order of the items. To reorder these items, you should name them like this:

  • 010 Starting a Business
  • 020 Financing a Business
  • 030 Finding Workers
  • 040 Business Guidebooks

Tip: Tridion is programmed to ignore any numbers at the start of a filename, so these won't show up in your navigation.

Why Triple Digit Numbers?

One thing clients often ask is why do we use triple digit numbers? The reason is because it leaves you more wiggle room for inserting new content into the middle later on, without having to renumber everything.

Using the examples provided above, say later on you decide you want to add Exporting and Trade to the pages listed above, and you want it to come before Business Guidebooks in the list.

To insert it without renaming everything, you can simply name it "035 Exporting and Trade." This will insert it between 030 Finding Workers and 040 Business Guidebooks.

Ok, but Why Not Use Two Digits?

The reason why we don't number in 10, 20, 30, etc. is because you'll find you quickly hit 100 in some of your folders that have a lot of sub-folders or pages. When this happens, if you're using a two-digit numbering system, then Tridion will put all the ones together before moving to the twos. For example, your content would organize like this:

  • 10
  • 100
  • 110
  • 120
  • 20
  • 30
  • 40
  • 50
  • 60
  • 70
  • 80
  • 90

This will impact your navigational order, too. Content that you want to come after 90 will be toward the top instead.

Matching the 020 and 050 Publications

Whatever system you develop for ordering content on your website, we recommend that you repeat the same structure in the other part of the publication. So, for example, whatever sub-folders and pages you build in the 050 [Your Website} > root area, we recommend that you replicate those same folders and sub-folders in the 020 [Your Website] Content publication. This will make it a lot easier for you to find things.

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