Albert te Boekhorst

Tridion publications contain the building blocks used in Tridion blue printing. A Tridion Publication contains ONE of the following website parts:

• Nothing. Also known as the “Empty Master” has no parents and can never be given a parent. Placed to ensure that in the future the publications below it can be given new parents.
• Data design in the form of (XML) Schemas
• Frontend design and functionality. Component Templates, Page Templates, javascript, CSS etc.
• Components (content) for one language (English, Spanish) and one domain (website.com) or channel.
• A physical website. Usually only inherits from design and content and, optionally, a publication may contain Tridion pages. This type of Publication only combines content and design elements from parent publications. Usually it does not contain any local design parts or content.

It is possible to do all of the above in one publication. However this limits the possibility of re-use and with that the advantages Tridion offers in terms of maintenance.

A Tridion page corresponds with a physical page (HTML/ASP/JSP/XML/CSS etc) on a website. The type and layout of the page are defined by the Page Template that is used on the page.

A page is also a container for Component Presentations. It is possible to add 0 or more Component Presentations (chunks of rendered content) on one page. The Page Template will determine how the Component Presentations are placed on the page. In addition it defines the HTML header tags and which navigation blocks are visible.

The end result will look something like this: