Media Library and Layout Organization

In general, the same considerations apply to Media Library or Layout items as apply to any other content item. The goal in either of these cases is to organize items in a way that makes sense to business users (in the case of the Media Library) or developers (in the case of Layout items). Media items are sometimes organized based on the type of asset (i.e. image, word document, pdf, etc.) or an asset’s classification (i.e. product images, home page images, navigation images, etc.).

Keep in mind the ability to set the source attribute of an image field. The source attribute describes where in the media library business users will start browsing when they populate an image field. Organizing your media library to facilitate business user navigation of the media library will enhance the usability of the system.

While Media Library items are typically organized based on business user usability concerns, the organization of layouts, sublayouts and renderings is driven by developer considerations (in addition to the other considerations described in this document). Developers may organize code assets by site, local vs. global or by a logical ordering. When organizing presentation objects, remember that files and metadata are managed separately (i.e. on the file system vs. as Sitecore items). The organization of the files and Sitecore items typically mirror each other, but do not have to.

Note that layouts, sublayouts and renderings may be stored in virtual directories (virtual applications are not supported) to facilitate code management and source control.