Supported publishing models

Tridion Sites supports multiple models for publishing content. This variety reflects product's evolution in order to meet the technical and functional requirements of the time. The most recent framework, templateless, data-only publishing, was developed to support headless content management. This topic gives a quick overview of this evolution.

The following diagram illustrates the evolution of publishing in Tridion Sites:

Here are the key differences between the four models:

  • The top three models in the diagram rely on a modular templating framework. With this template-based model, a Component Template defines how Components are displayed and behave on a webpage.
  • The top two models only combine code with HTML markup to produce pre-rendered HTML as the published output. Of these two, one is a static model and the other is dynamic.
  • In the third model, the addition of DXA (Digital Experience Accelerator) enables publishing to JSON rather than HTML.
  • The first model is static while the second and third models are both dynamic, where the combination of the Component Template with the Component creates a publishable piece of content called a Component Presentation.

    The static and dynamic models work as follows:

    • Static publishing uses modular templates (Page Templates, Component Templates) to render the structured content (Pages, Components) and produce publishable content before sending it on to Content Delivery. The published Component Presentations are static in that they are embedded on a Page.
    • Dynamic publishing also uses the modular templating framework, but rather than publishing Component Presentations that are embedded on a Page, you publish Component Presentations as independent content items called Dynamic Component Presentations, or DCPs. These DCPs are assembled after publishing on the Content Delivery side. If any DCP changes, you only need to republish that specific DCP and not entire Page.
  • The last model illustrates a templateless model.In a templateless, data-only publishing model, no Component Template is required and there is no concept of a Component Presentation. The look and feel of content is removed from the template and done instead by the application that uses the published content, such as a website, mobile app or a kiosk display screen.