Approach to handle javascript on bigger projects?

Question

After discovering jQuery a few years ago, I realized how easy it was to really make interactive and user friendly websites without writing books of code. As the projects increas

Answer 1

My suggestion would be is to isolate as much javascript as possible into external js files, outside of your views, and simply reference them in the headers. Not only does this allow javascript re-use from page to page, but it separates your concerns on a fair level, spreading out your code to allow for easier debugging (easier by my beliefs anyway). In addition, this makes your js a little bit more secure as it is not rendered directly onto the browser page. Granted, that security is fairly negligible since tools like firebug or IE's Developer Tools can access layered away javascript files.

Second, I would suggest using a tool like unto compress.msbuild to (at final compile for deployment) compress all your custom-written javascript to whatevertheirnameis-min.js. Not only does compacting everything to a single line actually reduce load and run-times for your code, it also obfuscates it into more secure. It is significantly more difficult to take apart a -min file, much less find any specific functions when all the code is a single line.