Some sites don’t need big JavaScript architectures, only bits of small behaviors that will affect certain elements. I prefer to put them into a directory called behaviors.

  • Each file is a self-contained piece of code that only affects a single element type.
  • Name each one of the files according to the class (or role) it affects.
  • They should also be independent of each other, and therefore, order-agnostic.

Example project

...
└── javascripts/
    └── behaviors/
        ├── colorpicker.js
        ├── modal.js
        ├── select2.js
        ├── tooltip.js
        └── wow.js

// select2.js -- affects `.select2`
$(function () {
  $(".select2").select2();
})

// wow.js -- affects `.wow`
$(function () {
  new WOW().init();
})

// tooltips.js -- affects `.tooltip`
$(document).on('hover', '.tooltip', function () {
  ...
});

Using behaviors

Just include them all into one file. In Rails, this should be as easy as:

//= require_tree ./behaviors

This JavaScript will be safe to include in all pages.