Configuring Dispatcher for Communities configuring-dispatcher-for-communities

Last update: Mon Jan 08 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Topics:
Communities

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User

AEM Communities aem-communities

For AEM Communities, it is necessary to configure the Dispatcher to ensure proper functioning of community sites. Additional configurations are necessary when including features such as social login.

To learn what is necessary for your particular deployment and site design

Contact Customer Care

See also the main Dispatcher documentation.

Dispatcher Caching dispatcher-caching

Overview overview

Dispatcher caching for AEM Communities is the ability for the Dispatcher to serve fully cached versions of a community site’s pages.

Currently, it is only supported for anonymous site visitors, such as users who browse the community site, or land on a community page as a result of a search, and for search engines which index pages. The benefit is that anonymous users and search engines experience improved performance.

For signed in members, the Dispatcher bypasses the cache, relaying requests directly to the publisher, such that all pages are generated and delivered dynamically.

When configured to support Dispatcher caching, a TTL-based “max age” expiration is added to the header to ensure that the Dispatcher cached pages are current.

Requirements requirements

Dispatcher version 4.1.2 or later (see Installing Dispatcher for the latest version)
ACS AEM Commons package
- Version 3.3.2 or later
- ACS AEM Commons - Dispatcher Cache Control Header - Max Age OSGi config

Configuration configuration

The OSGi configuration ACS AEM Commons - Dispatcher Cache Control Header - Max Age sets the expiration of cached pages that appear under a specified path.

From the Web Console.
- For example, http://localhost:4503/system/console/configMgr
Locate ACS AEM Commons - Dispatcher Cache Control Header - Max Age
Select the ‘+’ icon so you can create a connection configuration.
Filter Patterns
(required) One or more paths to community pages. For example, /content/sites/engage/(.*).
Cache-Control Max Age
(required) The max age (in seconds) to add to the Cache Control header. The value must be greater than zero (0).

Dispatcher Filters dispatcher-filters

The /filter section of the dispatcher.any file is documented in Configuring Access to Content - /filter.

This section describes entries that are likely necessary for proper functioning of Communities features.

The filter property names follow the convention of using a four-digit number to indicate the order in which to apply filter patterns. When multiple filter patterns apply to a request, the last filter pattern that is applied is effective. Therefore, the first filter pattern is often used to deny everything, such that the following patterns serve to restore access in a controlled manner.

The following samples use property names that likely must be modified to fit into any particular dispatcher.any file.

Dispatcher Rules dispatcher-rules

The rules section of dispatcher.any defines what responses should be cached based on the requested URL. For Communities, the rules section is used to define what should never be cached.

# Never cache the client-side .social.json calls
/0001 { /type "deny" /url "*.social.json*" }

# Never cache the user-specific .json requests
/0002 { /type "deny" /url "/libs/granite/csrf/token.json*" }
/0003 { /type "deny" /url "/libs/granite/security/currentuser.json*" }
/0004 { /type "deny" /url "/libs/granite/security/userinfo.json*" }

# Never cache the private community groups pages in case - add your own deny rules in there
/0005 { /type "deny" /url "/content/*/groups/*" }

# Never cache the assignments page in case the Enablement feature is in use - add your own deny rules in there
/0006 { /type "deny" /url "/content/*/assignments/*" }

# Never cache user generated content
/0208 { /type "deny" /url "/content/usergenerated/*" }

Troubleshooting troubleshooting

A major source of problems is inserting filter rules without paying attention to the effect on earlier rules, especially when adding a rule to deny access.

The first filter pattern is often used to deny everything so that following filters restore access in a controlled manner. When multiple filters apply to a request, the last filter that is applied is the one in effect.

Sample dispatcher.any sample-dispatcher-any

Following is a sample dispatcher.any file that includes the Communities /filters and /rules.

# Each farm configures a set of load balanced renders (that is, remote servers)
/farms
  {
  # First farm entry
  /website
    {
    # Request headers that should be forwarded to the remote server.
    /clientheaders
      {
      # Forward all request headers that are end-to-end. If you want
      # to forward a specific set of headers, you'll have to list
      # them here.
      "*"
      }

    # Hostname matching for farm selection (virtual domain addressing)
    /virtualhosts
      {
      # Entries will be compared against the "Host" request header
      # and an optional request URL prefix.
      #
      # Examples:
      #
      #   www.company.com
      #   intranet.*
      #   myhost:8888/mysite
      "*"
      }

    # The load will be balanced among these render instances
    /renders
      {
      /rend01
        {
        # Hostname or IP of the render
        /hostname "127.0.0.1"
        # Port of the render
        /port "4503"
        # Connect timeout in milliseconds, 0 to wait indefinitely
        # /timeout "0"
        }
      }

    # The filter section defines the requests that should be handled by the dispatcher.
    #
    # Entries can be either specified using urls, or elements of the request line:
    #
    # (1) urls will be compared against the entire request line, for example,:
    #
    #     /0001 { /type "deny" /url "* /index.html *" }
    #
    #   matches request "GET /index.html HTTP/1.1" but not "GET /index.html?a=b HTTP/1.1".
    #
    # (2) method/url/query/protocol will be compared againts the respective elements of
    #   the request line, for example,:
    #
    #     /0001 { /type "deny" /method "GET" /url "/index.html" }
    #
    #   matches both "GET /index.html" and "GET /index.html?a=b HTTP/1.1".
    #
    # Note: specifying elements of the request line is the preferred method.
    /filter
      {
      # Deny everything first and then allow specific entries
      /0001 { /type "deny" /url "*" }

      # Open consoles
#     /0011 { /type "allow" /url "/admin/*"  }  # allow servlet engine admin
#     /0012 { /type "allow" /url "/crx/*"    }  # allow content repository
#     /0013 { /type "allow" /url "/system/*" }  # allow OSGi console

      # Allow non-public content directories
#     /0021 { /type "allow" /url "/apps/*"   }  # allow apps access
#     /0022 { /type "allow" /url "/bin/*"    }
      /0023 { /type "allow" /url "/content*" }  # disable this rule to allow mapped content only

#     /0024 { /type "allow" /url "/libs/*"   }
#     /0025 { /type "deny"  /url "/libs/shindig/proxy*" } # if you enable /libs close access to proxy

#     /0026 { /type "allow" /url "/home/*"   }
#     /0027 { /type "allow" /url "/tmp/*"    }
#     /0028 { /type "allow" /url "/var/*"    }

      # Enable specific mime types in non-public content directories
      /0041 { /type "allow" /url "*.css"   }  # enable css
      /0042 { /type "allow" /url "*.gif"   }  # enable gifs
      /0043 { /type "allow" /url "*.ico"   }  # enable icos
      /0044 { /type "allow" /url "*.js"    }  # enable javascript
      /0045 { /type "allow" /url "*.png"   }  # enable png
      /0046 { /type "allow" /url "*.swf"   }  # enable flash
      /0047 { /type "allow" /url "*.jpg"   }  # enable jpg
      /0048 { /type "allow" /url "*.jpeg"  }  # enable jpeg

      # Deny content grabbing
      /0081 { /type "deny"  /url "*.infinity.json" }
      /0082 { /type "deny"  /url "*.tidy.json"     }
      /0083 { /type "deny"  /url "*.sysview.xml"   }
      /0084 { /type "deny"  /url "*.docview.json"  }
      /0085 { /type "deny"  /url "*.docview.xml"  }

      /0086 { /type "deny"  /url "*.*[0-9].json" }
#     /0087 { /type "allow" /method "GET" /url "*.1.json" }  # allow one-level json requests

      # Deny query
   /0090 { /type "deny"  /url "*.query.json" }

      #######################################
      ## BEGIN: AEM COMMUNITITES ADDITIONS
   #######################################
   /0050 { /type "allow" /url "/etc/designs/*" }
   /0051 { /type "allow" /url "/etc/clientlibs/*" }
   /0052 { /type "allow" /url "/bin/statistics/tracker/*" }
   /0054 { /type "allow" /url "* /home/users/*/*/profile.form.html*" }
   /0057 { /type "allow" /url "/home/users/*/profile/*" }
   /0059 { /type "allow" /url "/etc/clientcontext/*" }
   /0063 { /type "allow" /url "* /system/sling/logout*" }
   /0064 { /type "allow" /url "/etc/cloudservices/*" }
   /0062 { /type "allow" /url "/libs/cq/personalization/*"  }  # enable personalization

         # Enable CSRF token otherwise nothings works.
   /5001 { /type "allow" /url "/libs/granite/csrf/token.json *"}

   # Allow SCF User Model to bootstrap as it depends on the granite user
   /5002 { /type "allow" /url "/libs/granite/security/currentuser.json*" }

      # Allow Communities Site Logout button work
      /5003 { /type "allow" /url "/system/sling/logout.html*" }

   # Allow i18n to load correctly
   /5004 { /type "allow" /url "/libs/cq/i18n/dict.en.json *" }

   # Allow social json get pattern.
   /6002 { /type "allow" /url "*.social.*.json*" }

   # Allow loading of templates
   /6003 { /type "allow" /url "/services/social/templates*" }

   # Allow SCF User model to check moderator rules
   /6005 { /type "allow" /url "/services/social/getLoggedInUser?moderatorCheck=*" }

   # Allow CKEditor to load which uses a query pattern.
   /6006 { /type "allow" /url "/etc/clientlibs/social/thirdparty/ckeditor/*.js?t=*" }
   /6007 { /type "allow" /url "/etc/clientlibs/social/thirdparty/ckeditor/*.css?t=*" }

   # Allow Fonts from Communities to load
   /6050 { /type "allow" /url "*.woff" }
   /6051 { /type "allow" /url "*.ttf" }

      # Enable CQ Security checkpoint for component guide.
   /7001 { /type "allow" /url "/libs/cq/security/userinfo.json?cq_ck=*"}

      #######################################
      ## END: AEM COMMUNITITES ADDITIONS
   #######################################

      }

    # The cache section regulates what responses will be cached and where.
    /cache
      {
      # The docroot must be equal to the document root of the webserver. The
      # dispatcher will store files relative to this directory and subsequent
      # requests may be "declined" by the dispatcher, allowing the webserver
      # to deliver them just like static files.
      /docroot "/opt/dispatcher"

      # Sets the level upto which files named ".stat" will be created in the
      # document root of the webserver. When an activation request for some
      # page is received, only files within the same subtree are affected
      # by the invalidation.
      #/statfileslevel "0"

      # Flag indicating whether to cache responses to requests that contain
      # authorization information.
      /allowAuthorized "1"

      # Flag indicating whether the dispatcher should serve stale content if
      # no remote server is available.
      #/serveStaleOnError "0"

      # The rules section defines what responses should be cached based on
      # the requested URL. Only the following requests can
      # lead to cacheable responses:
      #
      # - HTTP method is GET
      # - URL has an extension
      # - Request has no query string
      # - Request has no "Authorization" header (unless allowAuthorized is 1)
      /rules
        {
        /0000
          {
          # the matching pattern to be compared against the url
          # example: * -> everything
          #        : /foo/bar.* -> only the /foo/bar documents
          #        : /foo/bar/* -> all pages below /foo/bar
          #        : /foo/bar[./]* -> all pages below and /foo/bar itself
          #        : *.html        -> all .html files
          /url "*"
          /type "allow"
          }

      #######################################
      ## BEGIN: AEM COMMUNITITES ADDITIONS
     #######################################

   # Never cache the client-side .social.json calls
   /0001 { /type "deny" /url "*.social.json*" }

   # Never cache the user-specific .json requests
   /0002 { /type "deny" /url "/libs/granite/csrf/token.json*" }
   /0003 { /type "deny" /url "/libs/granite/security/currentuser.json*" }
   /0004 { /type "deny" /url "/libs/granite/security/userinfo.json*" }

   # Never cache the private community groups pages in case - add your own deny rules in there
   /0005 { /type "deny" /url "/content/*/groups/*" }

   # Never cache the assignments page in case the enablement feature is in use - add your own deny rules in there
   /0006 { /type "deny" /url "/content/*/assignments/*" }

      #######################################
      ## END: AEM COMMUNITITES ADDITIONS
      #######################################

        }

      # The invalidate section defines the pages that are "invalidated" after
      # any activation. The activated page itself and all
      # related documents are flushed on an modification. For example: if the
      # page /foo/bar is activated, all /foo/bar.* files are removed from the
      # cache.
      /invalidate
        {
        /0000
          {
          /url "*"
          /type "deny"
          }
        /0001
          {
          # Consider all HTML files stale after an activation.
          /url "*.html"
          /type "allow"
          }
        /0002
          {
          /url "/etc/segmentation.segment.js"
          /type "allow"
          }
        /0003
          {
          /url "*/analytics.sitecatalyst.js"
          /type "allow"
          }
        }

      # The allowedClients section restricts the client IP addresses that are
      # allowed to issue activation requests.
      /allowedClients
        {
        # Uncomment the following to restrict activation requests to originate
        # from "localhost" only.
        #
        #/0000
        #  {
        #  /url "*"
        #  /type "deny"
        #  }
        #/0001
        #  {
        #  /url "127.0.0.1"
        #  /type "allow"
        #  }
        }

      # The ignoreUrlParams section contains query string parameter names that
      # should be ignored when determining whether some request's output can be
      # cached or delivered from cache.
      #
      # In this example configuration, the "q" parameter will be ignored.
      #/ignoreUrlParams
      #  {
      #  /0001 { /url "*" /type "deny" }
      #  /0002 { /url "q" /type "allow" }
      #  }

    /enableTTL "1"

      }

    # The statistics sections dictates how the load should be balanced among the
    # renders according to the media-type.
    /statistics
      {
      /categories
        {
        /html
          {
          /url "*.html"
          }
        /others
          {
          /url "*"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }

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