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Authoring Basics for Headless with AEM author-headless-basics

Last update: Thu Feb 22 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

The Story so Far story-so-far

At the beginning of the AEM Headless Content Author Journey the Introduction covered the basic concepts and terminology relevant to authoring for headless.

This article builds on these so you understand how to author your own content for your AEM headless project.

Objective objective

  • Audience: Beginner

  • Objective: Introduce the basics of Headless CMS Authoring:

    • Introduction to authoring with AEMaaCS
    • Introduction to Content Fragments

Basic Handling basic-handling

Before you get to grips with Content Fragments, here is a (very) quick introduction to using AEM…but nothing really replaces the experience of signing in and trying to use the system.

Author, Preview, and Publish author-preview-publish

An AEM installation generally consists of three environments:

  • Author
  • Publish
  • Preview

You log into, and use the author environment to generate your content. When ready you then publish your content so that it becomes generally available. For headless this would be to other applications, for web pages this would be to readers on the web.

For more details see the Authoring Concepts.

From the Content Fragments console, you can also publish to the Preview Service, for testing and previewing, prior to Publish. See Publishing and Previewing a Fragment.

Signing In signing-in

As with most systems, you need to log on. As an author you are provided with:

  • User (account) name
  • Password
  • Link to access the login screen

Your account will have been configured with any privileges that you need. If you have any issues, Adobe recommends that you contact your in-house project support team.

The first time you log in a small online tutorial will highlight some of the main features of the user interface.

You can then use the Navigation Panel to access key areas of AEM. For Content Fragments, you use the Content Fragments console (for some actions you will also use the Assets console).

The Navigation Panel can be opened by selecting the Adobe icon at the top left, followed by the small compass icon.

NOTE
Although Content Fragments are a feature of AEM Sites, they are saved as Assets. This is a technical detail that should not affect you, but might be useful to know.

Within the console you can select folders in the left panel to navigate to your Content Fragment. You can also filter and/or search.

Content Fragments console

Actions, Selecting, Viewing actions-selecting-viewing

In the Content Fragments console a range of actions are available for your content fragments from the toolbar:

  • Open in Assets
  • Create
  • The Referenced By column also provides a direct link to show all parent references of that fragment; including referencing Content Fragments, Experience Fragments and pages.
  • Hovering over the folder name will show the JCR path.

After selection of your fragment all appropriate actions are available:

  • Open
  • Publish (and Unpublish)
  • Copy
  • Move
  • Rename
  • Delete
NOTE
Actions such as Publish, Unpublish, Delete, Move, Rename, Copy, trigger an asynchronous job. The progress of that job can be monitored via the AEM Async Jobs UI.

Authoring Content Fragments authoring-content-fragments

So, that was a very quick introduction to the AEM User Interface (UI), but hopefully you have had a chance to try it out. Now we get down to your real interest - Content Fragments for Headless.

We’ll have to go through things from start to finish, but your instance might already have folders and/or fragments created, and these might be in different locations. The principles are the same.

Organizing and Navigating organizing-and-navigating

Unless you have very few Content Fragments you will want to organize them - so that you (and others) can find them again.

Creating a Folder creating-folder

You can do this by creating a series of folders within Files section of the Assets console. Select the Create option (top right), followed by Folder:

Create Folder option

A dialog opens where you can enter the details, then confirm with Create:

Create Folder dialog

Using Paths and Tags to limit Content Fragment Models available in the Folder tags-paths-for-models-in-folder

This section is slightly more advanced. You do not really need it if you are just starting out and trying things, but it is very useful when you have many fragments. So it is good to know about - even if you do not use it quite yet.

Your Content Architect will have created all the Content Fragment Models required for your current project, and maybe some other projects too. To help keep things simple for yourself, and other authors, you can limit the list of models available for a specific folder.

After creating your folder you can open the folder Properties. Here there are various tabs with information, and configuration details, about the folder. In particular for Content Fragments, you can use the Policies tab to define specific paths and/or tags for this folder. This limits the Content Fragment Models available for use in the folder as it means that Content Fragment Models must meet these requirements before they can be used to generate fragments in this folder.

Create Folder Properties - Policies

NOTE
You can read further details under Content Fragment Models - Allowing Content Fragment Models on your Assets Folder.

You then navigate through these folders to create, and edit your Content Fragments.

Just in case - Folder Cloud Services Configuration cloud-services-folder

Just in case…

You will probably be given an initial folder where you can create your folders. This is as some configuration details must be applied (usually by a Developer or System Administrator) to the root folder. This probably won’t interest you, but if necessary you can check the Configuration in the Cloud Services of the folder Properties:

Create Folder Properties - Configuration

NOTE
You can read more under Apply the Configuration to your Assets Folder.

Creating a Content Fragment creating-fragment

In the Content Fragments console you can use Create to open the New Content Fragment dialog:

Content Fragments console - Creating a new fragment

Specify the:

  • Location
  • Content Fragment model
  • Title
  • Name
  • Description

Then confirm with either Create or Create and open.

Editing a Fragment editing-fragment

You can open a fragment immediately after creating it, or by selecting it from the Content Fragments console (also from the Assets console).

NOTE
Content Fragments are a Sites feature, but are stored as Assets.
There are two editors for authoring Content Fragments.
  • The new editor, primarily accessed from the Content Fragments console.
  • The original editor, primarily accessed from the Assets console.

When the editor first opens you see:

  • top toolbar: for key information, and actions

    • a link to the Content Fragment Console (Home icon)
    • information about the model, and folder
    • links to Preview; if the Default Preview URL Pattern is configured for the model
    • Publish, and Unpublish actions
    • an option to show all Parent References (link icon)
    • the fragment Status, and last saved information
    • a toggle to switch to the original (Assets-based) editor

  • left panel: shows the Variations for the Content Fragment, and its Fields:

    • these links can be used to navigate the Content Fragment structure

  • right panel: presents tabs showing the properties (metadata) and tags, information about the version history, and information related to any language copies

    • in the Properties tab you can update the Title and Description for the fragment, or Variation

  • central panel: shows the actual fields, and content, of the selected variation

    • allows you to edit the content
    • if Tab Placeholder fields are defined within the model they are shown here, and can be used for navigating

As example, a fragment can:

  • Require multiple pieces of information, some with a specific type. For headless content, references are key (you learn about these later in your journey).

  • Allow you to write a long section of text. Here there are additional options for managing, and formatting the text. You can even open the individual text fields in a full screen editor (using the small screen-like icon at the right)

Content Fragment Editor - Alaska Spirits

NOTE
Project specific documentation might be required to help authors with details of how to successfully complete some fields.
See Content Fragments Models - Data Types and Properties for generic details.

Confirm your updates with either Save or Save & close.

NOTE
For more details you can read Variations - Authoring Content Fragments.

What you (probably) do not need to worry about what-you-probably-do-not-need-to-worry-about

OK, this might seem a slightly strange section, but as soon as you open the Content Fragment Editor and start exploring you can see various options that (probably) do not apply for your headless journey as a Content Author. So this is just a quick heads-up on what you should be able ignore in the headless context:

  • Content Fragment Models

    You can see the name of the Content Fragment Model in the right panel of the editor. This is also a link that takes you to the model editor.
    Content Fragment Models are actually vital to your Content Fragments as they define the structure that you use. However, creating and editing them is (usually) the responsibility of another persona, the Content Architect.

    note note
    NOTE
    If you want to learn more, you can read the AEM Headless Content Architect Journey.

Publishing publishing

Once you have completed your fragment you can Publish it so that it is available to the headless applications.

The publish actions are available in the editor:

Content Fragment Editor - My Fragment

NOTE
You can also publish your fragment from either the Assets or Content Fragments console.

What’s Next whats-next

Now that you have learned the basics, the next step is to Learn how about References. This will introduce and discuss the various references available, and how to create levels of structure with the Fragment References - a key part of authoring for headless.

Additional Resources additional-resources

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