Component Basics component-basics
In this chapter, let鈥檚 explore the underlying technology of an 蜜豆视频 Experience Manager (AEM) Sites Component through a simple HelloWorld
example. Small modifications are made to an existing component, covering topics of authoring, HTL, Sling Models, Client-side libraries.
Prerequisites prerequisites
Review the required tooling and instructions for setting up a local development environment.
The IDE used in the videos is and the plugin.
Objective objective
- Learn the role of HTL templates and Sling Models to dynamically render HTML.
- Understand how Dialogs are used to facilitate authoring of content.
- Learn the very basics of Client-side libraries to include CSS and JavaScript to support a component.
What you are going to build what-build
In this chapter, you perform several modifications to a simple HelloWorld
component. While making updates to the HelloWorld
component, you learn about the key areas of AEM component development.
Chapter Starter Project starter-project
This chapter builds upon a generic project generated by the . Watch the below video and review the prerequisites to get started!
Open a new command-line terminal and perform the following actions.
-
In an empty directory, clone the repository:
code language-shell $ git clone git@github.com:adobe/aem-guides-wknd.git --branch tutorial/component-basics-start --single-branch
note note NOTE Optionally, you can continue using the project generated in the previous chapter, Project Setup. -
Navigate into the
aem-guides-wknd
folder.code language-shell $ cd aem-guides-wknd
-
Build and deploy the project to a local instance of AEM with the following command:
code language-shell $ mvn clean install -PautoInstallSinglePackage
note note NOTE If using AEM 6.5 or 6.4, append the classic
profile to any Maven commands.code language-shell $ mvn clean install -PautoInstallSinglePackage -Pclassic
-
Import the project into your preferred IDE by following the instructions to set up a local development environment.
Component Authoring component-authoring
Components can be thought of as small modular building blocks of a web page. In order to reuse components, the components must be configurable. This is accomplished via the author dialog. Next let鈥檚 author a simple component and inspect how values from the dialog are persisted in AEM.
Below are the high-level steps performed in the above video.
- Create a page named Component Basics beneath WKND Site
>
US>
en. - Add the Hello World Component to the newly created page.
- Open the dialog for the component and enter some text. Save the changes to see the message displayed on the page.
- Switch in to developer mode and view the Content Path in CRXDE-Lite and inspect the properties of the component instance.
- Use CRXDE-Lite to view the
cq:dialog
andhelloworld.html
script from/apps/wknd/components/content/helloworld
.
HTL (HTML Template Language) and Dialogs htl-dialogs
HTML Template Language or HTL is a light-weight, server-side templating language used by AEM components to render content.
Dialogs define the configurations available that can be made for a component.
Next let鈥檚 update the HelloWorld
HTL script to display an extra greeting before the text message.
Below are the high-level steps performed in the above video.
-
Switch to the IDE and open the project to the
ui.apps
module. -
Open the
helloworld.html
file and update the HTML Markup. -
Use the IDE tools like to synchronize the file change with the local AEM instance.
-
Return to the browser and observe the component render has changed.
-
Open the
.content.xml
file that defines the dialog for theHelloWorld
component at:code language-plain <code>/aem-guides-wknd/ui.apps/src/main/content/jcr_root/apps/wknd/components/helloworld/_cq_dialog/.content.xml
-
Update the dialog to add an extra textfield named Title with a name of
./title
:code language-xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <jcr:root xmlns:sling="http://sling.apache.org/jcr/sling/1.0" xmlns:cq="http://www.day.com/jcr/cq/1.0" xmlns:jcr="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0" xmlns:nt="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/nt/1.0" jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured" jcr:title="Properties" sling:resourceType="cq/gui/components/authoring/dialog"> <content jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured" sling:resourceType="granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/fixedcolumns"> <items jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"> <column jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured" sling:resourceType="granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/container"> <items jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"> <title jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured" sling:resourceType="granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/form/textfield" fieldLabel="Title" name="./title"/> <text jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured" sling:resourceType="granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/form/textfield" fieldLabel="Text" name="./text"/> </items> </column> </items> </content> </jcr:root>
-
Reopen the file
helloworld.html
, which represents the main HTL script responsible for rendering theHelloWorld
component from below path:code language-plain <code>/aem-guides-wknd.ui.apps/src/main/content/jcr_root/apps/wknd/components/helloworld/helloworld.html
-
Update
helloworld.html
to render the value of the Greeting textfield as part of anH1
tag:code language-html <div class="cmp-helloworld" data-cmp-is="helloworld"> <h1 class="cmp-helloworld__title">${properties.title}</h1> ... </div>
-
Deploy the changes to a local instance of AEM using the developer plugin or using your Maven skills.
Sling Models sling-models
Sling Models are annotation driven Java鈩 鈥淧OJOs鈥 (Plain Old Java鈩 Objects) that facilitate the mapping of data from the JCR to Java鈩 variables. They also provide several other niceties when developing in the context of AEM.
Next, let鈥檚 make some updates to the HelloWorldModel
Sling Model in order to apply some business logic to the values stored in the JCR before outputting them to the page.
-
Open the file
HelloWorldModel.java
, which is the Sling Model used with theHelloWorld
component.code language-plain <code>/aem-guides-wknd.core/src/main/java/com/adobe/aem/guides/wknd/core/models/HelloWorldModel.java
-
Add the following import statements:
code language-java import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils; import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.DefaultInjectionStrategy;
-
Update the
@Model
annotation to use aDefaultInjectionStrategy
:code language-java @Model(adaptables = Resource.class, defaultInjectionStrategy = DefaultInjectionStrategy.OPTIONAL) public class HelloWorldModel { ...
-
Add the following lines to the
HelloWorldModel
class to map the values of the component鈥檚 JCR propertiestitle
andtext
to Java鈩 variables:code language-java ... @Model(adaptables = Resource.class, defaultInjectionStrategy = DefaultInjectionStrategy.OPTIONAL) public class HelloWorldModel { ... @ValueMapValue private String title; @ValueMapValue private String text; @PostConstruct protected void init() { ...
-
Add the following method
getTitle()
to theHelloWorldModel
class, that returns the value of the property namedtitle
. This method adds the additional logic to return a String value of 鈥淒efault Value here!鈥 if the propertytitle
is null or blank:code language-java /*** * * @return the value of title, if null or blank returns "Default Value here!" */ public String getTitle() { return StringUtils.isNotBlank(title) ? title : "Default Value here!"; }
-
Add the following method
getText()
to theHelloWorldModel
class, that returns the value of the property namedtext
. This method transforms the String to all uppercase characters.code language-java /*** * * @return All caps variation of the text value */ public String getText() { return StringUtils.isNotBlank(this.text) ? this.text.toUpperCase() : null; }
-
Build and deploy the bundle from the
core
module:code language-shell $ cd core $ mvn clean install -PautoInstallBundle
note note NOTE For AEM 6.4/6.5 use mvn clean install -PautoInstallBundle -Pclassic
-
Update the file
helloworld.html
ataem-guides-wknd.ui.apps/src/main/content/jcr_root/apps/wknd/components/content/helloworld/helloworld.html
to use the newly created methods of theHelloWorld
model.The
HelloWorld
model is instantiated for this component instance via the HTL directive:data-sly-use.model="com.adobe.aem.guides.wknd.core.models.HelloWorldModel"
, saving the instance to the variablemodel
.The
HelloWorld
model instance is now available in the HTL via themodel
variable using theHelloWord
. These methods invocations can use shortened method syntax for example:${model.getTitle()}
can be shorted to${model.title}
.Similarly, all HTL scripts are injected with global objects that can be accessed using the same syntax as the Sling Model objects.
code language-html <div class="cmp-helloworld" data-cmp-is="helloworld" data-sly-use.model="com.adobe.aem.guides.wknd.core.models.HelloWorldModel"> <h1 class="cmp-helloworld__title">${model.title}</h1> <div class="cmp-helloworld__item" data-sly-test="${properties.text}"> <p class="cmp-helloworld__item-label">Text property:</p> <pre class="cmp-helloworld__item-output" data-cmp-hook-helloworld="property">${properties.text}</pre> </div> <div class="cmp-helloworld__item" data-sly-test="${model.text}"> <p class="cmp-helloworld__item-label">Sling Model getText() property:</p> <pre class="cmp-helloworld__item-output" data-cmp-hook-helloworld="property">${model.text}</pre> </div> </div>
-
Deploy the changes to a local instance of AEM using the Eclipse Developer plugin or using your Maven skills.
Client-Side Libraries client-side-libraries
Client-Side Libraries, clientlibs
for short, provides a mechanism to organize and manage CSS and JavaScript files necessary for an AEM Sites implementation. Client-side libraries are the standard way to include CSS and JavaScript on a page in AEM.
The ui.frontend module is a de-coupled project that is integrated into the build process. This enables the use of popular front-end libraries like Sass, LESS, and TypeScript. The ui.frontend
module is explored in more depth in the Client-Side Libraries chapter.
Next, update the CSS styles for the HelloWorld
component.
Below are the high-level steps performed in the above video.
-
Open a terminal window and navigate into the
ui.frontend
directory -
Being in
ui.frontend
directory run thenpm install npm-run-all --save-dev
command to install the node module. This step is required on Archetype 39 generated AEM project, in upcoming Archetype version this is not required. -
Next, run the
npm run watch
command:code language-shell $ npm run watch
-
Switch to the IDE and open the project to the
ui.frontend
module. -
Open the file
ui.frontend/src/main/webpack/components/_helloworld.scss
. -
Update the file to display a red title:
code language-scss .cmp-helloworld {} .cmp-helloworld__title { color: red; }
-
In the terminal, you should see activity indicating that the
ui.frontend
module is compiling and syncing the changes with the local instance of AEM.code language-shell Entrypoint site 214 KiB = clientlib-site/site.css 8.45 KiB clientlib-site/site.js 206 KiB 2022-02-22 17:28:51: webpack 5.69.1 compiled successfully in 119 ms change:dist/index.html + jcr_root/apps/wknd/clientlibs/clientlib-site/css/site.css + jcr_root/apps/wknd/clientlibs/clientlib-site/css + jcr_root/apps/wknd/clientlibs/clientlib-site/js/site.js + jcr_root/apps/wknd/clientlibs/clientlib-site/js + jcr_root/apps/wknd/clientlibs/clientlib-site + jcr_root/apps/wknd/clientlibs/clientlib-dependencies/css.txt + jcr_root/apps/wknd/clientlibs/clientlib-dependencies/js.txt + jcr_root/apps/wknd/clientlibs/clientlib-dependencies
-
Return to the browser and observe that the title color has changed.
Congratulations! congratulations
Congratulations, you have learned the basics of component development in 蜜豆视频 Experience Manager!
Next Steps next-steps
Get familiar with 蜜豆视频 Experience Manager pages and templates in the next chapter Pages and Templates. Understand how Core Components are proxied into the project and learn advanced policy configurations of editable templates to build out a well-structured Article Page template.
View the finished code on or review and deploy the code locally at on the Git branch tutorial/component-basics-solution
.