CMS

Adobe Experience Manager

Overview

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is Adobe's comprehensive enterprise CMS platform that provides digital experience management and marketing integration capabilities.

Details

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is an integrated digital experience platform designed for large enterprises. It delivers content management, digital asset management (DAM), personalization, and multi-channel delivery in a single platform. Built on Java, it employs a robust architecture leveraging the OSGi framework and Apache Sling. AEM Sites provides content management, AEM Assets offers digital asset management, and AEM Forms delivers form management in an integrated manner. AI-powered features through Adobe Sensei enable automated content generation, optimization, and personalization at scale. Adopted by over 70% of Fortune 500 companies, its cloud-native architecture delivers unlimited scalability and low TCO.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Comprehensive feature set: Integrated content management, DAM, and forms management
• AI-driven personalization: Advanced automation through Adobe Sensei
• Adobe product ecosystem: Deep integration with Creative Cloud, Analytics, and Target
• Enterprise-grade: Proven track record with Fortune 500 companies and support
• Multi-channel delivery: Headless CMS capabilities for omnichannel support
• Fast time-to-market: 73% time reduction with templates and components
• Global support: Multi-language and multi-regional site management

Cons

• Very high cost: Investment of millions to tens of millions of yen annually required
• Complex implementation: Requires specialized knowledge and long deployment periods
• Steep learning curve: Both developers and content editors need proficiency
• Vendor lock-in: Strong dependency on Adobe products
• Resource requirements: High server specifications and infrastructure needed
• Customization complexity: Specialists required for advanced customization

Key Links

• Adobe Experience Manager Official Site
• AEM Documentation
• Adobe Experience League
• AEM Developer Portal
• AEM Community
• AEM Assets

Usage Examples

Initial Project Setup

# Create project with AEM Project Archetype
mvn archetype:generate \
  -DarchetypeGroupId=com.adobe.aem \
  -DarchetypeArtifactId=aem-project-archetype \
  -DarchetypeVersion=41 \
  -DgroupId=com.mycompany \
  -DartifactId=myproject \
  -Dversion=1.0.0-SNAPSHOT \
  -Dpackage=com.mycompany.myproject \
  -DappTitle="My Company Site" \
  -DappId="mycompany" \
  -DincludeDispatcherConfig=y

# Start local development environment
cd myproject
mvn clean install -PautoInstallPackage

Component Development

// HTL (HTML Template Language) Component
// /apps/myproject/components/content/hero/hero.html
<div class="hero-component" data-sly-use.hero="com.mycompany.myproject.models.Hero">
    <div class="hero-background" style="background-image: url('${hero.backgroundImage @ context='uri'}')">
        <div class="hero-content">
            <h1>${hero.title}</h1>
            <p>${hero.description}</p>
            <a href="${hero.ctaLink @ context='uri'}" class="cta-button">
                ${hero.ctaText}
            </a>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

// Sling Model
package com.mycompany.myproject.models;

import org.apache.sling.api.resource.Resource;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.Model;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.injectorspecific.ValueMapValue;
import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;

@Model(adaptables = Resource.class)
public class Hero {
    @ValueMapValue
    private String title;
    
    @ValueMapValue
    private String description;
    
    @ValueMapValue
    private String backgroundImage;
    
    @ValueMapValue
    private String ctaLink;
    
    @ValueMapValue
    private String ctaText;
    
    @PostConstruct
    protected void init() {
        // Initialization logic
    }
    
    // Getters
    public String getTitle() { return title; }
    public String getDescription() { return description; }
    public String getBackgroundImage() { return backgroundImage; }
    public String getCtaLink() { return ctaLink; }
    public String getCtaText() { return ctaText; }
}

Content Fragments and GraphQL

# GraphQL Schema Definition
type Article {
  _path: ID
  title: String
  author: String
  publishDate: Calendar
  content: String
  tags: [String]
  featuredImage: String
}

type Query {
  articleList(
    filter: ArticleFilter
    sort: ArticleSort
    limit: Int
    offset: Int
  ): [Article]
  
  articleByPath(_path: ID!): Article
}

// Execute GraphQL Query
const ARTICLE_QUERY = `
  query GetArticles($limit: Int, $offset: Int) {
    articleList(limit: $limit, offset: $offset) {
      _path
      title
      author
      publishDate
      content
      tags
      featuredImage
    }
  }
`;

async function fetchArticles() {
  const response = await fetch('/content/cq:graphql/myproject/endpoint.json', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      query: ARTICLE_QUERY,
      variables: { limit: 10, offset: 0 }
    })
  });
  
  const data = await response.json();
  return data.data.articleList;
}

Personalization Configuration

// ContextHub Segment Definition
{
  "name": "premium-customers",
  "title": "Premium Customers",
  "description": "Visitors who are premium customers",
  "condition": {
    "and": [{
      "or": [{
        "equals": {
          "left": "${profile.membership}",
          "right": "premium"
        }
      }]
    }, {
      "greater": {
        "left": "${profile.purchaseHistory.totalAmount}",
        "right": 10000
      }
    }]
  }
}

// Targeting Component
<div data-sly-use.targeting="com.adobe.cq.wcm.core.components.models.Teaser"
     data-sly-test="${targeting.configured}">
    <sly data-sly-test="${targeting.actions}"
         data-sly-list.action="${targeting.actions}">
        <div class="teaser ${action.cssClass}"
             data-cmp-clickable="${action.link ? true : false}">
            <h2>${action.title}</h2>
            <p>${action.description}</p>
            <a href="${action.link}" class="cta">${action.ctaText}</a>
        </div>
    </sly>
</div>

Workflow Automation

// Custom Workflow Process
package com.mycompany.myproject.workflow;

import com.adobe.granite.workflow.WorkflowException;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.WorkflowSession;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.exec.WorkItem;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.exec.WorkflowProcess;
import com.adobe.granite.workflow.metadata.MetaDataMap;
import org.osgi.service.component.annotations.Component;

@Component(
    service = WorkflowProcess.class,
    property = {"process.label=Auto Publish Process"}
)
public class AutoPublishProcess implements WorkflowProcess {
    
    @Override
    public void execute(WorkItem workItem, WorkflowSession workflowSession, 
                       MetaDataMap metaDataMap) throws WorkflowException {
        
        String payload = workItem.getWorkflowData().getPayload().toString();
        
        try {
            // Publish page using Replication API
            Replicator replicator = workflowSession.adaptTo(Replicator.class);
            Session session = workflowSession.adaptTo(Session.class);
            
            replicator.replicate(
                session,
                ReplicationActionType.ACTIVATE,
                payload
            );
            
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new WorkflowException("Failed to publish page", e);
        }
    }
}

Adobe Analytics Integration

// Analytics Data Layer Implementation
window.digitalData = {
  page: {
    pageInfo: {
      pageName: "${currentPage.title}",
      siteSection: "${currentPage.parent.name}",
      server: "${request.serverName}",
      language: "${currentPage.language}"
    },
    category: {
      primaryCategory: "${pageProperties.category}",
      subCategory1: "${pageProperties.subcategory}"
    }
  },
  user: {
    profile: {
      profileID: "${profile.authorizableId}",
      membershipLevel: "${profile.membershipLevel}"
    }
  },
  event: []
};

// Custom Event Tracking
function trackCustomEvent(eventName, eventData) {
  window.digitalData.event.push({
    eventInfo: {
      eventName: eventName,
      eventAction: eventData.action,
      eventCategory: eventData.category
    }
  });
  
  // Send to Adobe Analytics
  if (window._satellite) {
    _satellite.track(eventName, eventData);
  }
}