Variations are a significant feature of AEM’s content fragments, as they let you create and edit copies of the master content for use on specific channels, and/or scenarios, making headless content delivery even more flexible.
From the Variations tab you can do the following:
Perform a range of other actions depending on the data type being edited; for example:
Select between Rich Text, Plain Text, and Markdown for editing
View key statistics (about multi-line text)
After a fragment has been published and/or referenced, AEM displays a warning when an author opens the fragment for editing again. This is to warn that changes to the fragment affect the referenced pages, too.
When you open your content fragment for editing, the Variations tab is opened by default. Here you can author the content, for Master or any variations you have. The structured fragment contains various fields of various data types that were defined in the content model.
For example:
You can:
Make edits to your content directly in the Variations tab; each data type provides different editing options, for example:
for Multi line text fields, you can also open the full-screen editor to:
For Fragment Reference fields, the Edit Content Fragment option can be available, depending on the model definition.
Assign Tags to the current variation; the tags can be added, updated, and removed
Tags are powerful when organizing your fragments as they can be used for content classification and taxonomy. Tags can be used for finding content (by tags) and applying bulk operations.
For example, you can tag relevant fragments as “Christmas launch” to allow browsing only these as a subset, or to copy them for use with another future launch in a new folder.
Tags can also be added (to the Master variation) as part of the Metadata
Create and manage variations of the Master content.
When editing a multi-line text field you can open the full screen editor; tap or click within the actual text, then select the following action icon:
This opens the full-screen text editor:
The full-screen text editor provides:
The following actions are also available (for all the formats) when the full-screen editor (that is, multi-line text) is open:
Select the format (Rich Text, Plain Text, Markdown)
Synchronize with Master (when editing a variation)
The options for editing multi-line text depend on the format selected:
The format can be selected when the full-screen editor.
Rich text editing lets you format:
The actions are also accessible from the full-screen editor.
Plain Text allows for rapid entry of content without formatting or markdown information. You can also open the full-screen editor for further actions.
If you select Plain Text, you might lose any formatting, markdown, and/or assets that you have inserted in either Rich Text or Markdown.
For full information, see the Markdown documentation.
This lets you format your text using markdown. You can define:
You can also open the full-screen editor for further actions.
If you switch between Rich Text and Markdown you might experience unexpected effects with Block Quotes and Code Blocks, as these two formats can have differences in how they are handled.
If the Content Fragment Model contains Fragment References, your fragment authors may have additional options:
The option Edit Content Fragment opens that fragment in a new window tab.
The option New Content Fragment lets you create a fragment. To achieve this, a variation of the create content fragment wizard opens in the editor.
You can then create a fragment by:
When the full-screen editor is open, the action Text Statistics displays a range of information about the text.
For example:
To ease the process of authoring content fragments, you can upload text, prepared in an external editor, and add it directly to the fragment.
Summarizing text is designed to help users reduce the length of their text to a predefined number of words, while keeping the key points and overall meaning.
On a more technical level, the system keeps the sentences which it rates as providing the best ratio of information density and uniqueness according to specific algorithms.
The content fragment must have a valid language folder (ISO Code) as an ancestor; this is used to determine the language model to be used.
For example, en/
as in the following path:
/content/dam/my-brand/en/path-down/my-content-fragment
English is available out-of-the-box.
Other languages are available as Language Model Packages from Package Share:
Select Master or the required variation.
Open the full-screen editor.
Select Summarize text from the toolbar.
Specify the target number of words and select Start:
The original text is displayed side-by-side with the proposed summarization:
Select Summarize to confirm the changes.
The original text is displayed side-by-side with the proposed summarization:
To annotate a fragment:
Select Master or the required variation.
Open the full-screen editor.
The Annotate icon is available in the top toolbar. You can select some text, if necessary.
A dialog box opens. Here you can enter your annotation.
Select Apply on the dialog box.
If the annotation was applied to selected text, then that text remains highlighted.
Close the full-screen editor, annotations are still highlighted. If selected, a dialog box opens so that you can edit the annotation further.
Select Save.
Close the full-screen editor, annotations are still highlighted. If selected, a dialog box opens so that you can edit the annotation further.
Annotations:
Are indicated by the highlight on the text, in both full-screen and normal mode of the editor. Full details of an annotation can then be viewed, edited, and/or deleted, by clicking the highlighted text, which reopens the dialog box.
A drop-down selector is provided if multiple annotations have been applied to one piece of text.
When you delete the entire text to which the annotation was applied, the annotation is deleted as well.
Can be listed, and deleted, by selecting the Annotations tab in the fragment editor.
Can be viewed, and deleted, in the Timeline for the selected fragment.
To ease the process of authoring content fragments, you can add Assets (images) directly to the fragment.
They are added to the paragraph sequence of the fragment without any formatting; formatting can be done when the fragment is used/referenced on a page.
These assets cannot be moved or deleted on a referencing page, this must be done in the fragment editor.
However, formatting of the asset (for example, size) must be done in the page editor. The representation of the asset in the fragment editor is purely for authoring the content flow.
There are various methods of adding images to the fragment and/or page.
Position the cursor at the position that you want to add the image.
Use the Insert Asset icon to open the search dialog.
In the dialog box, you can either:
Once located, select the required asset by clicking the thumbnail.
Use Select to add the asset to the paragraph system of your content fragment at the current location.
If you change the format after adding as asset to:
To ease the process of authoring content fragments, you can also add another Content Fragment to your fragment.
They are added as a reference, in your current location in your fragment.
This option is available when your Multi line text is configured with Allow Fragment Reference.
These assets cannot be moved or deleted on a referencing page, this must be done in the fragment editor.
However, formatting of the asset (for example, size) must be done in the page editor. The representation of the asset in the fragment editor is purely for authoring the content flow.
There are various methods of adding images to the fragment and/or page.
Position the cursor at the position that you want to add the fragment.
Use the Insert Content Fragment icon to open the search dialog.
In the dialog, you can either:
Once located, select the required fragment by clicking the thumbnail.
Use Select to add a reference to the selected Content Fragment to your current content fragment (at the current location).
If you change the format, after adding a reference to another fragment, to:
Variations let you take the Master content and vary it according to purpose (if necessary).
To create a variation:
Open your fragment and ensure that the side panel is visible.
Select Variations from the icon bar in the side panel.
Select Create Variation.
A dialog box opens, specify the Title and Description for the new variation.
Select Add; the fragment Master is copied to the new variation, which is now open for editing.
When creating a variation, it is always the Master that is copied, not the variation that is open.
When you create a variation, all Tags currently assigned to the Master variation are copied to your new variation.
Change the variation content after either:
To rename an existing variation:
Open your fragment and select Variations from the side panel.
Select the required variation.
Select Rename from the Actions drop down.
Enter the new Title and/or Description in the resulting dialog box.
Confirm the Rename action.
This only affects the variation Title.
To delete an existing variation:
Open your fragment and select Variations from the side panel.
Select the required variation.
Select Delete from the Actions drop down.
Confirm the Delete action in the dialog.
You cannot delete Master.
Master is a part of a content fragment and, by definition, it holds the master copy of the content, whereas the variations hold the individual updated and tailored versions of that content. When the Master is updated, it is possible that these changes are also relevant to the variations and, therefore, must be propagated to them.
When editing a variation, you have access to the action for synchronizing the current element of the variation with Master. This lets you automatically copy changes made to Master to the required variation.
Synchronization is only available to copy changes from Master to the variation.
Only the current element of the variation is synchronized.
Synchronization only works on the Multi line text data type.
Transferring changes from a variation to Master is not available as an option.
Open your content fragment in the fragment editor. Ensure that the Master has been edited.
Select a specific variation, then the appropriate synchronization action from either:
the Actions drop down selector - Sync current element with master
the toolbar of the full-screen editor - Sync with master
Master and the variation are shown side-by-side:
Select Synchronize, the variation is updated and shown.