Variations - Authoring Fragment Content

Variations are a significant feature of AEM’s content fragments, as they allow you to 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:

• Enter the content for your fragment,
• Create and manage variations of the Master content,

Perform a range of other actions depending on the data type being edited; for example:

• Insert visual assets into your fragment (images)

• Select between Rich Text, Plain Text and Markdown for editing

• Upload Content

• View key statistics (about multi-line text)

• Summarize Text

• Synchronize variations with Master content

Authoring your Content

When you open your content fragment for editing, the Variations tab will be open 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:

    • select the Format
    • see more editing options (for Rich Text format)
    • access a range of actions

  • 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 particularly powerful when organizing your fragments as they can be used for content classification and taxonomy. Tags can be used for the purpose of finding content (by tags) and applying bulk operations.

    • Searches for a tag will return the fragment, with the tagged variation highlighted.
    • Variation tags can also be used to group variations for a specific Content Delivery Network (CDN) profile (for CDN caching), instead of using the variation name.

    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.

  NOTE

  Tags can also be added (to the Master variation) as part of the Metadata

• Create and manage variations of the Master content.

Full Screen Editor

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 will open the full screen text editor:

The full screen text editor provides:

• Access to various actions
• Depending on the format, additional formatting options (Rich Text)

Actions

The following actions are also available (for all the formats) when the full-screen editor (i.e. multi-line text) is open:

• Select the format (Rich Text, Plain Text, Markdown)

• Upload content

• Show Text Statistics

• Synchronize with Master (when editing a variation)

• Summarize Text

Formats

The options for editing multi-line text depend on the format selected:

• Rich Text
• Plain Text
• Markdown

The format can be selected when the full-screen editor.

Rich Text

Rich text editing allows you to format:

• Bold
• Italic
• Underline
• Alignment: left, center, right
• Bulleted list
• Numbered list
• Indentation: increase, decrease
• Create/Break hyperlinks
• Paste Text/from Word
• Insert a table
• Paragraph style: Paragraph, Heading 1/2/3
• Insert asset
• Open the full-screen editor, where the following formatting options are available:
  • Search
  • Find/Replace
  • Spellchecker
  • Annotations
• Insert Content Fragment; available when your Multi line text field is configured with Allow Fragment Reference.

The actions are also accessible from the full-screen editor.

Plain Text

Plain Text allows for rapid entry of content without formatting or markdown information. You can also open the full-screen editor for further actions.

Markdown

This allows you to format your text using markdown. You can define:

• Headings
• Paragraphs and Line Breaks
• Links
• Images
• Block Quotes
• Lists
• Emphasis
• Code Blocks
• Backslash Escapes

You can also open the full-screen editor for further actions.

Fragment References

If the Content Fragment Model contains Fragment References, your fragment authors may have additional options:

• Edit Content Fragment
• New Content Fragment

Edit Content Fragment

The option Edit Content Fragment will open that fragment in a new window tab.

New Content Fragment

The option New Content Fragment will allow you to create a completely new fragment. To achieve this a variation of the create content fragment wizard will open in the editor.

You will then be able to create a new fragment by:

1. Navigating to, and selecting the required folder.
2. Selecting Next.
3. Specifying properties; for example Title.
4. Selecting Create.
5. Finally:
   1. Done will return (to the original fragment) and reference the new fragment.
   2. Open will reference the new fragment as well as opening the new fragment, for editing, in a new browser tab.

Viewing Key Statistics

When the full-screen editor is open, the action Text Statistics will display a range of information about the text.

For example:

Uploading Content

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

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.

1. Select Master or the required variation.

2. Open the full-screen editor.

3. Select Summarize text from the toolbar.

   

4. Specify the target number of words and select Start:

5. The original text is displayed side-by-side with the proposed summarization:

   • Any sentences to be eliminated are highlighted in red, with strike-through.
   • Click on any highlighted sentence to keep it in the summarized content.
   • Click on any non-highlighted sentence to have it eliminated.

6. Select Summarize to confirm the changes.

7. The original text is displayed side-by-side with the proposed summarization:

   • Any sentences to be eliminated are highlighted in red, with strike-through.
   • Click on any highlighted sentence to keep it in the summarized content.
   • Click on any non-highlighted sentence to have it eliminated.
   • The summarization statistics are shown: Actual and Target-
   • You can Preview the changes.

   

Annotating a Content Fragment

To annotate a fragment:

1. Select Master or the required variation.

2. Open the full-screen editor.

3. The Annotate icon is available in the top toolbar. You can select some text if required.

   

4. A dialog will open. Here you can enter your annotation.

   

5. Select Apply on the dialog.

   

   If the annotation was applied to selected text, then that text will remain highlighted.

   

6. Close the full-screen editor, annotations are still highlighted. If selected, a dialog will open so that you can edit the annotation further.

7. Select Save.

8. Close the full-screen editor, annotations are still highlighted. If selected, a dialog will open so that you can edit the annotation further.

   

Viewing, Editing, Deleting Annotations

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 on the highlighted text, which will re-open the dialog.

  NOTE

  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 Timeline for the selected fragment.

Inserting Assets into your Fragment

To ease the process of authoring content fragments you can add Assets (images) directly to the fragment.

They will be added to the paragraph sequence of the fragment without any formatting; formatting can be done when the fragment is used/referenced on a page.

1. Position the cursor at the position you want to add the image.

2. Use the Insert Asset icon to open the search dialog.

   

3. In the dialog you can either:

   • navigate to the required asset in DAM
   • search for the asset in DAM

   Once located, select the required asset by clicking on the thumbnail.

4. Use Select to add the asset to the paragraph system of your content fragment at the current location.

   CAUTION

   If, after adding an asset, you change format to:

   • Plain Text: the asset will be completely lost from the fragment.
   • Markdown: the asset will not be visible, but will still be there when you return to Rich Text.

Inserting a Content Fragment into your Fragment

To ease the process of authoring content fragments you can also add another Content Fragment to your fragment.

They will be added as a reference, in your current location in your fragment.

1. Position the cursor at the position you want to add the fragment.

2. Use the Insert Content Fragment icon to open the search dialog.

   

3. In the dialog you can either:

   • navigate to the required fragment in the Assets folder
   • search for the fragment

   Once located, select the required fragment by clicking on the thumbnail.

4. Use Select to add a reference to the selected Content Fragment to your current content fragment (at the current location).

   CAUTION

   If, after adding a reference to another fragment, you change format to:

   • Plain Text: the reference will be completely lost from the fragment.
   • Markdown: the reference will remain.

Managing Variations

Creating a Variation

Variations allow you to take the Master content and vary it according to purpose (if required).

To create a new variation:

1. Open your fragment and ensure that the side panel is visible.

2. Select Variations from the icon bar in the side panel.

3. Select Create Variation.

4. A dialog will open, specify the Title and Description for the new variation.

5. Select Add; the fragment Master will be copied to the new variation, which is now open for editing.

   NOTE

   When creating a new variation it is always Master that is copied, not the variation that is currently open.

   NOTE

   When you create a new variation, all Tags currently assigned to the Master variation are copied to your new variation.

Editing a Variation

You can make changes to the variation content after either:

• Creating your variation.
• Opening an existing fragment, then selecting the required variation from the side panel.

Renaming a Variation

To rename an existing variation:

1. Open your fragment and select Variations from the side panel.

2. Select the required variation.

3. Select Rename from the Actions drop down.

4. Enter the new Title and/or Description in the resulting dialog box.

5. Confirm the Rename action.

Deleting a Variation

To delete an existing variation:

1. Open your fragment and select Variations from the side panel.

2. Select the required variation.

3. Select Delete from the Actions drop down.

4. Confirm the Delete action in the dialog.

Synchronizing with Master

Master is an integral 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 Master is updated it is possible that these changes are also relevant to the variations and, therefore, need to 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 allows you to automatically copy changes made to Master to the required variation.

1. Open your content fragment in the fragment editor. Ensure that the Master has been edited.

2. 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

     

3. Master and the variation will be shown side-by-side:

   • green indicates content added (to the variation)
   • red indicates content removed (from the variation)
   • blue indicates replaced text

   

4. Select Synchronize, the variation will be updated and shown.

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