Deploying Communities

Prerequisites

Installation Checklist

For the AEM platform

For the Communities capability

Latest Releases

AEM 6.5 Communities GA includes Communities package. To know about updates to AEM 6.5 Communities, refer AEM 6.5 Release Notes.

AEM 6.5 Updates

Starting in AEM 6.4, updates to Communities are delivered as part of AEM Cumulative Fix Packs and Service Packs.

For the latest updates to AEM 6.5, see Adobe Experience Manager 6.4 Cumulative Fix Packs and Service Packs.

Version History

As on AEM 6.4 and beyond, AEM Communities features and hotfixes are part of AEM Communities cumulative fix packs and service packs. There are, therefore, no separate feature packs.

JDBC driver for MySQL

One Communities feature use a MySQL database:

  • For DSRP: storing user generated content (UGC)

The MySQL connector must be obtained and installed separately.

The necessary steps are:

  1. Download the ZIP archive from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/

    • Version must be >= 5.1.38

  2. Extract mysql-connector-java-<version>-bin.jar (bundle) from the archive

  3. Use the web console to install and start the bundle :

    • For example, https://localhost:4502/system/console/bundles
    • Select Install/Update
    • Browse… to select the bundle extracted from the downloaded ZIP archive
    • Check that Oracle Corporation’s JDBC Driver for MySQLcom.mysql.jdbc is active, and start it if not (or check the logs)

  4. If installing on an existing deployment after JDBC has been configured, then rebind JDBC to the new connector by resaving the JDBC configuration from the web console :

    • For example, https://localhost:4502/system/console/configMgr
    • Locate Day Commons JDBC Connections Pool configuration
    • Select to open
    • Select Save

  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 on all author and publish instances

Further information on installing bundles is found on the Web Console page.

Example : Installed MySQL Connector Bundle

connector-bundle

AEM Advanced MLS

For the SRP collection (MSRP or DSRP) to support advanced multilingual search (MLS), new Solr plug-ins are required in addition to a custom schema and Solr configuration. All required items are packaged into a downloadable zip file.

The advanced MLS download (also known as ‘phasetwo’) is available from the Adobe repository :

  • AEM-SOLR-MLS-phasetwo

    To obtain the Advanced MLS package, see AEM Advanced MLS in the deploy section of the documentation.

    • Version 1.2.40, April 6, 2016
    • Download AEM-SOLR-MLS-phasetwo-1.2.40.zip

For details and installation information, visit Solr Configuration for SRP.

Packages Visible in Adobe AEM Cloud

The links to packages on this page require no running instance of AEM as they are to package share on adobeaemcloud.com. While the packages are viewable, the Install button is for installing the packages into an Adobe hosted site. If intending to install on a local AEM instance, selecting Install will result in an error.

How to Install on Local AEM Instance

To install the packages visible in adobeaemcloud.com on a local AEM instance, the package must first be downloaded to a local disk :

  • Select the Assets tab
  • Select download to disk

On the local AEM instance, use package manager (for example https://localhost:4502/crx/packmgr/), to upload to the local AEM’s package repository.

Alternatively, accessing the package using package share from the local AEM instance (for example, https://localhost:4502/crx/packageshare/), the Download button will download to the local AEM instance’s package repository.

Once in the local AEM instance’s package repository, use package manager to install the package.

For more information, visit How to Work With Packages.

In AEM Communities, a common store is used to store user generated content (UGC) and is often referred to as the storage resource provider (SRP). The recommended deployment centers on choosing an SRP option for the common store.

The common store supports moderation of, and analytics on, UGC in the publish environment while eliminating the need for replication of UGC.

Upgrading

When upgrading to the AEM 6.5 platform from previous versions of AEM, it is important to read Upgrading to AEM 6.5.

In addition to upgrading the platform, read Upgrading to AEM Communities 6.5 to learn about Communities changes.

Configurations

Primary Publisher

When the deployment chosen is a publish farm, then one AEM publish instance must be identified as the primary publisher for activities which should not occur on all instances, such as features that rely on notifications or Adobe Analytics.

By default, the AEM Communities Publisher Configuration OSGi configuration is configured with the Primary Publisher checkbox checked, such that all publish instances in a publish farm would self-identify as the primary.

Therefore, it is necessary to edit the configuration on all secondary publish instances to uncheck the Primary Publisher checkbox.

primary-publisher

For all other (secondary) publish instances in a publish farm:

Replication Agents on Author

Replication is used for site content created in the publish environment, such as community groups, as well as managing members and member groups from the author environment using the tunnel service.

For the primary publisher, ensure the Replication Agent Config correctly identifies the publish server and authorized user. The default authorized user, admin, already has the appropriate permissions (is a member of Communities Administrators).

In order for some other user to have the appropriate permissions, they must be added as a member to the administrators user group (also a member of Communities Administrators).

There are two replication agents in the author environment that need the transport configuration to be correctly configured.

  • Access the Replication console on author

    • From global navigation, navigate to Tools > Deployment > Replication > Agents on author

  • Follow the same procecure for both agents :

    • Default Agent (publish)

    • Reverse Replication Agent (publish reverse)

      1. Select the agent

      2. Select edit

      3. Select the Transport tab

      4. If not port 4503, edit the URI to specify the correct port

      5. If not user admin, edit the User and Password to specify a member of the administrators user group

The following images show the results of changing the port from 4503 to 6103 by:

Default Agent (publish)

default-agent-publish

Reverse Replication Agent (publish reverse)

reverse-replication-agent

Tunnel Service on Author

When using the author environment to create sites, modify site properties or manage community members, it is necessary to access members (users) registered in the publish environment, not users registered on author.

The tunnel service provides this access using the replication agent on author.

To enable the tunnel service:

Replicate the Crypto Key

There are two features of AEM Communities that require all AEM server instances to use the same encryption keys. These are Analytics and ASRP.

From AEM 6.3 onwards, the key material is stored in the file system and no longer in the repository.

In order to copy the key material from author to all other instances, it is necessary to :

  • Access the AEM instance, typically an author instance, that contains the key material to copy

    • Locate the com.adobe.granite.crypto.file bundle in the local file system,
      for example,

      • <author-aem-install-dir>/crx-quickstart/launchpad/felix/bundle21
      • The bundle.info file will identify the bundle

    • Navigate into the data folder,
      for example,

      • <author-aem-install-dir>/crx-quickstart/launchpad/felix/bundle21/data

      • Copy the hmac and primary node files

  • For each target AEM instance

    • Navigate into the data folder,
      for example,

      • <publish-aem-install-dir>/crx-quickstart/launchpad/felix/bundle21/data

    • Paste the 2 files previously copied

    • It is necessary to refresh the Granite Crypto bundle if the target AEM instance is currently running

CAUTION

If another security feature has already been configured that is based on the crypto keys, then replicating the crypto keys could damage the configuration. For assistance, contact customer care.

Repository Replication

Having the key material stored in the repository, as was the case for AEM 6.2 and earlier, can be preserved by specifying the following system property on first startup of each AEM instance (which creates the initial repository) :

  • -Dcom.adobe.granite.crypto.file.disable=true
NOTE

It is important to verify that the replication agent on author is correctly configured.

With the key material stored in the repository, the manner for replicating the crypto key from author to other instances is as follows:

Using CRXDE Lite:

Refresh the Granite Crypto Bundle

Apache HTTP Server

If using the Apache HTTP server, ensure that you use the correct server name for all relevant entries.

In particular, be careful to use the correct server name, not localhost, in the RedirectMatch.

httpd.conf sample

<IfModule alias_module>
     # XAMPP does not have a favicon; this prevents any 404 errors which may arise.
     Redirect 404 /favicon.ico
     <Location /favicon.ico>
         ErrorDocument 404 "No favicon"
     </Location>

    # Return from "Sign Out" generates response header directing you to "/", generating a 404 error
    # The RedirectMatch resolves it correctly when modified for the target Community Site :
    RedirectMatch ^/$ https://[server name]/content/sites/engage/en.html
 ...
 </IfModule>

Dispatcher

If using a Dispatcher, see:

  • Visit Administering Communities Sites to learn about creating a community site, configuring community site templates, moderating community content, managing members, and configuring messaging.

  • Visit Developing Communities to learn about the social component framework (SCF) and customizing Communities components and features.

  • Visit Authoring Communities Components to learn how to author with and configure Communities components.

Business.Adobe.com resources

Docs links
Multichannel Communication Content Insights Automated Onboarding Managed Cloud Version History Customer Experience Management

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