Tagging allows content to be categorized and organized. Tags can be classified by a namespace and a taxonomy. For detailed information about using tags:
This article focuses on the underlying framework which supports tagging in AEM and how to use it as a developer.
To tag content and use the AEM Tagging infrastructure:
The tag must exist as a node of type [cq:Tag](#tags-cq-tag-node-type)
under the taxonomy root node.
The tagged content node’s NodeType
must include the cq:Taggable
mixin.
The TagID
is added to the content node’s cq:tags
property and resolves to a node of type [cq:Tag](#tags-cq-tag-node-type)
.
The declaration of a tag is captured in the repository in a node of type cq:Tag
.
A tag can be a simple word (for example, sky
) or represent a hierarchical taxonomy (for example, fruit/apple
, meaning both the generic fruit
and the more specific apple
).
Tags are identified by a unique TagID.
A tag has optional meta information such as a title, localized titles, and a description. The title should be displayed in user interfaces instead of the TagID, when present.
The tagging framework also provides the ability to restrict authors and site visitors to use only specific, predefined tags.
cq:Tag
njcr:title
property (the title to display in the UI) is optional.jcr:description
property is optional.Since tags are simply JCR nodes, the node names must of course abide by the JCR naming convention.
A TagID identifies a path which resolves to a tag node in the repository.
Typically, the TagID is a shorthand TagID starting with the namespace or it can be an absolute TagID starting from the taxonomy root node.
When content is tagged, if it does not yet exist, the [cq:tags](#tagged-content-cq-tags-property)
property is added to the content node and the TagID is added to the property’s String
array value.
The TagID consists of a namespace followed by the local TagID. Container tags have subtags that represent a hierarchical order in the taxonomy. Subtags can be used to reference tags same as any local TagID. For example, tagging content with fruit
is allowed, even if it is a container tag with subtags, such as fruit/apple
and fruit/banana
.
The taxonomy root node is the base path for all tags in the repository. The taxonomy root node must not be a node of type cq:Tag
.
In AEM, the base path is /content/cq:tags
and the root node is of type cq:Folder
.
Namespaces let you group things. The most typical use case is a namespace per site (for example, public, internal, and portal) or per larger application (for example, WCM, Assets, Communities). But namespaces can be used for various other needs. Namespaces are used in the user interface to only show the subset of tags (i.e., tags of a certain namespace) that is applicable to the current content.
The tag’s namespace is the first level in the taxonomy subtree, which is the node immediately below the taxonomy root node. A namespace is a node of type cq:Tag
whose parent is not a cq:Tag
node type.
All tags have a namespace. If no namespace is specified, the tag is assigned to the default namespace, which is TagID default
with the title Standard Tags
, i.e. /content/cq:tags/default
.
A container tag is a node of type cq:Tag
containing any number and type of child nodes, which makes it possible to enhance the tag model with custom metadata.
Furthermore, container tags (or super tags) in a taxonomy serve as the subsumption of all subtags. For example, content tagged with fruit/apple
is considered to be tagged with fruit
as well. That is, searching for content tagged with fruit
would also find the content tagged with fruit/apple
.
If the TagID contains a colon (:
), the colon separates the namespace from the tag or subtaxonomy, which is further separated with slashes (/
). If the TagID does not have a colon, the default namespace is implied.
The standard and only location of tags is below /content/cq:tags
.
Tag referencing non-existing paths or paths that do not point to a cq:Tag
node are considered invalid and are ignored.
The following table shows some sample TagIDs, their elements, and how the TagID resolves to an absolute path in the repository:
TagID | Namespace | Local ID | Container Tags | Leaf Tag | Repository Absolute Tag Path |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
dam:fruit/apple/braeburn |
dam |
fruit/apple/braeburn |
fruit , apple |
braeburn |
/content/cq:tags/dam/fruit/apple/braeburn |
color/red |
default |
color/red |
color |
red |
/content/cq:tags/default/color/red |
sky |
default |
sky |
None | sky |
/content/cq:tags/default/sky |
dam: |
dam |
None | None | None, the namespace | /content/cq:tags/dam |
/content/cq:tags/category/car |
category |
car |
car |
car |
/content/cq:tags/category/car |
When the tag includes the optional title string ( jcr:title
), it is possible to localize the title for display by adding the property jcr:title.<locale>
.
For more details, please see the following documents:
Tags exist as nodes in the repository under the taxonomy root node. Allowing or denying authors and site visitors to create tags in a given namespace can be achieved by setting appropriate ACLs in the repository.
Also, denying read permissions for certain tags or namespaces controls the ability to apply tags to specific content.
A typical practice includes:
tag-administrators
group/role write access to all namespaces (add/modify under /content/cq:tags
). This group comes with AEM out-of-the-box./content/cq:tags/some_namespace
)For application developers to attach tagging to a content type, the node’s registration (CND) must include the cq:Taggable
mixin or the cq:OwnerTaggable
mixin.
The cq:OwnerTaggable
mixin, which inherits from cq:Taggable
, is intended to indicate that the content can be classified by the owner/author. In AEM, it is only an attribute of the cq:PageContent
node. The cq:OwnerTaggable
mixin is not required by the tagging framework.
It is recommended to only enable tags on the top-level node of an aggregated content item (or on its jcr:content
node). Examples include:
cq:Page
) where the jcr:content
node is of type cq:PageContent
which includes the cq:Taggable
mixincq:Asset
) where the jcr:content/metadata
node always has the cq:Taggable
mixinNode type definitions exist in the repository as CND files. The CND notation is defined as part of the JCR documentation here.
The essential definitions for the Node Types included in AEM are as follows:
[cq:Tag] > mix:title, nt:base
orderable
- * (undefined) multiple
- * (undefined)
+ * (nt:base) = cq:Tag version
[cq:Taggable]
mixin
- cq:tags (string) multiple
[cq:OwnerTaggable] > cq:Taggable
mixin
The cq:tags
property is a String
array used to store one or more TagIDs when they are applied to content by authors or site visitors. The property only has meaning when added to a node which is defined with the [cq:Taggable](#taggable-content-cq-taggable-mixin)
mixin.
To use AEM tagging functionality, custom developed applications should not define tag properties other than cq:tags
.
The following is a description of the effects in the repository when moving or merging tags using the tagging console:
When a tag A is moved or merged into tag B under /content/cq:tags
:
cq:movedTo
property.cq:backlinks
property.cq:movedTo
points to tag B.
This property means that tag A has been moved or merged into tag B. Moving tag B updates this property accordingly. Tag A is thus hidden and is only kept in the repository to resolve tag IDs in content nodes pointing to tag A. The tag garbage collector removes tags like tag A once no more content nodes point to them.
A special value for the cq:movedTo
property is nirvana
. It is applied when the tag is deleted but cannot be removed from the repository because there are subtags with a cq:movedTo
that must be kept.
The cq:movedTo
property is only added to the moved or merged tag if either of these conditions are met:
cq:backlinks
keeps the references in the other direction. That is, it keeps a list of all the tags that have been moved to or merged with tag B. This is mostly required to keep cq:movedTo
properties up to date when tag B is moved/merged/deleted as well or when tag B is activated, in which case all its backlinks tags must be activated as well.
The cq:backlinks
property is only added to the moved or merged tag if either of these conditions are met:
Reading a cq:tags
property of a content node involves the following resolution:
If there is no match under /content/cq:tags
, no tag is returned.
If the tag has a cq:movedTo
property set, the referenced tag ID is followed.
cq:movedTo
property.If the followed tag does not have a cq:movedTo
property, the tag is read.
To publish the change when a tag has been moved or merged, the cq:Tag
node and all its backlinks must be replicated. This is automatically done when the tag is activated in the tag administration console.
Later updates to the page’s cq:tags
property automatically clean the old references. This is triggered because resolving a moved tag through the API returns the destination tag, thus providing the destination tag ID.
Movement of tags is different from migration of tags.
Since Adobe Experience Manager 6.4, tags are stored under /content/cq:tags
whereas previous versions stored tags under /etc/tags
.
Whenever upgrading an AEM system from a version prior to 6.4, tags must be migrated to /content/cq:tags
. Please see the document Common Repository Restructuring in AEM 6.5 for more information.