Editable container components

Fixed components provide some flexibility for authoring SPA content, however this approach is rigid and requires developers to define the exact composition of the editable content. To support the creation of exceptional experiences by authors, SPA Editor supports the use of container components in the SPA. Container components allow authors to drag and drop allowed components into the container, and author them, just like they can in traditional AEM Sites authoring!

Editable container components

In this chapter, we’ll add an editable container to the home view allowing authors to compose and layout rich content experiences using AEM React Core Components directly in the SPA.

Update the WKND App

To add a container component to the Home view:

  • Import the AEM React Editable Component’s ResponsiveGrid component
  • Import and register AEM React Core Components (Text and Image) for use in the container component

Import in the ResponsiveGrid container component

To place an editable area to the Home view, we must:

  1. Import the ResponsiveGrid component from @adobe/aem-react-editable-components
  2. Register it using withMappable so developers can place it in the SPA
  3. Also, register with MapTo so it can be reused in other Container components, effectively nesting containers.

To do this:

  1. Open the SPA project in your IDE

  2. Create a React component at src/components/aem/AEMResponsiveGrid.js

  3. Add the following code to AEMResponsiveGrid.js

    // Import the withMappable API provided bu the AEM SPA Editor JS SDK
import { withMappable, MapTo } from '@adobe/aem-react-editable-components';

// Import the base ResponsiveGrid component
import { ResponsiveGrid } from "@adobe/aem-react-editable-components";

// The sling:resourceType for which this Core Component is registered with in AEM
const RESOURCE_TYPE = "wcm/foundation/components/responsivegrid";

// Create an EditConfig to allow the AEM SPA Editor to properly render the component in the Editor's context
const EditConfig = {
    emptyLabel: "Layout Container",  // The component placeholder in AEM SPA Editor
    isEmpty: function(props) {
        return props.cqItemsOrder == null || props.cqItemsOrder.length === 0;
    },                              // The function to determine if this component has been authored
    resourceType: RESOURCE_TYPE     // The sling:resourceType this SPA component is mapped to
};

// MapTo allows the AEM SPA Editor JS SDK to dynamically render components added to SPA Editor Containers
MapTo(RESOURCE_TYPE)(ResponsiveGrid, EditConfig);

// withMappable allows the component to be hardcoded into the SPA; <AEMResponsiveGrid .../>
const AEMResponsiveGrid = withMappable(ResponsiveGrid, EditConfig);

export default AEMResponsiveGrid;

The code is similar AEMTitle.js that imported the AEM Reach Core Components’ Title component.

The AEMResponsiveGrid.js file should look like:

AEMResponsiveGrid.js

Use the AEMResponsiveGrid SPA component

Now that AEM’s ResponsiveGrid component is registered in and available for use within the SPA, we can place it in the Home view.

  1. Open and edit react-app/src/App.js

  2. Import the AEMResponsiveGrid component and place it above the <AEMTitle ...> component.

  3. Set the following attributes on the <AEMResponsiveGrid...> component

    • pagePath = '/content/wknd-app/us/en/home'
    • itemPath = 'root/responsivegrid'

    This instructs this AEMResponsiveGrid component to retrieve its content from the AEM resource:

    • /content/wknd-app/us/en/home/jcr:content/root/responsivegrid

    The itemPath maps to the responsivegrid node defined in the Remote SPA Page AEM Template and is automatically created on new AEM Pages created from the Remote SPA Page AEM Template.

    Update App.js to add the <AEMResponsiveGrid...> component.

    ...
import AEMResponsiveGrid from './components/aem/AEMResponsiveGrid';
...

function Home() {
return (
    <div className="Home">
        <AEMResponsiveGrid
            pagePath='/content/wknd-app/us/en/home'
            itemPath='root/responsivegrid'/>

        <AEMTitle
            pagePath='/content/wknd-app/us/en/home'
            itemPath='title'/>
        <Adventures />
    </div>
);
}

The Apps.js file should look like:

App.js

Create editable components

To get the full effect of the flexible authoring experience containers provide in SPA Editor. We’ve already create an editable Title component, but let’s make a few more that allow authors to use Text and Image AEM WCM Core Components in the newly added container component.

Text component

  1. Open the SPA project in your IDE

  2. Create a React component at src/components/aem/AEMText.js

  3. Add the following code to AEMText.js

    import { withMappable, MapTo } from '@adobe/aem-react-editable-components';
import { TextV2, TextV2IsEmptyFn } from "@adobe/aem-core-components-react-base";

const RESOURCE_TYPE = "wknd-app/components/text";

const EditConfig = {
    emptyLabel: "Text",
    isEmpty: TextV2IsEmptyFn,
    resourceType: RESOURCE_TYPE
};

MapTo(RESOURCE_TYPE)(TextV2, EditConfig);

const AEMText = withMappable(TextV2, EditConfig);

export default AEMText;

The AEMText.js file should look like:

AEMText.js

Image component

  1. Open the SPA project in your IDE

  2. Create a React component at src/components/aem/AEMImage.js

  3. Add the following code to AEMImage.js

    import { withMappable, MapTo } from '@adobe/aem-react-editable-components';
import { ImageV2, ImageV2IsEmptyFn } from "@adobe/aem-core-components-react-base";

const RESOURCE_TYPE = "wknd-app/components/image";

const EditConfig = {
    emptyLabel: "Image",
    isEmpty: ImageV2IsEmptyFn,
    resourceType: RESOURCE_TYPE
};

MapTo(RESOURCE_TYPE)(ImageV2, EditConfig);

const AEMImage = withMappable(ImageV2, EditConfig);

export default AEMImage;

  4. Create an SCSS file src/components/aem/AEMImage.scss that provides custom styles for the AEMImage.scss. These styles target the AEM React Core Component’s BEM-notation CSS classes.

  5. Add the following SCSS to AEMImage.scss

    .cmp-image__image {
    margin: 1rem 0;
    width: 100%;
    border: 0;
 }

  6. Import AEMImage.scss in AEMImage.js

    ...
import './AEMImage.scss';
...

The AEMImage.js and AEMImage.scss should look like:

AEMImage.js and AEMImage.scss

Import the editable components

The newly created AEMText and AEMImage SPA components are referenced in the SPA, and are dynamically instantiated based on the JSON returned by AEM. To ensure that these components are available to the SPA, create import statements for them in App.js

  1. Open the SPA project in your IDE

  2. Open the file src/App.js

  3. Add import statements for AEMText and AEMImage

    ...
import AEMText from './components/aem/AEMText';
import AEMImage from './components/aem/AEMImage';
...

The result should look like:

Apps.js

If these imports are not added, the AEMText and AEMImage code will not be invoked by SPA, and thus, the components are not registered against the provided resource types.

Configuring the container in AEM

AEM container components use policies to dictate their allowed components. This is a critical configuration when using SPA Editor, since only AEM WCM Core Components that have mapped SPA component counterparts are render-able by the SPA. Ensure only the components which we’ve provided SPA implementations for are allowed:

  • AEMTitle mapped to wknd-app/components/title
  • AEMText mapped to wknd-app/components/text
  • AEMImage mapped to wknd-app/components/image

To configure the Remote SPA Page template’s reponsivegrid container:

  1. Log in to AEM Author

  2. Navigate to Tools > General > Templates > WKND App

  3. Edit Report SPA Page

    Responsive Grid policies

  4. Select Structure in the mode switcher in the top right

  5. Tap to select the Layout Container

  6. Tap the Policy icon in the popup bar

    Responsive Grid policies

  7. On the right, under the Allowed Components tab, expand WKND APP - CONTENT

  8. Ensure only following are selected:

    • Image
    • Text
    • Title

    Remote SPA Page

  9. Tap Done

Authoring the container in AEM

With the SPA updated to embed the <AEMResponsiveGrid...>, wrappers for three AEM React Core components (AEMTitle, AEMText, and AEMImage), and AEM is updated with a matching Template policy, we can start authoring content in the container component.

  1. Log in to AEM Author

  2. Navigate to Sites > WKND App

  3. Tap Home and select Edit from the top action bar

    • A “Hello World” Text component displays, as this was automatically added when generating the project from the AEM Project archetype

  4. Select Edit from the mode-selector in the top-right of the Page Editor

  5. Locate the Layout Container editable area beneath the Title

  6. Open the Page Editor’s side bar, and select the Components view

  7. Drag the following components into the Layout Container

    • Image
    • Title

  8. Drag the components to reorder them to the following order:

    1. Title
    2. Image
    3. Text

  9. Author the Title component

    1. Tap the Title component, and tap the wrench icon to edit the Title component
    2. Add the following text:
      • Title: Summer is coming, let’s make the most of it!
      • Type: H1
    3. Tap Done

  10. Author the Image component

    1. Drag an image in from the Side bar (after switching to the Assets view) on the Image component
    2. Tap the Image component, and tap the wrench icon to edit
    3. Check the Image is decorative checkbox
    4. Tap Done

  11. Author the Text component

    1. Edit the Text component by tapping the Text component, and tapping the wrench icon
    2. Add the following text:
      • Right now, you can get 15% on all 1-week adventures, and 20% off on all adventures that are 2 weeks or longer! At checkout, just add the campaign code SUMMERISCOMING to get your discounts!
    3. Tap Done

  12. Your components are now authored, but stack vertically.

    Authored components

    Use AEM’s Layout Mode to allow us to adjust the size and layout of the components.

  13. Switch to Layout Mode using the mode-selector in the top-right

  14. Resize the Image and Text components, such that they are side by side

    • Image component should be 8 columns wide
    • Text component should be 3 columns wide

    Layout components

  15. Preview your changes in AEM Page Editor

  16. Refresh the WKND App running locally on http://localhost:3000 to see the authored changes!

    Container component in SPA

Congratulations!

You’ve added a container component that allows for editable components to be added by authors to the WKND App! You now know how to:

  • Use the AEM React Editable Component’s ResponsiveGrid component in the SPA
  • Register AEM React Core Components (Text and Image) for use in the SPA via the container component
  • Configure the Remote SPA Page template to allow the SPA-enabled Core Components
  • Add editable components to the container component
  • Author and layout components in SPA Editor

Next Steps

The next step will be using this same technique to add an editable component to an Adventure Details route in the SPA.

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