Offline Channels

The Screens player provides offline support for the channels by leveraging the ContentSync technology.

The players use a local http server to serve the unzipped content.

When a channel is configured to run online, the player serves the channel-resources by accessing the AEM server but when the channel is configured to run offline, the player serves the channel-resources from a local http server.

The workflow for the process is as follows:

Parse the desired page(s)
Collect all related assets
Package everything in a zip file
Download the zip and extract it locally
Display local copy of the content

Update Handlers

The ContentSync uses update handlers to parse and collect all necessary pages and assets for a specific project. AEM Screens uses the following update handlers:

Common Options

type: the update handler type to use
path: path to the resource
[targetRootDirectory]: target folder in the zip file

Type	Description	Options
channels	collects a channel	extension: extension of the resource to collect [pathSuffix='']: suffix to add to the channel path
clientlib	collect the specified client library	[extension='']: can be either css or js, to collect only the former, or only the latter
assetrenditions	collect the asset renditions	[renditions=[]]: list of renditions to collect. Defaults to the original rendition
copy	copy the specified structure from path

Testing ContentSync Configuration

Follow the steps below to test the ContentSync configuration:

Open https://localhost:4502/libs/cq/contentsync/content/console.html
Select your config in the list
Click Clear Cache
Click Update Cache
Click Download Full
Extract the zip file
Start a local server in the extracted folder
Open your start page and check your app status

Enabling Offline Config for a Channel

Follow the steps below to enable offline config for a channel:

Inspect the channel content and check if it is requested from an AEM Instance (Online).
Navigate to the channel dashboard and click … in the CHANNEL INFORMATION Panel to change the properties.
Navigate to the channel properties and make sure the checkbox is disabled under the Channel tab. Click Save & Close.

Before content is properly deployed to the device, click the Update Offline Content.

The Offline status under PROPERTIES also updates accordingly.
Inspect the channel content and check if it is requested from the local Player-Cache.

NOTE

To learn more about the template for custom offline resource handlers and the minimum requirements in the pom.xml for that specific project, refer to Template for Custom Handlers in Developing a Custom Component for AEM Screens.