Resolving hidden fields visible in AEM forms after Service Pack upgrade
This article addresses the issue of hidden fields being visible in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Forms after a Service Pack upgrade. Despite clearing browser, dispatcher, and CDN caches, the problem persisted. Outdated JavaScript files also caused intermittent inconsistent behavior across environments. This article outlines the problem and provides steps to resolve it effectively.
Description description
Environment
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Forms, v6.5
Issue/Symptoms
- Hidden fields on adaptive forms are visible via publisher URLs through dispatchers.
- The issue does not occur on author servers or direct publisher URLs.
- Intermittent loading issues for adaptive forms due to outdated JavaScript files (
guideRuntime.min.js) cached at browser, dispatcher, or CDN levels. - Clearing browser cache resolves the issue temporarily for some users but not globally.
Resolution resolution
To resolve hidden field issues and ensure consistent form rendering across environments:
- Unpublish and republish affected forms and site pages to flush caches at all levels (browser, dispatcher, CDN).
- Change the adaptive form server-side caching setting from
100to0to ensure each form request fetches fresh data from the publisher. - Verify the dispatcher cache settings and clear cached files under
/var/www/cache/etc.clientlibs/clientlibs/...if/docrootis set to/var/www/cache, ensuring stale JavaScript or CSS assets are removed from the dispatcher cache. - Engage your CDN team to clear cached assets related to affected paths and confirm which specific paths are being cached by the CDN, and ensure they are refreshed.
- Modify JavaScript/CSS content in custom client libraries to generate new hashed URLs automatically, forcing browsers to load updated versions of assets without relying on manual cache clearing.
- Update JavaScript processor settings from
min:yuitomin:gccin the configuration settings for JS processors in AEM Forms to resolve UI-related issues caused by incompatible minification methods. - Clear the locales cache at both the dispatcher and CDN levels if the issue is specific to certain locale versions of a form and aggressive caching is enabled separately for all locales. This ensures that the content is updated from the publisher to the dispatcher and CDN, providing consistent behavior across all form versions.
- Restart affected publishers after implementing changes to ensure configurations take effect properly.
- Test in incognito mode or clear browser cookies and cache manually if users experience persistent issues.
- Validate changes with internal users before broad rollout, and gather feedback from external users accessing forms via dispatchers/CDN domains for further adjustments if necessary.
Follow these steps systematically to resolve hidden field visibility issues and ensure adaptive forms render correctly across all environments without frequent manual cache management.
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