DocumentationAEM 6.4Classic UI Authoring Guide

Basic Handling basic-handling

Last update: Wed May 03 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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CAUTION
AEM 6.4 has reached the end of extended support and this documentation is no longer updated. For further details, see our technical support periods. Find the supported versions here.
NOTE

  • This page is designed to give an overview of basic handling when using the AEM author environment. It uses the Sites console as a basis.

  • Some functionality is not available in all consoles and/or additional functionality is available in some consoles. Specific information about the individual consoles and their related functionality will be covered in more detail on other pages.

  • Keyboard shortcuts are available throughout AEM. In particular when using consoles and editing pages.

The Welcome Screen the-welcome-screen

The classic UI provides a selection of consoles, using well-known mechanisms for navigating and initiating actions, including click, double-click and context menus.

Upon login the Welcome screen will be shown, this provides a list of links to consoles and services:

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Consoles consoles

The main consoles are:

Console
Purpose
Welcome
Provides an overview and direct access (via links) to the main functionality of AEM.
Digital Assets
These consoles let you import and manage digital assets such as images, videos, documents and audio files. These assets can then be used by any website running on the same AEM instance.
Launches
This helps you manage your launches; these enable you to develop the content for a future release of one or more activated web pages.
Note: In the touch-enabled UI much of the same functionality is available in the Sites console, together with the References rail. If required, this console is available from the Tools console; select Operations, then Launches.
Inbox
In many cases a number of people are involved in the sub-tasks of a workflow and each person must complete their step before handing off the work to the next person. The Inbox allows you to see notifications related to such tasks. See Working with Workflows.
Tagging
The Tagging consoles let you administer tags. Tags are short names or phrases that you can use to classify and annotate pieces of content making it easier to find and organize them. For further information see Using and Managing Tags.
Tools
The Tools consoles provide access to a number of specialized tools and consoles that help you administer your websites, digital assets and other aspects of your content repository.
Users
These consoles let you manage access rights for users and groups. For full details see User Administration and Security.
Websites
The Sites/Websites consoles let you create, view and manage websites running on your AEM instance. Through these consoles you can create, copy, move and delete website pages, start workflows, and activate (publish) pages. You can also open a page for editing.
Workflows
A workflow is a defined series of steps that describes the process of completing some task. In many cases a number of people are involved in a task and each person must complete their step before handing off the work to the next person. The Workflow console lets you build workflow models and managing running workflow instances. See Working with Workflows.

The Websites console provides two panes for you to navigate and manage your pages:

  • Left pane

    This shows the tree structure of your websites and the pages within those websites.

    It also shows information about other aspects or AEM, including projects, blueprints and assets.

  • Right pane

    This shows the pages (at the location selected in the left pane) and can be used for taking actions.

From here you can manage your pages using either the toolbar, a context menu or by opening a page for further actions.

NOTE
The basic handling is the same across all consoles. This section concentrates on the Websites console as it is the primary console used when authoring.

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Accessing Help accessing-help

On various consoles (e.g. Websites) there is also Help button is available, this will open either Package Share or the documentation site.

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When editing a page the sidekick also has a button for accessing help.

The Websites console lists your pages of content in a tree structure (left hand pane). For ease of navigation, sections of the tree structure can be expanded (+) or collapsed (-) as required:

  • A single click on the page name (in the left pane) will:

    • List the child pages in the right pane

    • Also expand the structure in the left pane.

      For performance reasons this action is dependent on the number of children nodes. With a standard installation this method of expansion works when there are 30 or less child nodes.

  • A double click on the page name (left pane) will also expand the tree, though as the page is opened at the same time this effect is not so obvious.

NOTE
This default value ( 30) can be changed per console in your application specific configurations of the siteadmin widget:
On the siteadmin node:
Set the value of the property:
treeAutoExpandMax
on:
/apps/wcm/core/content/siteadmin
Or globally in the theme:
Set the value of:
TREE_AUTOEXPAND_MAX
in:
/apps/cq/ui/widgets/themes/default/widgets/wcm/SiteAdmin.js
See SiteAdmin in the CQ Widget API for more details.

Page Information on the Websites Console page-information-on-the-websites-console

The right pane of the Websites console provides a list view with information about pages:

page-info

The following are available; a subset of these fields is shown as default:

Column
Description
Thumbnail
Shows a thumbnail for the page.
Title
The title that appears on the page
Name
The name AEM refers to the page
Published
Indicates whether the page has been published and provides the publication date and time.
Modified
Indicates whether the page has been modified and provides the modification date and time. In order to save any modification, you must activate the page.
Scene7 Publish
Indicates whether the page has been published to Scene7.
Status
Indicates the current status of the page, such as whether the page is part of a workflow or livecopy, or whether a page is currently locked.
Impressions
Shows the activity on a page in number of hits.
Template
Indicates the template that a page is based on.
In Workflow
Indicates when the page is in a workflow.
Locked by
Shows when a page has been locked and the user account that has locked it.
Live Copy
Indicates when the page is part of a live copy.
NOTE
To select the columns visible hover your mouse over a column title. A drop-down menu will be shown, from here you can use the Columns option.

The colors next to pages in the Published and Modified columns indicate publication status:

Column
Color
Description
Published
Green
Publication was successful. Content is published.
Published
Yellow
Publication is pending. Confirmation of publication has not yet been received by the system.
Published
Red
Publication failed. There is no connection with the publish instance. This can also mean that the content was deactivated.
Published
blank
This page has never been published.
Modified
Blue
Page has been modified since the last publication.
Modified
blank
This page has never been modified, or has not been modified since the last publication.

Context Menus context-menus

The classic UI uses well-known mechanisms for navigating and initiating actions, including click and double-click. Depending on the current situation, a range of context menus (usually opened with the right-mouse-button) are also available:

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