The Head in Headless

The head of any system is generally the output renderer of that system, typically in the form of a GUI or other graphical output.

When we talk about a headless CMS, the CMS manages the content and continues to deliver it to consumers. However, by only delivering the content in a standardized fashion, a headless CMS omits the final output rendering, leaving the presentation of the content to the consuming service.

Headless CMS

The consuming services, be they AR experiences, a web shop, mobile experiences, progressive web apps (PWAs), and so on, take in content from the headless CMS and provide their own rendering. They take care of providing their own heads for your content.

Omitting the head simplifies the CMS by removing complexity. Doing this also shifts the responsibility of rendering the content to the services that actually need the content and are often better suited to such rendering.

Translating Headless Content in AEM

In addition to offering robust tools to create, manage, and deliver traditional webpages in the full-stack fashion, AEM also offers the ability to author self-contained selections of content and serve them headlessly.

The power of AEM allows it to deliver content either headlessly, full-stack, or in both models at the same time. For the translation specialist, the same set of translation tools can be applied to both types of content, giving you a unified approach for translating your content.

Further in the journey you will learn the details about how AEM translates content, but at a high level, the concept is simple:

  1. Define a connection to a translation service by configuring the translation integration framework.
  2. Define which content should be translated using translation rules.
  3. Create a translation project to harvest the content, send it to the translation service, and receive the results.
  4. Review and publish the translated content.

What’s Next

Thanks for getting started on your AEM headless translation journey! Now that you read this document you should:

  • Understand the basic concepts of headless content delivery.
  • Be familiar with how AEM supports headless and translation.

Build on this knowledge and continue your AEM headless translation journey by next reviewing the document Get started with AEM headless translation where you will have an overview of how AEM manages headless content and get to know its translation tools.

Additional Resources

While it is recommended that you move on to the next part of the headless translation journey by reviewing the document Get started with AEM headless translation, the following are some additional, optional resources that do a deeper dive on some concepts mentioned in this document, but they are not required to continue on the headless journey.

Experience Manager


Elevate and Empower Teams with Agentic AI for Exceptional Experiences

Online | Strategy Keynote | General Audience

Elevate and empower your CX teams with AI that transforms creativity, personalization, and productivity. Discover how Adobe is...

Tue, Mar 18, 1:00 PM PDT (8:00 PM UTC)

Register

How EY Enhanced Regulatory Knowledge Management with Adobe Solutions

Online | Session | General Audience

Delve into how EY leverages Adobe solutions to enhance regulatory knowledge management. EY leverages search analytics and personalization...

Wed, Mar 19, 4:00 PM PDT (11:00 PM UTC)

Register

Connect with Experience League at Summit!

Get front-row access to top sessions, hands-on activities, and networking—wherever you are!

Learn more