AEM Forms Edge Delivery Services
AEM Forms Edge Delivery Services is a composable set of services that enables a rapid development environment where authors can update, publish, and launch new forms rapidly. These services deliver exceptional and high impact forms experiences that drive engagement and conversions. These forms experiences are easy to author and develop.
These services enable you to:
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Create enrolment experiences with tools of your choice: Increase authoring efficiency by decoupling content sources. Out of the box you can use Document-based Authoring (Microsoft SharePoint or Google Drive), WYSIWYG Authoring (Universal Editor or Adaptive Forms Editor). You can work with multiple content sources on the same forms site and use your preferred authoring tools, such as Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Universal Editor, or Adaptive Forms Editor.
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Deliver exceptional Digital Enrolment experiences: Deliver Digital Enrolment experiences that load and render quickly and continuously monitor your forms performance through real use monitoring (RUM). Faster loading times and optimized user experience contribute to higher form completion and conversion rates.
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Use developer friendly toolset: AEM Forms Edge Delivery Services uses plain HTML, modern CSS, and vanilla JavaScript to create exceptional experiences, avoiding the steep learning curve of a specific framework. A developer with basic web development skills can customize and easily build form components and experiences. There is no need to wait for a pipeline to run, just check-in your code into GitHub and your changes are live.
AEM Forms Edge Delivery Services Overview edge-overview
AEM Forms Edge Delivery services allows for a high degree of flexibility in how you author forms on your website. You can author content and forms with WYSIWYG Authoring as well as Document-based Authoring. AEM Forms Edge Delivery Services provide a forms block, known as Adaptive Forms Block to add a form to your Edge Delivery Services site.
For example, you author forms directly in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets and these spreadsheets are transformed into forms for your website. Any new form or form content, such as a new form field, is instantly available on your website without requiring a rebuild process.
The following diagram illustrates how you can edit forms in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets (Document-based Authoring) and publish to Edge Delivery Services. It also shows the AEM publishing method using the WYSIWYG Authoring (Universal Editor or Adaptive Forms Editor).
AEM Forms Edge Delivery Services uses GitHub so customers can manage and deploy code directly from their GitHub repository. For example, you can write forms in either Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel and the components of your forms can be developed by using CSS and JavaScript in a GitHub repository.
When your forms are ready, you can use the AEM Sidekick, a chrome browser extension, to preview and publish content updates.
The choice between the Document-based Authoringand WYSIWYG Authoring depends on your specific requirements:
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For simple forms that just collect basic information with a few fields (think contact us forms, lead generation forms, or service request forms), and where you need quick data connectivity using a spreadsheet, the Document-based Authoring is a good fit. You can build these forms like you would build a document in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.
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For complex forms, like forms requiring multiple panels, complex rules and business logic, data manipulation, integration with external systems, or streamlined workflows using AEM features, then WYSIWYG Authoring is a better option.
Key Features of Document-based Authoring and WYSIWYG Authoring
Document-based Authoring offers a basic set of features and WYSIWYG Authoring unlocks additional capabilities beyond the Document-based Authoring, empowering you to build more complex and interactive forms. The key features of both Document-based Authoring and WYSIWYG Authoring are:
Document-based Authoring features
Document-based Authoring allows you to create forms using familiar tools like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. These forms offer the following functionalities:
- Accessible components for a user-friendly experience.
- Standardized HTML structure for consistent rendering.
- Rules and validations to ensure data accuracy.
- File attachment options for collecting additional information.
- Google reCAPTCHA integration for spam protection.
- Ability to create custom form components for specific needs.
- Submit form data directly to Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets or email addresses.
- Monitor your forms performance through real use monitoring (RUM)
WYSIWYG Authoring features
WYSIWYG Authoring provides WYSIWYG interfaces (Universal Editor and Adaptive Forms Editor) for building forms and offers all the capabilities of Document-based Authoring, plus a wide range of additional features:
- Advanced rules editor for creating complex logic.
- Server-side extensibility for custom functionalities.
- WYSIWYG editing experience for easy form creation and visualization.
- Document of record functionality to create tamper-proof archives of submitted data.
- Integration with Adobe Sign for electronic signatures.
- Integration with Adobe Workfront Fusion to triggering Adobe Workfront Fusion scenarios upon form submission.
- Integration with various data sources for pre-populating forms and submitting data.
- Form Data Model (FDM) for defining data structure and interactions with various data sources.
- Ability to choose from multiple submit actions for handling form submissions, including submitting data to Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft OneDrive, Adobe Workfront Fusion, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, many more data sources.
The all above features are also available via Adaptive Forms Editor.
In essence, WYSIWYG Authoring (Universal Editor and Adaptive Forms Editor) builds upon the foundation of Document-based Authoring, providing a more advanced toolkit for creating and managing complex forms.
AEM Forms Edge Delivery Services: Authoring, Publishing, and Submission of Forms
The following diagrams illustrate the process of creating, publishing, and submitting forms using Document-based Authoring and WYSIWYG Authoring.
Start creating forms
- Get started with AEM Forms Edge Delivery Services
- Create a form using Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel
- Set up your Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel files to start accepting data
- Publish your form and start collecting data
- Customize the look of your forms
- Add repeatable sections to a form
- Show a custom thank you message after form submission
- Adaptive Form Block components and their properties
- Realtime user monitoring