Set up local development environment for AEM Forms overview

Log in to https://experience.adobe.com/#/downloads with your Adobe ID

Navigate to the AEM as a Cloud Service tab.

Sort by published date in descending order.

Click the latest Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service SDK, Experience Manager Forms feature archive (AEM Forms add-on), forms reference assets, or Forms Designer.

Review and accept the EULA. Select the Download button.

Download and extract the latest AEM Forms archive for your operating system from Software Distribution.

Navigate to the crx-quickstart/install directory. If the folder does not exist, create it.

Stop your AEM instance, place the AEM Forms add-on feature archive, aem-forms-addon-<version>.far, in the install folder.

Go to active command window and press Ctrl + C command to restart the SDK.

Install and Configure Docker:

• (For Microsoft® Windows) Install Docker Desktop. It configures Docker Engine and docker-compose on your machine.

• (Apple macOS) Install Docker Desktop for Mac. It includes Docker Engine, Docker CLI client, Docker Compose, Docker Content Trust, Kubernetes, and Credential Helper.

• (For Linux®) Install Docker Engine and Docker Compose on your machine.

Create a folder, say aem-sdk, in parallel to your author and publish instances. For example, C:\aem-sdk.

Extract the aem-forms-addon-<version>.zip\aem-forms-addon-native-<version>.zip file.

Create an environment variable AEM_HOME and point to local AEM Author installation. For example, C:\aem\author.

Open sdk.bat or sdk.sh for editing. Set the AEM_HOME to point to local AEM Author installation. For example, C:\aem\author.

Open command prompt and navigate to the aem-forms-addon-native-<version> folder.

Ensure that your local AEM Author instance is up and running. Run the following commands to start the SDK:

• On Microsoft® Windows

  code language-shell
  sdk.bat start

• Linux® or Apple macOS

  code language-shell
  % export AEM_HOME=[local AEM Author installation] % ./sdk.sh start

Clone Cloud Manager Git repository on your local development instance: Your Cloud Manager Git repository contains a default AEM project. It is based on AEM Archetype. Clone your Cloud Manager Git Repository using Self-Service Git Account Management from Cloud Manager UI to bring the project on your local development environment. For details to accessing the repository, see Accessing Repositories.

Create an Experience Manager Forms as a [Cloud Service] project: Create an Experience Manager Forms as a [Cloud Service] project based on latest AEM Archetype or later. The archetype help developers easily start developing for AEM Forms as a Cloud Service. It also includes some sample themes and templates to help you started quickly.

Open the command prompt and run the below command to create an Experience Manager Forms as a Cloud Service project.

mvn -B org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-archetype-plugin:3.2.1:generate -D archetypeGroupId=com.adobe.aem -D archetypeArtifactId=aem-project-archetype -D archetypeVersion="41" -D appTitle=mysite -D appId=mysite -D groupId=com.mysite -D includeFormsenrollment="y" -D aemVersion="cloud"

Change the appTitle, appId, and groupId in the above command to reflect your environment. Also, set value for includeFormsenrollment, includeFormscommunications, and includeFormsheadless to y or n depending on your license and requirements. The includeFormsheadless is mandatory to create Adaptive Forms based on Core Components.

• Use the includeFormsenrollment=y option to include Forms specific configurations, themes, templates, Core Components, and dependencies required to create Adaptive Forms. If you use Forms Portal, set the includeExamples=y option. It also adds Forms Portal core components to the project.

• Use the includeFormscommunications=y option to include Forms Core Components and dependencies required to include Customer Communications functionality.

  note warning
  WARNING
  When creating an Archetype project with version 45, the [AEM Archetype Project Folder]/pom.xml initially sets the forms core components version to 2.0.64. Prior to building or deploying the Archetype project, update the forms core components version to 2.0.62.

Deploy the project to your local development environment. You can use the following command to deploy to your local development environment

mvn -PautoInstallPackage clean install

For the complete list of commands, see Building and Installing

Deploy the code to your AEM Forms as a Cloud Service environment.

Open your AEM Project and navigate to \src\conf.dispatcher.d\available_farms

Create a copy of the default.farm file. For example, forms.farm.

Open the created forms.farm file for editing and replace the following code:

#/ignoreUrlParams {
#/0001 { /glob "*" /type "deny" }
#/0002 { /glob "q" /type "allow" }
#}

with

/ignoreUrlParams {
/0001 { /glob "*" /type "deny" }
/0002 { /glob "dataRef" /type "allow" }
}

Save and close your file.

Go to conf.d/enabled_farms and create a symbolic link to the forms.farm file.

Compile and deploy the project to your AEM Forms as a Cloud Service environment.

Download Adaptive Forms, themes, and PDF forms.

Export Adaptive Form templates.

Download Form Data Models

Export editable templates, cloud configurations, and workflow model. To export all the previously mentioned items from your existing SDK, create an CRX-Package with the following filters:

• /conf/ReferenceEditableTemplates
• /conf/global/settings/cloudconfigs
• /conf/global/settings/wcm
• /var/workflow/models
• /conf/global/settings/workflow

Export email configurations, submit, and prefill actions code from your local development environment. To export these settings and configuration, create a copy of the following folders and files on your local development environment:

• [Archetype Project in Cloud Service Git]/core/src/main/java/com/<program name>/core/service
• [Archetype Project in Cloud Service Git] /core/src/main/java/com/<program name>/core/servlets/FileAttachmentServlet.java
• [Archetype Project in Cloud Service Git]/ui.apps/src/main/content/jcr_root/apps/<program name>/config

Import Adaptive Forms, themes, and PDF forms to new SDK environments.

Import Adaptive Form templates to new SDK environment.

Upload Form Data Models to new SDK environment.

Import editable templates, cloud configurations, and workflow model. To import all the previously mentioned items yo your new SDK environment, import the CRX-Package containing these items to your new SDK environment.

Import email configurations, submit, and prefill actions code from your local development environment. To import these settings and configuration, place the following files from your old Archetype project to your new Archetype project:

• [Archetype Project in Cloud Service Git]/core/src/main/java/com/<program name>/core/service
• [Archetype Project in Cloud Service Git] /core/src/main/java/com/<program name>/core/servlets/FileAttachmentServlet.java
• [Archetype Project in Cloud Service Git]/ui.apps/src/main/content/jcr_root/apps/<program name>/config