Repository Browser repository-browser
Introduction introduction
The repository browser is a developer tool that provides a read-only view into the repository for all environments on author, publish, and preview tiers. It is designed to facilitate viewing of the content structure to make it easier to see or debug content.
Accessible from the AEM as a Cloud Service Developer Console, it can be used to browse the repository of an author or publish instance for a selected environment.
Access Prerequisites access-prerequisites
These following conditions must be met to access the AEM as a Cloud Service Developer Console or the Repository browser
To access the AEM as a Cloud Service Developer Console, see Developer Console access.
To access the Repository Browser, the requisites are the same as for the AEM as a Cloud Service Developer Console (specified above). To view the Repository Browser content for a particular instance:
-
Author instances: Users with the AEM Users Product Profile for the Author instance can view the repository browser with minimal read access; the user’s permissions are respected when browsing the repository. Users with the AEM Administrators Product Profile can view the repository browser with full read access.
-
Publish instances: Users with the AEM Users Product Profile for the Publish instance can view the repository browser with minimal read access. Without that product profile set, users will navigate as an anonymous user, and some paths will not appear due to limited permissions.
For more information about setting up user permissions, see the Cloud Manager Documentation.
Launching the Repository Browser launching-the-repository-browser
The repository browser can be launched by following the steps below.
-
In Cloud Manager, click the three dots next to the environment of your choice, and select Developer Console
-
Next, click the Repository Browser tab
-
Choose any pod corresponding to author, publish, or preview by clicking the Pod drop-down list.
-
Launch the repository browser by clicking the Open Repository Browser link further down. The browser corresponding to a representative instance (pod) for the chosen tier is launched. You cannot control the specific pod for that tier that is launched.
Features features
Navigate the Hierarchy navigate-the-hierarchy
You can use the left-hand navigation pane to navigate through the content hierarchy. Clicking each folder or node reveals its children. The folder structure reflects the Sling Resource tree, which is a super-set of the JCR Node tree.
Alternatively, you can navigate directly to a path by entering it in the Path field, as shown below. This path also expands its location in the content hierarchy view on the left.
When you click a folder on the left, the Path field automatically populates with its location. This functionality is useful for copying and pasting the value for later usage.
Also, when you click a folder, the URL is dynamically modified to include the path to that folder. This functionality allows for bookmarkable URLs.
For publish, by default, the Repository Browser only shows public content, therefore certain folders like /conf or /home are not visible.
To make those locations visible, do the following.
-
Click the three dots next to the environment of your choice and select Manage Access
-
Find your publish instance, then click it
-
Create a product profile for publish administrators. In the example below, it is called DEV - AEM Administrators Publish
-
Add the appropriate users, corresponding to who should be able to navigate the publish repository browser with full access, to the new product profile
-
Wait for a few minutes, then open the AEM author console
-
Add the group corresponding to the new product profile as a member of the administrator’s group by clicking Tools - Security - Groups on author, then clicking the administrators group. Then, add the group as shown below
-
Activate the administrators and the new DEV - AEM Administrators Publish group so that they become available on publish
-
As a good security practice, remove the new DEV - AEM Administrators Publish group from the administrator’s group on author so the new group is isolated to publish
-
Upon accessing repository browser for a publish instance, all folders are visible, including
/homeand/conf.
View JCR Properties view-jcr-properties
Clicking a node reveals its JCR properties in the right-hand pane of the navigation browser. Below is an example for the experience-fragments node.
View Content view-content
You can use the repository browser to view content. Click a resource in the navigation pane so you open a preview on the right-hand side of the browser, under a tab named after the respective resource.
Preview is available for the following image types:
- apng
- avif
- gif
- jpeg
- png
- svg+xml
- webp
- bmp
- x-icon
- tiff
And for the following text-based mime-types:
"text/*"'application/javascript''application/json''application/x-sh'
Download Content download-content
You can also use the repository browser to download content. In the example below, you can press the download link to download the jcr:data associated with the selected node. This feature is available for all binary properties by navigating to the node containing the property definition.
