AEM Technical Foundations aem-technical-foundations

AEM is a robust platform built upon proven, scalable, and flexible technologies. This document gives a detailed overview of the various parts that make up AEM and is intended as a technical appendix for a full-stack AEM developer. It is not intended as a getting-started guide. If you are new to AEM development, see Getting Started Developing AEM Sites - WKND Tutorial as a first step.

Fundamentals fundamentals

As a modern content management system, AEM relies on standard web technologies:

The underlying content repository and business logic layers are built around Java™ technologies:

Java™ Content Repository java-content-repository

The Java™ Content Repository (JCR) standard, JSR 283, specifies a vendor-independent and implementation-independent way to access content bi-directionally on a granular level within a content repository. The specification lead is held by Adobe Research (Switzerland) AG.

The JCR API 2.0 package, javax.jcr.* is used for the direct access and manipulation of repository content.

AEM is built upon a JCR.

Apache Jackrabbit Oak jackrabbit-oak

Apache Jackrabbit Oak is an implementation of a scalable and high-performance hierarchical content repository for use as the foundation of modern world-class web sites and other demanding content applications, conforming to the JCR standard.

Jackrabbit Oak (also referred to simply as Oak), is the implementation of the JCR standard upon which AEM is built.

Sling Request Processing sling-request-processing

AEM is built using Sling, a Web application framework based on REST principles that provides easy development of content-oriented applications. Sling uses a JCR repository, like Apache Jackrabbit Oak, as its data store. Sling has been contributed to the Apache Software Foundation - further information can be found at Apache.

Introduction to Sling introduction-to-sling

Using Sling, the type of content to be rendered is not the first processing consideration. Instead, the main consideration is whether the URL resolves to a content object for which a script can then be found to perform the rendering. This process provides excellent support for web content authors to build pages which are easily customized to their requirements.

The advantages of this flexibility are apparent in applications with a wide range of different content elements, or when you need pages that can be easily customized. In particular, when implementing a Web Content Management system such as AEM.

See Discover Sling in 15 minutes for the first steps for developing with Sling.

The following diagram explains Sling script resolution. It shows how to get from HTTP request to content node, from content node to resource type, from resource type to script and what scripting variables are available.

The following diagram explains the hidden, but powerful, request parameters that you can use with SlingPostServlet, the default handler for all POST requests. The handler gives you endless options for creating, modifying, deleting, copying, and moving nodes in the repository.

Sling is Content Centric sling-is-content-centric

Sling is content-centric. It means that processing is focused on the content as each (HTTP) request is mapped onto content in the form of a JCR resource (a repository node):

RESTful Sling restful-sling

Due to its content-centric philosophy, Sling implements a REST-oriented server and thus features a new concept in web application frameworks. The advantages are:

URL Decomposition url-decomposition

In Sling, processing is driven by the URL of the user request. It defines the content to display by the appropriate scripts and information is extracted from the URL.

Analyzing the following URL:

https://myhost/tools/spy.printable.a4.html/a/b?x=12

You can break it down into its composite parts:

From URL to Content and Scripts from-url-to-content-and-scripts

Using the principles of URL decomposition:

The following figure illustrates the mechanism used, which is discussed in more detail in the following sections.

With Sling, you specify which script renders a certain entity (by setting the sling:resourceType property in the JCR node). This mechanism offers more freedom than one in which the script accesses the data entities (as an SQL statement in a PHP script would do) as a resource can have several renditions.

Mapping Requests to Resources mapping-requests-to-resources

The request is broken down and the necessary information extracted. The repository is searched for the requested resource (content node):

Sling also allows things other than JCR nodes to be resources, but this functionality is an advanced feature.

Locating the Script locating-the-script

When the appropriate resource (content node) is located, the sling resource type is extracted. This path locates the script to use for rendering the content.

The path specified by the sling:resourceType can be either:

All Sling scripts are stored in subfolders of either /apps (mutable, user scripts) or /libs (immutable, system scripts), which is searched in this order.

A few other points to note are:

The list of script engines supported by the given instance of AEM are listed on the Felix Management Console ( http://<host>:<port>/system/console/slingscripting).

Using the previous example, if the sling:resourceType is hr/jobs then for:

If multiple scripts apply for a given request, the script with the best match is selected. The more specific a match is, the better it is; in other words, the more selector matches the better, regardless of any request extension or method name match.

For example, consider a request to access the resource

Of type

Assuming you have the following list of scripts in the correct location:

Then the order of preference would be (8) - (7) - (6) - (5) - (4) - (3) - (2) - (1).

In addition to the resource types (primarily defined by the sling:resourceType property), there is also the resource super type. This type is indicated by the sling:resourceSuperType property. These super types are also considered when trying to find a script. The advantage of resource super types is that they may form a hierarchy of resources where the default resource type sling/servlet/default (used by the default servlets) is effectively the root.

The resource super type of a resource may be defined in two ways:

For example:

The type hierarchy of:

The reason is because /y has the sling:resourceSuperType property, whereas /x does not and therefore its supertype is taken from its resource type.

Sling Scripts Cannot be Called Directly sling-scripts-cannot-be-called-directly

Within Sling, scripts cannot be called directly because it would break the strict concept of a REST server; you would mix resources and representations.

If you call the representation (the script) directly you hide the resource inside your script, so the framework (Sling) no longer knows about it. Thus you lose certain features:

Sling API sling-api

Uses the Sling API package, org.apache.sling.*, and tag libraries.

Referencing existing elements using sling:include referencing-existing-elements-using-sling-include

A final consideration is the need to reference existing elements within the scripts.

More complex scripts (aggregating scripts) access multiple resources (for example, navigation, sidebar, footer, elements of a list), and do so by including the resource.

In this case, you can use the sling:include("/<path>/<resource>") command. It effectively includes the definition of the referenced resource.

OSGi osgi

OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative) defines an architecture for developing and deploying modular applications and libraries (it is also known as the Dynamic Module System for Java™). OSGi containers allow you to break your application into individual modules (are jar files with additional meta information and called bundles in OSGi terminology) and manage the cross-dependencies between them with:

These services and contracts provide an architecture which enables individual elements to dynamically discover each other for collaboration.

An OSGi framework then offers you dynamic loading/unloading, configuration, and control of these bundles - without requiring restarts.

This architecture lets you extend Sling with application-specific modules. Sling, and therefore AEM, uses the Apache Felix implementation of OSGi. They are both collections of OSGi bundles running within an OSGi framework.

This functionality lets you perform the following actions on any of the packages within your installation:

See Configuring OSGi for AEM as a Cloud Service for more information.

Structure within the Repository structure-within-the-repository

The following list gives an overview of the structure that you see within the repository.