Components Overview

Last update: June 4, 2024

CREATED FOR:

  • Admin
  • Developer

This page provides an overview of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) components such as those used for page authoring.

What are Components?

  • Modular units which realize specific functionality to present your content on your website.
  • Reusable.
  • Developed as self-contained units within one folder of the repository.
  • Have no hidden configuration files.
  • They can contain other components.
  • They can run anywhere within any AEM system and can also be limited to run under specific components.
  • Have a standardized user interface.
  • Have edit behavior that can be configured.
  • Use dialog boxes that are built using subelements based on Granite UI components.
  • They are developed using HTL.
  • They can be developed to create customized components that extend the default functionality.

Because components are modular, you can:

  • Develop a new component on your local instance.
  • Deploy it to your test environment.
  • Deploy it to your live authoring environment, where they allow authors and/or administrators to add and configure content.
  • Deploy it to your live publish environments, where they are used to render content for visitors to your website.

Each AEM component:

  • Is a resource type.
  • Is a collection of scripts that completely realize a specific function.
  • Can function in isolation, meaning either within AEM or a portal.

AEM Core Components

The AEM Core Components are a set of standardized Web Content Management (WCM) components for AEM to speed up development time and reduce the maintenance cost of your websites.

The Core Components are provided with AEM as a Cloud Service and the WKND Tutorial illustrates how to implement and use components. The components are provided with all source code and can be used as is or as starting points for modified or extended components.

Viewing Available Components

For an overview of all available components in your AEM instance, use the Components Console.

Alternatively, you can also use CRXDE Lite to get a list of all the components available in the repository.

  1. In CRXDE Lite, select Tools from the toolbar, then Query, which opens the Query tab.

  2. In the Query tab, select XPath as Type.

  3. In the Query input field, enter the following string:

    //element(*, cq:Component)

  4. Click Execute and the components are listed.

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