Authoring Content Fragments authoring-content-fragments

Authoring your Content Fragments is focused on both headless delivery and page authoring.

There are two editors available for Content Fragments. The editor described in this section:

This editor provides:

Content Fragment Editor content-fragment-editor

When you first open the Content Fragment Editor, you see four main areas:

Navigate the Content Fragment structure navigate-structure

A single Content Fragment;

Variations and Fields variations-and-fields

In the left panel you can see:

Follow Links follow-links

In various parts of the editor you can see the link icon. This can be used to open the item shown; for example, a Content Fragment Model, a Parent Reference, or a fragment being referenced:

Structure tree structure-tree

Open the Structure tree tab from the editor toolbar to show the hierarchical structure of the Content Fragment, and its references. Use the link icons to navigate to the references.

Saving and auto-saving saving-autosaving

With every update that you make, the Content Fragment is automatically saved. The last time saved is shown in the top toolbar.

Variations variations

Variations are a significant feature of AEM’s Content Fragments. They allow you to create and edit copies of the Main content for use on specific channels, and scenarios, making headless content delivery and page authoring even more flexible.

From the editor you can:

Create a Variation create-variation

To create a Variation of your Content Fragment:

Rename a Variation rename-variation

To rename a Variation:

Create variations using GenAI with Generate Variations generate-variations-ai

Use Generative Variations to leverage Generative AI to accelerate content creation.

To use the Generative Variations in the Content Fragment Editor:

See Generate Variations to learn more.

Delete a variation delete-variation

To delete a Variation of your Content Fragment:

<div class="extension note">
<div>NOTE</div>
<div>
<p>You cannot delete <strong>Main</strong>.</p>
</div>
</div>

Edit Multi line text fields - Plain text or Markdown edit-multi-line-text-fields-plaintext-markdown

Multi line text fields can have one of three formats:

Fields that are defined as either Plain Text or Markdown have a simple text box, without (on-screen) formatting options:

Edit Multi line text fields - Rich Text edit-multi-line-text-fields-rich-text

For Multi line text fields that are defined as Rich Text, various features are available:

For example:

Full-screen editor - Rich Text full-screen-editor-rich-text

The full-screen editor offers the same editing options as when in-flow - but offers more space for the text.

For example:

Statistics - Rich Text statistics-rich-text

The action Statistics displays a range of information about the text in a Multi line field.

For example:

Compare and Synchronize - Rich Text compare-and-synchronize-rich-text

The action Compare is available for Multi line fields when you have a Variation open.

This opens the Multi line field in full-screen and:

For example, a scenario where the variation content had been completely rewritten, so a synchronization will replace that new content with the content from Main:

Manage References manage-references

Fragment References fragment-references

Fragment References can be used to:

Create a reference to an existing Content Fragment create-reference-existing-content-fragment

To create a reference to an existing Content Fragment:

Create a Content Fragment, and reference create-reference-content-fragment

Alternatively you can select Create new fragment to open the Create dialog. Once created, this fragment will be referenced.

Content References content-references

Content References are used to reference other AEM content types, such as images, pages, and Experience Fragments.

Reference Images reference-images

In Content Reference fields you can both:

To add an asset, you can either:

Reference Pages reference-pages

To add references to AEM pages, Experience Fragments, or other such content types:

View Parent References view-parent-references

Selecting the link icon in the top toolbar opens a list of all parent references.

For example:

A window opens, listing all related references. To open a reference, select the name or title, or the link icon.

For example:

View Properties, and Tags view-properties-tags

In the properties tab of the right panel, properties (metadata) and tags can be viewed. The properties can be either:

Edit Properties and Tags edit-properties-tags

In the properties tab (right panel) you can also edit:

Open the Content Fragment Model open-content-fragment-model

When you have Main selected, the name of the underlying Content Fragment Model is shown in the properties section. Selecting the link icon, opens the model in a separate tab.

For example:

View the Version History view-version-history

In the Version history tab of the right panel, details of the current, and previous, versions are shown:

Compare Version compare-version

For a content fragment you can compare a previous version against the current version.

To compare a previous version to the current:

This opens up a view that displays differences between the current version of the content, and the selected previous version of the content fragment. From the Variations with changes drop-down, you can select to see differences from the Main content and/or content from a Variation.

Differences are indicated by color:

Revert to a Version revert-version

You can revert to any version.

To revert to a specific version:

View the Language Copies view-language-copies

In the Language properties tab details of any related language copies are shown. Selecting a link icon, opens the copy in a separate tab.

For example:

Preview your Fragment preview-content-fragment

The Content Fragment editor provides authors with the option to preview their edits in an external frontend application.

To use this feature, you first need to:

When the URL has been defined, the Preview button is active. You can select this button to launch the external application (in a separate tab) to render the Content Fragment.

Publish your Fragment publish-content-fragment

You can Publish your fragment to either your:

You can publish your fragment from either the editor, or the console. See Publishing and Previewing a Fragment for full details.

Unpublish your Fragment unpublish-content-fragment

You can also Unpublish your fragment from either your:

You can unpublish your fragment from either the editor, or the console. See Unpublishing a fragment for full details.

Fields, Data Types and Icons fields-datatypes-icons

The Fields panel lists all fields within the Content Fragment. The icon indicates the Data Type:

Single line text

Multi line text

Number

Boolean

Date and time

Enumeration

Tags

Content Reference

Fragment Reference

JSON Object

Tab Placeholder

Although not represented by an actual icon, a Tab Placeholder is represented in the left panel.
It is also represented in the central panel, either horizontally as shown, or in a drop-down list (when there are too many to show horizontally).

Good to know good-to-know