Using Asset Templates with AEM Assets and InDesign Server using-asset-templates-with-aem-assets-and-indesign-server
AEM Assets Template lets marketers create, manage and deliver digital assets for digital and print. Creating marking brochures, business cards, flyers, ads and post cards are much easier with Assets Templates when integrated with InDesign server.
Overview overview
This video walks through the concepts and steps for generating print-ready assets in AEM, using Adobe InDesign, Adobe InDesign Server and AEM Assets.
Technical overview technical-overview
This video provides a more technical overview of AEM Assets Assert Template functionality, and how AEM facilitates the composition of AEM Assets and contents by way of InDesign to create rich, compelling print experiences.
Asset templates in AEM 6.3 is a one-stop solution for marketers to create, manage, and deliver rich print experiences, such as brochures, flyers and banners using the power of AEM and Adobe Creative Cloud.
Let’s get started and see some of the capabilities for AEM Assets template.
Before we get started, make sure your AEM instance is up and running, and then open the AEM homepage in the browser window.
Currently, I’m logged in as a marketer.
From navigation, click on “AEM Assets”, and then select the “Templates” option. As a we.retail marketer for the upcoming winter campaign, I would like to create digital printable content like brochures, flyers, and ads that I would like to share with our outlet stores globally.
It is much easier to create different printable materials based on a specific template. This will help us create a unified customer experience over different channels.
Designers can create the winter campaign template using InDesign and then upload the template to AEM Assets for marketers to create brochures or other printable materials.
I would like to impersonate as a designer now, and upload an InDesign file that I created for the winter campaign under the AEM asset template.
Click on the “User” icon and then select the designer profile and then click “Okay”.
Click on the “Create” button and select the file upload option.
Select a we.retail template created for the winter campaign from your local machine and then click on “Upload”.
Your AEM instance should be integrated with the InDesign server for extracting data from the InDesign template and storing it in your AEM instance. Steps to integrate the InDesign server with an AEM can be found in a separate video.
Once the file is uploaded and processed, marketers can go ahead and create printable materials using this template.
Now, I’m logging back in as a marketer, and let’s create a brochure.
Click on the “Create” button and then select “Brochure”.
Select the template with InDesign recently uploaded and then click “Next”.
Provide a name for the brochure, and optionally provide a description and then click on “Create”.
You should be able to see a success message and then open the window brochure.
On the left side of the window, we have the asset finder and the text properties capability for content editing. On the right panel, we have the editable fields for customization.
Each customizable field is considered as a tag in Adobe InDesign.
Designers can mark certain objects in the InDesign file as editable or tag them, which later can be used for the marketers for editing or customization.
Click on one of the editable text fields, and you should be able to see the text properties on the left side panel.
The user can make changes to a text field by changing the color or font size. Let’s go ahead and make a change to the page one title.
Rename the existing title as Welcome Window 2017, and mark the text as board.
You can also navigate to a different page in the template by clicking on the left or right pagination arrows. This also lets you zoom in or zoom out.
We had made some changes in page one. Now, let’s move to page two and replace the existing image.
The user also has the option to replace images associated with the original template with new or more appealing images from your DAM content.
Let’s click on the asset finder and look for an image of a mountain to replace a core woman image.
Click on the selected image and drag and drop the image to the editable field. You can now notice that the editable field image icon has changed to our new image.
Let’s navigate to the next page. On page three, you can see that the editable fields has a list of images and text values.
Images in the editable fields have a missing icon. It is important to map all the images used in the template to an existing asset in AEM to be able to create a new template or preview them.
The user can search for an image under asset finder and map those images to the editable field images.
After mapping all the images, you should be able to see that the “Click to preview option” is enabled.
You second preview the template created by simply clicking on the “Preview” option. The user can preview the template by simply clicking on the “Preview” option.
Now, you should be able to see all of our changes before we complete creating the template.
Clickon “Done”, and you should be able to see an export option window. Select the PDF checkbox to create a PDF rendition for the template created and click on “Continue”.
Once a template is processed, click “Open the template” and check for different renditions available.
Click on the PDF rendition, and you should be able to download it.
Let’s open the downloaded PDF rendition to do a final preview of all our changes before we ship it to our stores globally.