Baseline folders

Transcript

A baseline folder structure is created when configuring AEM Assets in order to provide a roadmap and a clear organization to the users of AEM. This baseline folder structure typically, also defines the folders where asset configurations are applied and should be well defined up front with the help of a content architect.

To create the baseline folder structure, navigate to Assets, Files, and use the Create folder button.

When creating a folder there are a few options. The title defines the name of the folder made visible in AEM to users, and is flexible, meaning it can be changed at any time without affecting much of anything. The name is the system name of the folder, and unlike title is less flexible. Changing the folder name changes the path of the folder, and may break references to any assets or subfolders referenced therein. Ideally, folders close to the root has stable names that rarely, if ever change. Here we’re organizing our first level by the WKND brand, and then directly within, by language. We create an English folder using the locale code EN as the name. This is of particular importance as it sets us up to translate the contents of everything in this English folder to a different language using AEM’s localization tools. For example, if WKND wants to cater to a Spanish-speaking audience, a Spanish folder can be created next to the English folder, and AEM will automatically be able to manage localizations between the two for all assets under the locale folders.

In the English folder, let’s create the baseline folder organization that maps out where the various assets will live. Activities groups assets by activity, like hiking and running, and intended to be used across the website, magazine, or adventures as needed. The site contains assets that are directly used on the website such as the logos or a page-not-found imagery. Contributors contains bio pics, information about contributors to the WKND website or magazine. Magazine contains the text content for each magazine article as well as any supporting images. And lastly, Adventure contains assets for each adventure package that WKND sells. Note that the organization under each of these baseline folders will be fluid and determined by the AEM users. For example, each adventure may have its own folder that contains all of the permanent assets for that particular adventure. The orderable toggle allows users to manually reorder the contents of a folder. This tends to be most effective in root-level folders where content is minimal and you can position the most commonly used folders or assets first in the listing so, they are quickly discoverable.

Folders that are known to have many children, assets, or subfolders should not be orderable as it can result in performance issues. And from a more practical perspective, it’s actually very difficult to manually order when there are many items at play. For these cases, it’s better to use automatic ordering by metadata or simply searching.

Note that in our example we have a top overall folder of WKND, which is our brand, and then a second level folder for English, since we may want to localize our assets later. Well, this provides a clean future-forward folder organization. It also adds two clicks every time a user wants to browse for assets, first, clicking into WKND, and the second clicking into English. So, make sure to work with your content architects and business stakeholders to ensure optimal structure is in place and aligns with the current and future requirements. -