AEM as Cloud Service Project Structure

This article is continuation of Project Structure – 1, it details mainly about POM changes for Cloud Service compatible project.

We already know /apps & /libs are considered immutable areas which cannot be changed at runtime & rest are all considered as mutable areas which can be changed at runtime.

Package Types

In AEM as Cloud Service,

Packages are marked with declared “packageType” for identification during deployment time. They are as below.

SI No.	Package Type (packageType)	Description
1.	container	Acts as container. Must not directly contain OSGI bundles or configs.
2.	application	Code (Immutable) packages.
3.	Content	Content (Mutable) packages.

As container package “all” is the singular deployment artifact that contains all the code & content packages, there must be an attribute which identifies only this package to be deployed. To ensure this, in “FileVault Content Package Maven Plug-In” below configuration needs to be set for those packages which are not targeted for deployment e.g. apps, ui.config, ui.content etc. as these are not target for deployment. This configuration property should not be set in “all” package.

<properties><cloudManagerTarget>none</cloudManageTarget></properties>

NOTE: – There are two ways to ensure this configuration is set properly or not which is very important to make sure deployment artifacts are identified successfully.

Post compilation of modules verify below mentioned entry is present in <module>/target/vault-work/META-INF/vault/properties.xml

<entry key=”cloudManagerTarget”>none</entry>

Download “Build & Unit Testing” logs post completion of the step from Cloud Manager & at the end of the logs look for “The following artifacts considered were discovered:” which has two categories
- content-package – Cloud Target which should be “all”
- skipped-content-package – Non-Cloud Targets.

Code Package & OSGI Bundles

Application package contains all the application code.
It’s packageType is “application”.
It is not targeted for cloud manager deployment & hence cloudManagerTarget should be set to “none”.

SI No.	Module	Scope	Purpose
1.	core	/src/main/java/<project>	Bundle Jar
2.	ui.apps	/apps/<project>/components	Components
		/apps/<project>/pages	Page Components
		/apps/<project>/templates	Templates
		/apps/<project>/clientlibs	JS/CSS ClientLibs
		/apps/cq, /apps/dam etc.	Overlays
		/apps/settings	Context Aware Configs
		/apps/rep:policy	ACLs
		oak:index	Oak Index Configs
3.	ui.config	/apps/<project>/osgiconfig/<runmode>	Run Modes

Content Packages

Content package contains all the content & configurations.
It’s packageType is “content”.
It is not targeted for cloud manager deployment & hence cloudManagerTarget should be set to “none”.

SI No.	Module	Scope	Purpose
1.	ui.content	/conf	Context Aware Configs
		/content	Required Content Structures
		/content/dam	Required DAM Assets
		/content/cq:tags	Tagging Taxonomy
		/etc	Legacy etc nodes

Container Packages

Container package contains ONLY includes deployable artifacts, the OSGI bundle Jar file & packages such as ui.apps, ui.config, ui.content as embeds.
The “all” package must not have any content or code of its own.
Packages are included using FileVault Content Package Maven Plug-In Embed Configs
It’s packageType is “container”.
It is cloud manager target & hence cloudManagerTarget need not be set.
To target AEM Author, Publish or Both, the packages are embedded in “all” container package in a special folder, in the below format.

/apps/<app-name>-packages/(content|application|container)/install(.author|.publish)?

Where,

/apps – 1^st Level must be application folder.
/<app-name>-packages – 2^nd Level typically project name followed by -packages. There can be third party folders as well e.g. either /apps/my-project-packages or /apps/vendor-packages.
/packageType – 3^rd Level is package type which can be
- content – Content packages are grouped here.
- application – Application packages are grouped here.
- container – Container packages. Usually 3^rd party vendor packages are grouped here.
/install – 4^th Level can be used to target specific environments or generally deploy to all environments.
- /install.author – Install the packages to all author environments.
- /install.publish – Install the packages to all publish environments.
- /install – Install the packages on both environments.
As code & content packages are embedded in the “all” container package, the embedded target paths must be added to the “filter.xml” Example as below.

<filter root=”/apps/<app-name>-packages”/>

Container package can be represented as below.

AEM as Cloud Service Container Package (Courtesy: Adobe)

Repository Structure Package

As explained in the previous article, Repository Structure Package is a simple module which only contains a POM file but is a must as application package roots are defined here. As this is required for code packages, it’s packageType is “application”.
Code packages require configuring “FileVault Content Package Maven Plug-In” configuration to reference a <repositoryStructurePackage> that enforces the correctness of structural dependencies.

POM XML Snippet

Code/Content Package

<group>${project.groupId}</group>

<name>project.ui.apps or project.ui.config or project.ui.content</name>

<packageType>application or content</packageType>

<accessControlHandling>merge</accessControlHandling>

</properties>

</configuration>

Repository Project Structure

Filter Definitions

</properties>

…….

</filters>

</configuration>

Referencing Repository Structure

<!– Understanding Purpose, please go through link provide in reference section for details –>

<groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>

<artifactId>ui.apps.structure</artifactId>

<version>${project.version}</version>

</repositoryStructurePackage>

</repositoryStructurePackages>

</configuration>

Container Package

<!– Understanding Purpose, please go through link provide in reference section for details –>

<groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>

<artifactId>my-app.core or my-app.ui.apps or my-app.ui.config</artifactId>

<target>/apps/my-app-packages/application/install</target>

</embedded>

<groupId>${project.groupId}</groupId>

<artifactId>my-app.ui.content</artifactId>

<target>/apps/my-app-packages/content/install</target>

</embedded>

</configuration>

References

AEM as Cloud Service Project Structure – 2

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