How to Create a Fully Featured Internet Website

You are reading the AEM 5.6 version of How to Create a Fully Featured Internet Website.
This documentation is also available for the following versions: CQ 5.5 CQ 5.4 CQ 5.3

This tutorial enables you to create a fully featured website with AEM. The website will be based on a generic website and is targeted primarily at web developers. All development will take place within an author environment.

This tutorial describes how to:

Install AEM.
Access CRXDE Lite (the development environment).
Set up the project structure in CRXDE Lite.
Create the template, component, and scripts used as the basis for creating content pages.
Create the root page for your website and then content pages.
Create the following components for use on your pages:
- Top Navigation
- List Children
- Logo
- Image
- Text-Image
- Search
Include various foundation components.

After performing all the steps, your pages will look as follows:

Download the final result

To follow along with the tutorial rather than performing the exercises, download website-1.0.zip. This file is an AEM content package that contains the results of this tutorial. Use Package Manager to install the package to your author instance.

NOTE: Installing this package will overwrite any resources on your authoring instance that you have created using this tutorial.

website-1.0.zip
Website content package

Installing AEM

To install an AEM 5.6 instance for developing your website, follow the instructions for setting up a deployment environment with author and publish instances, or perform a generic installation. The generic installation involves downloading the AEM Quickstart JAR file, placing the license.properties file in the same directory as the JAR file, and double-clicking the JAR file.

After you have installed AEM, access the CRXDE Lite development environment by clicking the CRXDE Lite link on the Welcome page:

Note

The URL of CRXDE Lite for an AEM authoring instance that is installed locally using the default port is http://localhost:4502/crx/de/.

Setting up the project structure in CRXDE Lite

Use CRXDE Lite to create the mywebsite application structure in the repository:

In the tree on the left side of CRXDE Lite, right-click the /apps folder and click Create > Create Folder. In the Create Folder dialog, type mywebsite as the folder name and click OK.

Right-click the /apps/mywebsite folder and click Create > Create Folder. In the Create Folder dialog, type components as the folder name and click OK.

Right-click the /apps/mywebsite folder and click Create > Create Folder. In the Create Folder dialog, type templates as the folder name and click OK.

The structure in the tree should now look something like this:

Click Save All.

Setting up the Design

In this section, you create the design for your application using the Designer tool. The design provides CSS and image resources for your web site.

Note

Click the following link to download mywebsite.zip. The archive contains the static.css and image files for your design.

mywebsite.zip
Sample static.css file and images

On the AEM Welcome page, click Tools. (http://localhost:4502/libs/cq/core/content/welcome.html)

In the folder tree, select the Designs folder and then click New > New Page. Type mywebsite as the title and click Create.

If the mywebsite item does not appear in the table, refresh the tree or the table.

Using WebDAV access to the URL at http://localhost:4502, copy the sample static.css file and images folder from the downloaded mywebsite.zip file into the /etc/designs/mywebsite folder.

Creating the Contentpage Template, Component and Script

In this section, you create the following:

The contentpage template that will be used to create content pages in the example website
The contentpage component that will be used to render pages of content
The contentpage script

Creating the Contentpage Template

Create a template to use as the basis of the web pages of your site.

A template defines the default content of a new page. Complex websites may use several templates for creating the different types of pages in the site. In this exercise, all pages are based on one simple template.

In the folder tree of CRXDE Lite, right-click /apps/mywebsite/templates and click Create > Create Template.

In the Create Template dialog, type the following values and then click Next:

Label: contentpage
Title: My Website Content Page Template
Description: This is my Website Content Page Template
Resource Type: mywebsite/components/contentpage

Use the default value for the Ranking property.

The resource type identifies the component that renders the page. In this case, all pages created using the contentpage template are rendered by the mywebsite/components/contentpage component.

To specify the paths of the pages that can use this template, click the plus button and type /content(/.*)? in the text box that appears. Then, click Next.

The value of the allowed path property is a regular expression. Pages that have a path that matches the expression can use the template. In this is case the regular expression matches the path of the /content folder and all subpages.

When an author creates a page below /content, the contentpage template appears in a list of available templates to use.

Click Next in the Allowed Parents and Allowed Children panels and click OK. In CRXDE Lite, click Save All.

Creating the Contentpage Component

Create the component that defines the content and renders the pages that use the contentpage template. The location of the component must correspond with the value of the Resource Type property of the contentpage template.

In CRXDE Lite, right-click /apps/mywebsite/components and click Create > Component.

In the Create Component dialog, type the following property values:

Label: contentpage
Title: My Website Content Page Component
Description: This is My Website Content Page Component

The location of the new component is /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage. This path corresponds with the resource type of the contentpage template (minus the initial /apps/ part of the path).

This correspondence connects the template to the component and is critical to the correct functioning of the website.

Click Next until the Allowed Children panel of the dialog appears, and then click OK. In CRXDE Lite, click Save All.

The structure now looks as follows:

Developing the Contentpage Component Script

Add code to the contentpage.jsp script to define the page content.

In CRXDE Lite, open the file contentpage.jsp in /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage. The file contains the following code by default:

<%--

  My Website Content Page Component component.

  This is My Website Content Page Component.

--%><%
%><%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><%@page session="false" %><%
%><%
    /* TODO add you code here */
%>

Copy the following code and paste it in contentpage.jsp after the default code:

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
    pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>My title</title>
</head>
<body>
<div>My body</div>
</body>
</html>

Click Save All to save your changes.

Creating your Website Page and Content Pages

In this section, you create the following pages which all use the contentpage template: My Website, English, Products, Services, and Customers.

On the AEM Welcome page (http://localhost:4502/libs/cq/core/content/welcome.html), click Websites.

In the folder tree, select the Websites folder and then click New > New Page.

In the Create Page window, enter the following:

Title: My Website
Name: mywebsite
Select the My Website Content Page Template

Click Create. In the folder tree, select the /Websites/My Website page and click New > New Page.

In the Create Page dialog, enter the following property values and then click Create:

Title: English
Name: en
Select the My Website Content Page Template

In the folder tree, select the /Websites/My Website/English page and click New > New Page.

In the Create Page dialog, enter the following property values and then click Create:

Title: Products
Select the My Website Content Page Template

In the folder tree, select the /Websites/My Website/English page and click New > New Page.

In the Create Page dialog, enter the following property values and then click Create:

Title: Services
Select the My Website Content Page Template

In the folder tree, select the /Websites/My Website/English page and click New > New Page.

In the Create Page dialog, enter the following property values and then click Create:

Title: Customers
Select the My Website Content Page Template

Your structure looks as follows:

To link your pages to the mywebsite design, in CRXDE Lite, select the /content/mywebsite/en/jcr:content node. On the Properties tab, type the following values for a new property and then click Add:

Name: cq:designPath
Type: String
Value: /etc/designs/mywebsite

In a new wb browser tab or window, open http://localhost:4502/content/mywebsite/en/products.html to see the Products page:

Enhancing the Contentpage Script

This section describes how to enhance the contentpage script using the AEM foundation componenent scripts and by writing your own scripts.

The Products page will look as follows:

Using the Foundation Page Scripts

In this exercise, you configure your pagecontent component so that its supertype is the AEM Page component. Because components inherit the features of their supertype, your pagecontent inherits the scripts and properties of the Page component.

For example, in your component JSP code, you can reference the scripts that the supertype component provides as though they are included in your component.

In CRXDE Lite, add a property to the /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage node.

Select the /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage node.
At the bottom of the Properties tab, type the following property values and then click Add:
- Name: sling:resourceSuperType
- Type: String
- Value: foundation/components/page
Click Save All.

Open the contentpage.jsp file under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage and replace the existing code with the following code:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><%@page session="false" contentType="text/html; charset=utf-8" %><%
%><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<cq:include script="head.jsp"/>
<cq:include script="body.jsp"/>
</html>

Save your changes.

In your browser, reload the Products page. It looks as follows:

Open the page source to see the javascript and HTML elements that the head.jsp and body.jsp scripts generated. The following script snippet opens Sidekick when you open the page:

CQ.WCM.launchSidekick("/content/mywebsite/en/products",
            {propsDialog: "/libs/foundation/components/page/dialog",
               locked: false locked: false
             });

Using your own scripts

In this section you create several scripts that each generate a part of the page body. You then create the body.jsp file in the pagecontent component to override the body.jsp of the AEM Page component. In your body.jsp file, you include your scripts that generate the different parts of the page body.

Tip: When a component includes a file that has the same name and relative location as a file in the component's supertype, it is called overlaying.

In CRXDE Lite, create the file left.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage:

Right-click the node /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage, then select Create then Create File.
In the window, type left.jsp as the Name and click OK.

Edit the file left.jsp to remove the existing content and replace with the following code:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><div class="left">
<div>logo</div>
<div>newslist</div>
<div>search</div>
</div>

Save the changes.

In CRXDE Lite, create the file center.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage:

Right-click the node /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage, select Create, then Create File.
In the dialog box, type center.jsp as Name and click OK.

Edit the file center.jsp to remove the existing content and replace it with the following code:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><div class="center">
<div>trail</div>
<div>title</div>
<div>parsys</div>
</div>

Save the changes.

In CRXDE Lite, create the file right.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage:

Right-click the node /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage, select Create, then Create File.
In the dialog box, type right.jsp as Name and click OK.

Edit the file right.jsp to remove the existing content and replace with the following code:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><div class="right">
<div>iparsys</div>
</div>

Save the changes.

In CRXDE Lite, create the file body.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage:

Edit the file body.jsp to remove the existing content and replace with the following code:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><body>
<div id="CQ">
<div class="topnav">topnav</div>
<div class="content">
<cq:include script="left.jsp" />
<cq:include script="center.jsp" />
<cq:include script="right.jsp" />
</div>
<div class="footer">
<div class="toolbar">toolbar</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>

Save the changes.

In your browser, reload the Products page. It looks as follows:

Creating the Top Navigation Component

In this section, you create a component that displays links to all top level pages of the website as to ease navigation. This component content appears at the top of all pages that are created using the contentpage template.

In the first version of the top navigation component (topnav) the navigation items are text links only. In the second version you implement topnav with image navigation links.

Your top navigation will look as follows:

Creating the Top Navigation Component

In CRXDE Lite, right-click /apps/mywebsite/components, select Create, then Create Component.

In the Create Component window, enter the following:

Label: topnav
Title: My Top Navigation Component
Description: This is My Top Navigation Component

Click Next until you come to the last window where you click OK. Save your changes.

Creating the Top Navigation Script with Textual Links

Add the rendering script to topnav to generate text links to child pages:

In CRXDE Lite, open the file topnav.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/topnav.

Replace the code that is there by copying and pasting the following code:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><% 
%><%@ page import="java.util.Iterator,
        com.day.text.Text, 
        com.day.cq.wcm.api.PageFilter, com.day.cq.wcm.api.Page" %><% 
    /* get starting point of navigation */
    Page navRootPage = currentPage.getAbsoluteParent(2); 
    if (navRootPage == null && currentPage != null) { 
    navRootPage = currentPage; 
    }
    if (navRootPage != null) { 
        Iterator<Page> children = navRootPage.listChildren(new PageFilter(request));
        while (children.hasNext()) { 
            Page child = children.next(); 
            %><a href="<%= child.getPath() %>.html"><%=child.getTitle() %></a><% 
        } 
    } 
%>

Including Top Navigation in the Contentpage Component

To include topnav in your contentpage component:

In CRXDE Lite, open the body.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage and replace:

<div class="topnav">topnav</div>

with:

<cq:include path="topnav" resourceType="mywebsite/components/topnav" />

Save the changes.

In your browser, reload the Products Page. The top navigation appears as follows:

Enhancing Pages with Subtitles

The Page component defines properties that enable you to provide subtitles for pages. Add subtitles that provide information about the page content.

In your browser, open the Products page.

On the Sidekick Page tab, click Page Properties.

On the Basic tab of the dialog, expand More Titles and Description, and for the Subtitle property, type what we do. Click OK.

Repeat the previous steps to add the subtitle about our services to the Services page.

Repeat the previous steps to add the subtitle the trust we earn to the Customers page.

Tip: In CRXDE Lite, select the /content/mywebsite/en/products/jcr:content node to see that the subtitle property is added.

Enhance Top Navigation by Using Image Links

Enhance the rendering script of the topnav component to use image links instead of hypertext for the navigation controls. The image includes the title and subtitle of the link target.

This exercise demonstrates Sling request processing. The topnav.jsp script is modified to call a script that dynamically generates images to use for the page navigation links. In this exercise, Sling parses the URL of image source files to determine the script to use to render the images.

For example, the source for the image link to the Products page could be http://localhost:4502/content/mywebsite/en/products.navimage.png. Sling parses this URL to determine the resource type and the script to use to render the resource:

Sling determines the path of the resource to be /content/mwebysite/en/products.png.
Sling matches this path with the /content/mywebsite/en/products node.
Sling determines the sling:resourceType of this node to be mywebsite/components/contentpage.
Sling finds the script in this component that best matches the URL selector (navimage) and file name extension (png).

In this exercise, Sling matches these URLs to the /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage/navimage.png.java script that you create.

In CRXDE Lite, open the topnav.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/topnav. Locate the content of the anchor element (line 14):

<%=child.getTitle() %>

Replace the anchor content with the following code:

<img alt="<%= child.getTitle() %>" src="<%= child.getPath() %>.navimage.png">

Save the changes.

Right-click the /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage node and click Create > Create File.

In the Create File window, as Name, type navimage.png.java.

The .java file name extension indicates to Sling that the Apache Sling Scripting Java Support should be used to compile the script and create a servlet.

Copy the following code into navimage.png.java. The code extends the AbstractImageServlet class:

AbstractImageServlet creates an ImageContext object that stores the properties of the current resource.
The parent page of the resource is extracted from the ImageContext object. The page title and subtitle are then obtained.
ImageHelper is used to generate the image from the navimage_bg.jpg file of the site design, the page title, and the page subtitle.

package apps.mywebsite.components.contentpage;

import java.awt.Color; 
import java.awt.Paint; 
import java.awt.geom.Rectangle2D; 

import java.io.IOException;  
import javax.jcr.RepositoryException; 
 
import com.day.cq.wcm.api.Page; 
import com.day.cq.wcm.api.PageManager; 
import com.day.cq.wcm.api.components.Component; 
import com.day.cq.wcm.api.designer.Designer;

import com.day.cq.commons.SlingRepositoryException; 
import com.day.cq.wcm.commons.WCMUtils; 
import com.day.cq.wcm.commons.AbstractImageServlet; 
import com.day.cq.commons.ImageHelper; 

import com.day.image.Font; 
import com.day.image.Layer; 

import org.apache.sling.api.SlingHttpServletRequest; 
import org.apache.sling.api.SlingHttpServletResponse; 
import org.apache.sling.api.resource.Resource; 
import org.apache.sling.api.servlets.SlingSafeMethodsServlet; 

/**
  * Renders the navigation image
  */ 
public class navimage_png extends AbstractImageServlet {

      protected Layer createLayer(ImageContext ctx)
             throws RepositoryException, IOException {
         PageManager pageManager = ctx.resolver.adaptTo(PageManager.class);
         Page currentPage = pageManager.getContainingPage(ctx.resource);

         /* constants for image appearance */
         int scale = 6;
         int paddingX = 24;
         int paddingY = 24;
         Color bgColor = new Color(0x004a565c, true);
         
         /* obtain the page title */
         String title = currentPage.getTitle();
         if (title == null) {
             title = currentPage.getName();
         }
         
         /* format the title text */
         title = title.toUpperCase();
         Paint titleColor = Color.WHITE;
         Font titleFont = new Font("Myriad Pro", 10 * scale, Font.BOLD);
         int titleBase = 10 * scale;

         /* obtain and format the page subtitle */
         String subtitle = currentPage.getProperties().get("subtitle", "");
         Paint subtitleColor = new Color(0xffa9afb1, true);
         Font subTitleFont = new Font("Tahoma", 7);
         int subTitleBase = 20;

         /* create a layer that contains the background image from the mywebsite design */
         Designer dg = ctx.resolver.adaptTo(Designer.class);
         String imgPath = new String(dg.getDesignPath(currentPage)+"/images/navimage_bg.jpg");
         Layer bg = ImageHelper.createLayer(ctx.resolver.resolve(imgPath));

         /* draw the title text (4 times bigger) */
         Rectangle2D titleExtent = titleFont.getTextExtent(0, 0, 0, 0, title, Font.ALIGN_LEFT, 0, 0);
         Rectangle2D subtitleExtent = subTitleFont.getTextExtent(0, 0, 0, 0, subtitle, Font.ALIGN_LEFT, 0, 0);

         /* ensure subtitleExtent is wide enough */
         if ( subtitle.length() > 0 ) {
             int titleWidth = (int)titleExtent.getWidth() / scale;
             if ( subtitleExtent.getWidth() > titleWidth && subtitleExtent.getWidth() + 2 * paddingX >
 bg.getWidth() ) {
                 int charWidth = (int)subtitleExtent.getWidth() / subtitle.length();
                 int maxWidth = (bg.getWidth() > titleWidth + 2  * paddingX ? bg.getWidth() - 2 * paddingX : titleWidth);
                 int len = (maxWidth - ( 2 * charWidth) ) / charWidth;
                 subtitle = subtitle.substring(0, len) + "...";
                 subtitleExtent = subTitleFont.getTextExtent(0, 0, 0, 0, subtitle, Font.ALIGN_LEFT, 0, 0);
             }
         }
         int width = Math.max((int) titleExtent.getWidth(), (int) subtitleExtent.getWidth());
        /* create the text layer */
         Layer text = new Layer(width, (int) titleExtent.getHeight() + 40, new Color(0x01ffffff, true));
         text.setPaint(titleColor);
         text.drawText(0, titleBase, 0, 0, title, titleFont, Font.ALIGN_LEFT | Font.ALIGN_BASE, 0, 0);
         text.resize(text.getWidth() / scale, text.getHeight() / scale);
         text.setX(0);
         text.setY(0);

         if (subtitle.length() > 0) {
             /* draw the subtitle normal sized */
             text.setPaint(subtitleColor);
             text.drawText(0, subTitleBase, 0, 0, subtitle, subTitleFont, Font.ALIGN_LEFT | Font.ALIGN_BASE, 0, 0); 
         }

         /* merge the image and text layers */
         text.setY(paddingY);
         text.setX(paddingX);
         text.setBackgroundColor(bgColor);

         int bgWidth = bg.getWidth();
         if ( text.getWidth() + 2 * paddingX > bgWidth ) {
             bgWidth = text.getWidth() + 2 * paddingX;
             bg.resize(bgWidth, bg.getHeight());
         }
         bg.merge(text);

         return bg;
     }
 }

Save the changes.

In your browser, reload the Products page. The top navigation now appears as follows:

Creating the List Children Component

Create the listchildren component that generates a list of page links that include the title, description, and date of pages (for example, product pages). The links target the child pages of the current page, or of a root page that is specified in the component dialog.

Creating Product Pages

Create two pages located below the Products page. For each page, which describe two specific products, you set a title, a description, and a date.

In the folder tree of the Websites page, select the Websites/My Website/English/Products item and click New > New Page.

In the dialog enter the following property values and then click Create:

Title: Product 1.
Name: product1.
Select My Website Content Page Template

Create another page below Products using the following property values:

Title: Product 2
Name: product2
Select My Website Content Page Template

In CRXDE Lite, set a description and a date for the Product 1 page:

Select the /content/mywebsite/en/products/product1/jcr:content node.
In the Properties tab, enter the following values:
- Name: jcr:description
- Type: String
- Value: This is a description of the Product 1!.
Click Add.
In the Properties tab, create another property using the following values:
- Name: date
- Type: String
- Value: 02/14/2008
- Click Add.
Click Save All.

In CRXDE Lite, set a description and a date for the Product 2 page:

Select the /content/mywebsite/en/products/product2/jcr:content node.
In the Properties tab, enter the following values:
- Name: jcr:description
- Type: String
- Value: This is a description of the Product 2!.
Click Add.
In the same text boxes, replace the previous values with the following values:
- Name: date
- Type: String
- Value: 05/11/2012
- Click Add.
Click Save All.

Creating the List Children Component

To create the listchildren component:

In CRXDE Lite, right-click /apps/mywebsite/components, select Create, then Create Component.

In the dialog enter the following property values and then click Next:

Label: listchildren.
Title: My Listchildren Component.
Description: This is My Listchildren Component.

Continue clicking Next until the Allowed Children panel appears, and then click OK.

Creating the List Children Script

Develop the script for the listchildren component.

In CRXDE Lite, open the file listchildren.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/listchildren.

Replace the default code with the following code:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><%@ page import="java.util.Iterator,
         com.day.cq.wcm.api.PageFilter"%><%
     /* Create a new Page object using the path of the current page */    
      String listroot = properties.get("listroot", currentPage.getPath());
     Page rootPage = pageManager.getPage(listroot);
     /* iterate through the child pages and gather properties */
     if (rootPage != null) {
         Iterator<Page> children = rootPage.listChildren(new PageFilter(request));
         while (children.hasNext()) {
             Page child = children.next();
             String title = child.getTitle() == null ? child.getName() : child.getTitle();
             String date = child.getProperties().get("date","");
             %><div class="item">
             <a href="<%= child.getPath() %>.html"><b><%= title %></b></a>
             <span><%= date %></span><br>
             <%= child.getProperties().get("jcr:description","") %><br>
             </div><%
         }
     }
 %>

Save the changes.

Creating the List Children Dialog

Create the dialog that is used to configure the listchildren component properties.

Create the dialog node under the listchildren component:

In CRXDE Lite, right-click the /apps/mywebsite/components/listchildren node and click Create > Create Dialog.
In the dialog, enter the following property values and click OK
- Label: dialog
- Title: Edit Component and click OK.

With the following properties:

Select the /apps/mywebsite/components/listchildren/dialog/items/items/tab1 node.

In the Properties tab, change the value of the title property to List Children

Select the tab1 node and click Create > Create Node, enter the following property values, and click OK:

Name: items
Type: cq:WidgetCollection

Create a node below the items node using the following property values:

Name: listroot
Type: cq:Widget

Add properties for the listroot node to configure it as a text field. Each row in the following table represents a property. When finished, click Save All.

Name	Type	Value
fieldLabel	String	Path of list root
name	String	./listroot
xtype	String	textfield

Including List Children in the Contentpage Component

In order to include the listchildren component in your contentpage component, proceed as follows:

In CRXDE Lite, open the file left.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage and locate the following code (line 4):

<div>newslist</div>

Replace that code with the following code:

<cq:include path="newslist" resourceType="mywebsite/components/listchildren" />

Save the changes.

Viewing List Children in a Page

To see the full operation of this component you can view the Products page:

when the parent page ("Path of list root") is not defined.
when the parent page ("Path of list root") is defined.

In your browser, reload the Products Page. The listchildren component appears as follows:

As Path of list root, enter: /content/mywebsite/en. Click OK. The listchildren component on your page now looks as follows:

Creating the Logo Component

Create a component that displays the company logo and provides a link to the home page of the site. The component contains a design-mode dialog so that property values are stored in the site design (/etc/designs/mywebsite):

The property values apply to all instances of the component that are added to pages that use the design.
The properties can be configured using any instance of the component that is on a page that uses the design.

Your design-mode dialog contains properties for setting the image and the link path. The logo component will be placed on the upper left side of all pages in the website.

It will look as follows:

Note: AEM provides a more full-featured logo component (/libs/foundation/components/logo).

Creating the Logo Component Node

To create the logo component, follow the steps:

In CRXDE Lite, right-click /apps/mywebsite/components, select Create, then Create Component.

In the Create Component dialog enter the following property values and then click Next:

Label: logo.
Title: My Logo Component.
Description: This is My Logo Component.

Click Next until you reach the final panel of the dialog and then click OK.

Creating the Logo Script

This section describes how to create the script to display the logo image with a link to the homepage.

In CRXDE Lite, open the file logo.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/logo.

The following code creates the link to the site home page and adds a reference to the logo image. Copy the code to logo.jsp:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><%@ page import="com.day.text.Text,
                   com.day.cq.wcm.foundation.Image,
                   com.day.cq.commons.Doctype" %><%
    /* obtain the path for home */
    long absParent = currentStyle.get("absParent", 2L);
    String home = Text.getAbsoluteParent(currentPage.getPath(), (int) absParent);
    /* obtain the image */
    Resource res = currentStyle.getDefiningResource("imageReference");
    if (res == null) {
        res = currentStyle.getDefiningResource("image");
    }
    /* if no image use text link, otherwise draw the image */
    %>
<a href="<%= home %>.html"><%
    if (res == null) {
        %>Home<%
    } else {
        Image img = new Image(res);
        img.setItemName(Image.NN_FILE, "image");
        img.setItemName(Image.PN_REFERENCE, "imageReference");
        img.setSelector("img");
        img.setDoctype(Doctype.fromRequest(request));
        img.setAlt("Home");
        img.draw(out);
    }
    %></a>

Save the changes.

Creating the Logo Design Dialog

Create the dialog for configuring your logo component in Design mode. Design-mode dialog nodes must be named design_dialog.

Create the dialog node under the logo component:

Right-click the /apps/mywebsite/components/logo node and click Create > Create Dialog.
Type the following property values and then click OK:
- Label: design_dialog
- Title: Logo (Design)

Right-click the tab1 node in the design_dialog branch and click Delete. Click Save All.

Under the design_dialog/items/items node, create a new node named img of type cq:Widget. Add the following properties and then click Save All:

Name	Type	Value
fileNameParameter	String	./imageName
fileReferenceParameter	String	./imageReference
name	String	./image
title	String	Image
xtype	String	html5smartimage

Creating the logo render script

Create the script that retrieves the logo image and writes it to the page.

Right-clck the logo component node and click Create > Create File to create the script file named img.GET.java.
Open the file, copy the following code into the file, and then click Save All:

package apps.mywebsite.components.logo;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;

import javax.jcr.RepositoryException;
import javax.jcr.Property;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import com.day.cq.wcm.foundation.Image;
import com.day.cq.wcm.commons.RequestHelper;
import com.day.cq.wcm.commons.WCMUtils;
import com.day.cq.wcm.commons.AbstractImageServlet;
import com.day.cq.commons.SlingRepositoryException;
import com.day.image.Layer;
import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
import org.apache.sling.api.SlingHttpServletRequest;
import org.apache.sling.api.SlingHttpServletResponse;
import org.apache.sling.api.resource.Resource;
import org.apache.sling.api.resource.ValueMap;
import org.apache.sling.api.servlets.SlingSafeMethodsServlet;

/**
 * Renders an image
 */
public class img_GET extends AbstractImageServlet {

    protected Layer createLayer(ImageContext c)
            throws RepositoryException, IOException {
        /* don't create the layer yet. handle everything later */
        return null;
    }

    protected void writeLayer(SlingHttpServletRequest req,
                              SlingHttpServletResponse resp,
                              ImageContext c, Layer layer)
            throws IOException, RepositoryException {

        Image image = new Image(c.resource);
        image.setItemName(Image.NN_FILE, "image");
        image.setItemName(Image.PN_REFERENCE, "imageReference");
        if (!image.hasContent()) {
            resp.sendError(HttpServletResponse.SC_NOT_FOUND);
            return;
        }
        /* get pure layer */
        layer = image.getLayer(false, false, false);

        /* do not re-encode layer, just spool */
        Property data = image.getData();
        InputStream in = data.getStream();
        resp.setContentLength((int) data.getLength());
        String contentType = image.getMimeType();
        if (contentType.equals("application/octet-stream")) {
            contentType=c.requestImageType;
        }
        resp.setContentType(contentType);
        IOUtils.copy(in, resp.getOutputStream());
        in.close();
      
        resp.flushBuffer();
    }
}

Adding the Logo Component to the Contentpage Component

In CRXDE Lite, open the left.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage file
and locate the following line of code:

<div>logo</div>

Replace that code with the following line of code:

<cq:include path="logo" resourceType="mywebsite/components/logo" />

Save the changes.

In your browser, reload the Products page. The logo looks as follows, though currently it only shows the underlying link:

Setting the Logo Image in a Page

This section describes how to set an image as your logo using the design mode dialog.

With the Products page open in your browser, click the Design button at the bottom of Sidekick to enter design mode.

In the Design of logo bar, click Edit to use the dialog to edit the settings for the logo component.

In the dialog, click in the panel of the Image tab, browse for the logo.png image that you extracted from the mywebsite.zip file, and click OK.

Click the triangle on the Sidekick title bar to return to Edit mode.

In CRXDE Lite, go to the following node to see the stored property values:

/etc/designs/mywebsite/jcr:content/contentpage/logo

Including the Breadcrumb Component

In this section, you include the breadcrumb (trail) component, which is one of the foundation components.

In CRXDE Lite, browse to /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage, open the file center.jsp and replace:

<div>trail</div>

with:

<cq:include path="trail" resourceType="foundation/components/breadcrumb" />

Save the changes.

In your browser, reload the Products 1 page. The trail component looks as follows:

Including the Title Component

In this section, you include the title component, which is one of the foundation components.

In CRXDE Lite, browse to /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage, open the file center.jsp and replace:

<div>title</div>

with:

<cq:include path="title" resourceType="foundation/components/title" />

Save the changes.

In your browser, reload the Products page. The title component looks as follows:

Note: You can set a different Title and the Type/Size in edit mode.

Including the Paragraph System Component

The paragraph system (parsys) is a significant part of a website as it manages a list of paragraphs. It enables authors to add paragraph components to the page and provides structure.

Add the parsys component (one of the foundation components) to your contentpage component.

In CRXDE Lite, browse to /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage, open the file center.jsp and locate the following line of code:

<div>parsys</div>

Replace that line of code with the following code, then save the changes:

<cq:include path="par" resourceType="foundation/components/parsys" />

In your browser, refresh the Products page. It now has the parsys component, which is seen as follows:

Creating the Image Component

Create a component that displays an image in the paragraph system. To save time, the image component is created as a copy of the logo component with some property changes.

Note: AEM provides a more full-featured image component (/libs/foundation/components/image).

Creating the Image Component

Right click the /apps/mywebsite/components/logo node and click Copy.
Right-click the /apps/mywebsite/components node and click Paste.
Right-click the Copy of logo node, click Rename, delete the existing text and type image.
Select the image component node, and change the following property values:
- jcr:title: My Image Component.
- jcr:description: This is My Image Component.
Add a property to the image node with the following property values:
- Name: componentGroup
- Type: String
- Value: MyWebsite
Below the image node, rename the design_dialog node to dialog.
Rename logo.jsp to image.jsp.
Open img.GET.java and change the package to apps.mywebsite.components.image.

Creating the Image Script

This section describes how to create the image script.

Open /apps/mywebsite/components/image/image.jsp

Replace the existing code with the following code, then save the changes:

<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp"%><%
%><%@ page import="com.day.cq.commons.Doctype,
                    com.day.cq.wcm.foundation.Image,
                    com.day.cq.wcm.api.components.DropTarget,
                    com.day.cq.wcm.api.components.EditConfig,
                    com.day.cq.wcm.commons.WCMUtils" %><%
 /* global.jsp provides access to the current resource through the resource object */
        Image img = new Image(resource);
        img.setItemName(Image.NN_FILE, "image");
        img.setItemName(Image.PN_REFERENCE, "imageReference");
        img.setSelector("img");
        img.setDoctype(Doctype.fromRequest(request));
        img.setAlt("Home");
        img.draw(out); %>

Save the changes.

Creating the Image cq:editConfig Node

The cq:editConfig node type enables you to configure certain behaviors of components when editing their properties.

In this section, you use a cq:editConfig node to enable you to drag assets from Content Finder into your image component.

In CRXDE Lite, under the node /apps/mywebsite/components/image, create a new node as follows:
- Name: cq:editConfig.
- Type: cq:EditConfig.
Under the node cq:editConfig, create a new node as follows:
- Name: cq:dropTargets.
- Type: cq:DropTargetConfig.
Under the node cq:dropTargets, create a new node as follows:
- Name: image.
- Type: nt:unstructured.
In CRXDE set the properties as follows:

Name	Type	Value
accept	String	image/(gif\|jpeg\|png)
groups	String	media
propertyName	String	./imageReference

Adding the icon

In this section, you add the icon to appear beside the image component when it is listed in Sidekick:

In CRXDE Lite, right-click the file /libs/foundation/components/image/icon.png and select Copy.

Right-click the node /apps/mywebsite/components/image and click Paste, then click Save All.

Using the Image Component

In this section, you will view the Products page and add your image component to the paragraph system.

In your browser, reload the Products page.

In the Sidekick, click the design mode icon.

Click the Edit button to edit the design dialog of par.

In the dialog, a list of Allowed Components is shown; navigate to MyWebsite, select the My Image Component and click OK.

Return to edit mode.

Double-click the parsys frame (on Drag components or assets here). The Insert New Component and Sidekick selectors look as follows:

Including the Toolbar Component

In this section, you include the toolbar component, which is one of the foundation components.

You have several options, in edit mode as well as design mode.

In CRXDE Lite, navigate to /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage, open the body.jsp file and locate the following code:

<div class="toolbar">toolbar</div>

Replace that code with the following code, and then save the changes.

<cq:include path="toolbar" resourceType="foundation/components/toolbar"/>

In the folder tree of the AEM Websites page, select Websites/My Website/English, then click New > New Page. Specify the following property values and click Create:

Title: Toolbar
Select My Website Content Page Template

In the list of pages, right-click the Toolbar page and click Properties. Select Hide In Navigation, and click OK.

The Hide in Navigation option prevents the page from appearing in navigation components, such as topnav and listchildren.

Under Toolbar, create following pages:

Contacts
Feedback
Login
Search

In your browser, reload the Products page. It looks as follows:

Creating the Search Component

In this section, you create the component to search for content on the website. This search component can be placed in the paragraph system of any page (for example, on a specialized search result page).

Your search input box will look as follows on the English page:

Creating the Search Component

In CRXDE Lite, right-click /apps/mywebsite/components, select Create, then Create Component.

Use the dialog to configure the component:

One first panel, specify the following property values:
- Label: search
- Title: My Search Component
- Description: This is My Search Component
- Group: MyWebsite
Click Next., then click Next again.
On the Allowed Parents panel, click the + button and type */parsys.
Click Next and then click OK.

Click Save All.

Copy the following nodes and paste them to the apps/mywebsite/components/search node:

/libs/foundation/components/search/dialog
/libs/foundation/components/search/i18n
/libs/foundation/components/search/icon.png

Click Save All.

Creating the Search Script

This section describes how to create the search script:

Open the /apps/mywebsite/components/search/search.jsp file.

Copy the following code to search.jsp:

<%@ page import="com.day.cq.wcm.foundation.Search,com.day.cq.tagging.TagManager" %>
<%@include file="/libs/foundation/global.jsp" %><%
%><cq:setContentBundle/><%
    Search search = new Search(slingRequest);
 
    String searchIn = (String) properties.get("searchIn");
    String requestSearchPath = request.getParameter("path");
    if (searchIn != null) {
        /* only allow the "path" request parameter to be used if it
         is within the searchIn path configured */
        if (requestSearchPath != null && requestSearchPath.startsWith(searchIn)) {
            search.setSearchIn(requestSearchPath);
        } else {
            search.setSearchIn(searchIn);
        }
    } else if (requestSearchPath != null) {
        search.setSearchIn(requestSearchPath);
    }
     
    pageContext.setAttribute("search", search);
    TagManager tm = resourceResolver.adaptTo(TagManager.class);
%><c:set var="trends" value="${search.trends}"/><%
%><center>
  <form action="${currentPage.path}.html">
    <input size="41" maxlength="2048" name="q" value="${fn:escapeXml(search.query)}"/>
    <input value="<fmt:message key="searchButtonText"/>" type="submit" />
  </form>
</center>
<br/>
<c:set var="result" value="${search.result}"/>
<c:choose>
  <c:when test="${empty result && empty search.query}">
  </c:when>
  <c:when test="${empty result.hits}">
    <c:if test="${result.spellcheck != null}">
      <p><fmt:message key="spellcheckText"/> <a href="<c:url value="${currentPage.path}.html"><c:param name="q" value="${result.spellcheck}"/></c:url>"><b><c:out value="${result.spellcheck}"/></b></a></p>
    </c:if>
    <fmt:message key="noResultsText">
      <fmt:param value="${fn:escapeXml(search.query)}"/>
    </fmt:message>
  </c:when>
  <c:otherwise>
    <p class="searchmeta">Results ${result.startIndex + 1} - ${result.startIndex + fn:length(result.hits)} of ${result.totalMatches} for <b>${fn:escapeXml(search.query)}</b>. (${result.executionTime} seconds)</p>
   <br/>
   
  <div class="searchresults">    
    <div class="results">
      <c:forEach var="hit" items="${result.hits}" varStatus="status">
        <div class="hit">
        <a href="${hit.URL}">${hit.title}</a>
        <div class="excerpt">${hit.excerpt}</div>
       <div class="hiturl"> ${hit.URL}<c:if test="${!empty hit.properties['cq:lastModified']}"> - <c:catch><fmt:formatDate value="${hit.properties['cq:lastModified'].time}" dateStyle="medium"/></c:catch></c:if> - <a href="${hit.similarURL}"><fmt:message key="similarPagesText"/></a>
        </div></div>
      </c:forEach>
    </div>
      <br/>
      
     <div class="searchRight">
          <c:if test="${fn:length(trends.queries) > 0}">
              <p><fmt:message key="searchTrendsText"/></p>
              <div class="searchTrends">
                  <c:forEach var="query" items="${trends.queries}">
                      <a href="<c:url value="${currentPage.path}.html"><c:param name="q" value="${query.query}"/></c:url>"><span style="font-size:${query.size}px"><c:out value="${query.query}"/></span></a>
                  </c:forEach>
              </div>
          </c:if> 
          <c:if test="${result.facets.languages.containsHit}">
              <p>Languages</p>
              <c:forEach var="bucket" items="${result.facets.languages.buckets}">
                  <c:set var="bucketValue" value="${bucket.value}"/>
                  <c:set var="label" value='<%= new java.util.Locale((String) pageContext.getAttribute("bucketValue")).getDisplayLanguage(request.getLocale()) %>'/>
                  <c:choose>
                      <c:when test="${param.language != null}">${label} (${bucket.count}) - <a href="<cq:requestURL><cq:removeParam name="language"/></cq:requestURL>">remove filter</a></c:when>
                      <c:otherwise><a title="filter results" href="<cq:requestURL><cq:addParam name="language" value="${bucket.value}"/></cq:requestURL>">${label} (${bucket.count})</a></c:otherwise>
                  </c:choose><br/>
              </c:forEach>
          </c:if> 
          <c:if test="${result.facets.tags.containsHit}">
              <p>Tags</p>
              <c:forEach var="bucket" items="${result.facets.tags.buckets}">
                  <c:set var="bucketValue" value="${bucket.value}"/>
                  <c:set var="tag" value="<%= tm.resolve((String) pageContext.getAttribute("bucketValue")) %>"/>
                  <c:if test="${tag != null}">
                      <c:set var="label" value="${tag.title}"/>
                      <c:choose>
                          <c:when test="<%= request.getParameter("tag") != null && java.util.Arrays.asList(request.getParameterValues("tag")).contains(pageContext.getAttribute("bucketValue")) %>">${label} (${bucket.count}) - <a href="<cq:requestURL><cq:removeParam name="tag" value="${bucket.value}"/></cq:requestURL>">remove filter</a></c:when>
                          <c:otherwise><a title="filter results" href="<cq:requestURL><cq:addParam name="tag" value="${bucket.value}"/></cq:requestURL>">${label} (${bucket.count})</a></c:otherwise>
                      </c:choose><br/>
                  </c:if>
              </c:forEach>
          </c:if> 
          <c:if test="${result.facets.mimeTypes.containsHit}">
              <jsp:useBean id="fileTypes" class="com.day.cq.wcm.foundation.FileTypes"/>
              <p>File types</p>
              <c:forEach var="bucket" items="${result.facets.mimeTypes.buckets}">
                  <c:set var="bucketValue" value="${bucket.value}"/>
                  <c:set var="label" value="${fileTypes[bucket.value]}"/>
                  <c:choose>
                      <c:when test="<%= request.getParameter("mimeType") != null && java.util.Arrays.asList(request.getParameterValues("mimeType")).contains(pageContext.getAttribute("bucketValue")) %>">${label} (${bucket.count}) - <a href="<cq:requestURL><cq:removeParam name="mimeType" value="${bucket.value}"/></cq:requestURL>">remove filter</a></c:when>
                      <c:otherwise><a title="filter results" href="<cq:requestURL><cq:addParam name="mimeType" value="${bucket.value}"/></cq:requestURL>">${label} (${bucket.count})</a></c:otherwise>
                  </c:choose><br/>
              </c:forEach>
          </c:if>
          <c:if test="${result.facets.lastModified.containsHit}">
              <p>Last Modified</p>
              <c:forEach var="bucket" items="${result.facets.lastModified.buckets}">
                  <c:choose>
                      <c:when test="${param.from == bucket.from && param.to == bucket.to}">${bucket.value} (${bucket.count}) - <a href="<cq:requestURL><cq:removeParam name="from"/><cq:removeParam name="to"/></cq:requestURL>">remove filter</a></c:when>
                      <c:otherwise><a title="filter results" href="<cq:requestURL><cq:removeParam name="from"/><cq:removeParam name="to"/><c:if test="${bucket.from != null}"><cq:addParam name="from" value="${bucket.from}"/></c:if><c:if test="${bucket.to != null}"><cq:addParam name="to" value="${bucket.to}"/></c:if></cq:requestURL>">${bucket.value} (${bucket.count})</a></c:otherwise>
                  </c:choose><br/>
              </c:forEach>
          </c:if>

      <c:if test="${fn:length(search.relatedQueries) > 0}">
      
       <br/><br/><div class="related">
        <fmt:message key="relatedSearchesText"/>
        <c:forEach var="rq" items="${search.relatedQueries}">
            <a href="${currentPage.path}.html?q=${rq}"><c:out value="${rq}"/></a>
        </c:forEach></div>
      </c:if>
      </div>     
      
      <c:if test="${fn:length(result.resultPages) > 1}">
        <div class="pagination">  
            <fmt:message key="resultPagesText"/>
        <c:if test="${result.previousPage != null}">
          <a href="${result.previousPage.URL}"><fmt:message key="previousText"/></a>
        </c:if>
        <c:forEach var="page" items="${result.resultPages}">
          <c:choose>
            <c:when test="${page.currentPage}">${page.index + 1}</c:when>
            <c:otherwise>
              <a href="${page.URL}">${page.index + 1}</a>
            </c:otherwise>
          </c:choose>
        </c:forEach>
        <c:if test="${result.nextPage != null}">
          <a href="${result.nextPage.URL}"><fmt:message key="nextText"/></a>
        </c:if>
        </div>
      </c:if>
      </div>
      
  </c:otherwise>
</c:choose>

Save the changes.

Including a Search Box in the Contentpage Component

To include a search input box in the left section of your contentpage, proceed as follows:

In CRXDE Lite, open the file left.jsp under /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage and locate the following code (line 2):

%><div class="left">

Insert the following code before that line:

%><%@ page import="com.day.text.Text"%><%
%><% String docroot = currentDesign.getPath(); 
String home = Text.getAbsoluteParent(currentPage.getPath(), 2);%><%

Locate the following line of code:

<div>search</div>

Replace that code with the following code, and then save the changes.

<div class="form_1">
     <form class="geo" action="<%= home %>/toolbar/search.html" id="form" >
          <p>
               <input class="geo" type="text" name="q"><br> 
               <a href="<%= home %>/toolbar/search.html" class="link_1">advanced search</a> 
          </p>
     </form>
</div>

In your browser, reload the Products page. The search component looks as follows:

Including the Search Component in the Search Page

In this section, you add your search component to the paragraph system.

In your browser, open the Search page.

In the Sidekick, click the design mode icon.

In the Design of par block (below the Search title), click Edit.

In the dialog, scroll down to the My Websites group, select My Search Component and click OK.

On Sidekick, click the triangle to return to edit mode.

Drag the My Search Component from the Sidekick into the parsys frame. It looks as follows:

Navigate to your Products page. Search for customers in the input box and press Enter. You are redirected to the Search page. Switch to preview mode: the output is in a similar format as the following:

Including the Iparsys Component

In this section, you include the Inheritance Paragraph System (iparsys) component, which is one of the foundation components. This component enables you to create a structure of paragraphs on a parent page, and have child pages inherit the paragraphs.

For this component you can set several parameters in both edit mode and design mode.

In CRXDE Lite, navigate to /apps/mywebsite/components/contentpage, open the file right.jsp and replace:

<div>iparsys</div>

with:

<cq:include path="rightpar" resourceType="foundation/components/iparsys" />

Save the changes.

In your browser, reload the Products page. The whole page looks as follows:

Your comments are welcome!

Did you notice a way we could improve the documentation on this page? Is something unclear or insufficiently explained? Please leave your comments below and we will make the appropriate changes. Comments that have been addressed, by improving the documentation accordingly, will then be removed.

COMMENTS

By Rebecca Conant - 11:40 PM on Mar 04, 2013 Reply
If some of the code snippets, the comments are malformed and will not compile. It seems that some of the developers coded JSP-type comments written as "// comment" which do not compile while others coded C-type comments written as "/* comment */" which do compile.
By Rebecca Conant - 9:34 PM on Mar 06, 2013 Reply

Typo correction:

Incorrect
Create the dialog that isused to configure the listchildren component properties.

Correct:
Create the dialog that is used to configure the listchildren component properties.

Changing "isused" to "is used"
By Kirthivasan Ganesan - 8:42 PM on Apr 04, 2013 Reply
Hi

It is very new and useful. We have a different requirement here. so far the examples the menu given in the documentation are static they cannot be edited in the author mode (inserting a menubar item and menuitems) If you give any example that will be great.

Regards
Kirthi

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