Tech Mastery: Deep Dives into AEM, Cloud Technologies, AI Innovations, and Advanced Marketing Strate

The website translation is the process of taking your website content in its original language(e.g en) and adapting it into other languages e.g es, to make it is accessible and useable across global customers. Content Translation allows you to create an initial version of a page based on an existing version from a different language. Automate the translation of page content, assets, etc to create and maintain multilingual websites through the translation process.

The Adobe Experience Manager Translation Framework enables website content managers to easily submit content for professional translation and automatically receive translations back in AEM. All that tedious manual effort is replaced by a streamlined process that delivers personalized customer experiences.

Most of these contents are already part Adobe documents, thought of sharing my learning for reference and also if it helps someone with the same need.

There are two types of content translations

Human Translation:

Machine Translation:

Translation Integration Framework:

TIF Configurations:

Export formats:

Translation Integration Configuration:

 

Additional Languages for Translation:

References:

Microsoft Translator - Issue while fetching the Access Token | AEM(Adobe Experience Manager) Translation

Receiving "Failed to Connect" error while the connector trying to establish the connection with the Azure Translator service.

21.10.2021 11:06:02.390 *ERROR* [[0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1] [1634832361866] POST /services/accesstoken/verify HTTP/1.1] org.apache.sling.engine.impl.SlingRequestProcessorImpl service: Uncaught Throwable

java.lang.NullPointerException: null

21.10.2021 11:06:02.391 *WARN* [[0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1] [1634832361866] POST /services/accesstoken/verify HTTP/1.1] com.day.cq.wcm.core.impl.components.ComponentCacheImpl Requested Path /services/accesstoken/verify.servlet is not in available search paths

Enabled a logger to capture the MS Translation Connector logs with Trace level - the error messages are printed in Trace level.

The below error was displayed  in the log file

21.10.2021 11:35:04.769 *TRACE* [[0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1] [1634834104174] POST /services/accesstoken/verify HTTP/1.1] com.adobe.granite.translation.connector.msft.core.impl.util.AccessTokenImpl Error while accessing token -->{"error":{"code":"401","message": "Access denied due to invalid subscription key or wrong API endpoint. Make sure to provide a valid key for an active subscription and use a correct regional API endpoint for your resource."}}   - Tarce Log

The correct Token was configured also the API endpoint is enabled from the MS Translation Connector.

The request to get the access token to the following API was failing with a 401 error —  https://api.cognitive.microsoft.com/sts/v1.0/issueToken

The actual root cause was the region configured while creating the translation service in the Azure portal, I have selected the region as East US

But the region  for the Microsoft Translator should be enabled as global instead of selecting the local regions - the MS Translator API only works with global regions

How to identify/handle duplicate assets in AEM(Adobe Experience Manager) Assets?

Duplicate Detection:

 When a user attempts to upload an asset that exists in AEM, the system checks for conflict and indicates it. The assets are identified using SHA-1 hash stored at jcr:content/metadata/dam:sha1, which means duplicate assets are detected irrespective of the filenames.

MSM for Assets:

The MSM for Assets can be used to reuse the same assets within different websites by customizing the required metadata.

Using MSM for Assets, you can:

• Create assets once and then make copies of these assets to reuse in other areas of the site.
• Keep multiple copies in synchronization and update the original primary copy once to push the changes to the child copies.
• Make local changes by temporarily or permanently suspending the linking between parent and child assets.

MSM maintains a live relationship between the source asset and its live copies so that:

• Changes to the source assets are applied (rolled out) to live copies as well, that is the live copies are synchronized with the source.
• You can update the live copies by suspending the live relationship or removing the inheritance for a few limited fields. The modifications to the source are no longer applied to the live copy.

To create the live copy, select the asset, Create, Live Copy

Select the destination folder, where the live copy asset should be stored

Enter title, change the Name if required, select the rollout config

If required, the inheritance can be broken on the copied asset the local changes can be enabled, the source changes will be reflected on the copied assets on rollout/synchronization

You can completely remove the relationship between a source and a live copy using Detach action. The live copy becomes a stand-alone asset or folder after it is detached. You can undo all the local modifications and revert the asset to the state of its source

Please note, the live copy asset is also considered duplicate and reported.

Identify the Existing Duplicate:

The below steps can be followed to identify the existing duplicate assets.

Get all the asset files under a specific folder with the SHA1 value through Query Builder.

http://localhost:4502/bin/querybuilder.json?p.hits=selective&path=/content/dam&p.properties=jcr:path%20jcr:content/metadata/dam:sha1&p.limit=-1&property=jcr:content/metadata/dam:sha1&property.operation=exists

Use the below query to identify if the asset is a live copy

http://localhost:4502/bin/querybuilder.json?p.hits=selective&path=/content/dam&p.properties=jcr:path%20/jcr:content/cq:LiveSyncConfig/cq:master%20jcr:content/metadata/dam:sha1&p.limit=-1&property=jcr:content/metadata/dam:sha1&property.operation=exists

This will provide the output in JSON

Convert JSON to CSV - use any JSON to CSV converter, I am using https://konklone.io/json/

Download the CSV and open it in Excel

Apply the filter by selected cells color, select the one of the duplicated SHA1 value - Right-Click - Filter - Filter By Selected cell color

Now you should be able to see all the files which are duplicates

. 

Now you should be able to perform required operations on the duplicated assets

e.g Delete the duplicated asset or delete and create live copy asset etc

 Delete specific asset - curl -u admin:admin -k -X DELETE http://localhost:4502/content/dam/email/hibernate4-2.png

Create Live Copy -  curl 'http://localhost:4502/bin/wcmcommand' --data-raw '_charset_=utf-8&cmd=createLiveCopy&destPath=%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Femail&title=test5&label=hibernate4-sc1.png&srcPath=%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Ftest%2Fhibernate4.png'

References:

How to deliver headless content through GraphQL API and Content Fragments? | AEM(Adobe Experience Manager)

GraphiQL Interface:

{

  "message": "Failed to execute 'text' on 'Response': body stream already read",

  "stack": "TypeError: Failed to execute 'text' on 'Response': body stream already read\n    at http://localhost:4502/content/graphiql.html:81:33\n    at async Object.onRun (https://unpkg.com/graphiql/graphiql.min.js:1:533801)"

}

The actual root cause was the CSRF filter blocking the requests in AEM Author, the path white listing looks to be not enabled while upgrading from 6.5.8.0 to 6.5.10.0(but it worked for me while upgrading from 6.5.0.0 to 6.5.10.0), the whitelisting is already enabled in AEM as a Cloud Service, ensure the blow paths are whitelisted in the CSRF filter.

Configuration Browsers - Enable Content Fragment Model/GraphQL Persistent Queries:

Enable the Content Fragment Model/GraphQL Persistent Queries through configuration browser for the global sites configurations and the site-specific configurations.

Tools -- General -- Configuration Browser -- Select Global folder -- Properties, ensure Content Fragment Models and GraphQL Persistent Queries are selected

Enable Content Fragment Model(Model your content):

Model your content structure using AEM Content Fragment Models and Content Fragments.

Let us now enable the content fragment model that should be used to generate Content Fragments that will be exposed to the external system through GraphQL API for consuming the content.

Tools -- Assets -- Content Fragment Models, Select the global or Site-Specific folder(I am creating under the site-specific folder) and create a new Model. Ensure the model is enabled, GraphQL schema will be generated only for the models that are enabled

GraphQL tab displays the API details

Open the model and enable the required fields - additional data types e.g Content Reference, Fragment Reference, JSON Object and etc can be used if required while structuring the Content Fragment Model. The referenced Model(Fragment) data can also be fetched through the parent GraphQL API e.g. if Employee Model references Person Model, the associated Person data can be fetched through Employee GraphQL API.

The default Cache configurations can be modified if required through Content Fragment Model properties

GraphQL Endpoints:

AEM endpoint helps to access the GraphQL schema, also send GraphQL queries and receive the response.

Define the API endpoint by going to Tools -- Assets -- GraphQL

The global endpoint will be defined by default(enable if missing), define the site-specific endpoints if required 

(global endpoint expose all the models if required site-specific endpoints can be enabled but the whitelisting and other configurations should be enabled for site-specific endpoints)

The endpoint should be published to make it available to the publisher. Ensure the appropriate security permissions are set up while enabling the GraphQL API endpoints in publishers. 

GraphQL Schema:

GraphQL is a strongly typed API, which means that data must be clearly structured and organized by type.

The GraphQL specification provides a series of guidelines on how to create a robust API for interrogating data on a certain instance. To do this, a client needs to fetch the Schema, which contains all the types necessary for a query.

In AEM, the schema is generated based on the Content Fragment Model, the schema is flexible. This means that it is auto-generated each and every time a Content Fragment Model is created, updated, or deleted. The data schema caches are also refreshed when you update a Content Fragment Model.

The schema can be accessed through endpoint API - http://localhost:4502/content/cq:graphql/global/endpoint.GQLschema

Also, schema and schema docs can be fetched through the GraphQL interface(additional fields can be added if required)

{

  __schema {

    types {

      name

      description

    }

  }

}

The schema errors can be fetched through http://localhost:4502/content/cq:graphql/global/endpoint.schemaerrors

Create Content Fragments:

Now create the required Content Fragments under the appropriate asset folder(e.g mysite) with the required data, select the Content Fragment Model created in the earlier step.

Ensure the Content Fragment Models are enabled for the asset folders(e.g mysite)

Enter the required data and save it, the model should be published to enable the access with publish server.

Content Fragments now enables preview for GrapQL data, the preview will work only if the site-specific endpoint is registered.

Register the site-specific endpoint to preview the content

Now you should be able to preview the data

You should be able to copy the direct GraphQL data URL - http://localhost:4502/content/dam/mysite/person1.cfm.gql.json ( this will expose the Content Fragment Data as JSON)

Fetching the Data:

Now the data can be queried based on the GraphQL API's defined in the schema - http://localhost:4502/content/cq:graphql/global/endpoint.GQLschema

"""

Get a single `PersonModel`, specified by its path and optional variation

"""

personByPath(_path: String!, variation: String): PersonModelResult! @fetcher(name : "sites/default", source : "personByPath")

"""

"""

Get multiple `PersonModel` objects

"""

personList(filter: PersonModelFilter, variation: String, _locale: String): PersonModelResults! @fetcher(name : "sites/default", source : "personList")

"""

Fetch the person details by path:

The personByPath API can be used to fetch content fragment specific data(the Content Fragment created based on Person Model) by specifying the content fragment path, modify the attributes(I am fetching firstName, lastName, and email) based on your needs

query{

  personByPath(_path:"/content/dam/mysite/person1"){

   item {      

      firstName

      lastName

      email

    }

  }

}

Fetch Person Lists:

The personList API can be used to fetch a list of Content Fragments created using the Person Model.

query{

  personList{

    items {

      _path

      firstName

      lastName

      email      

      

    }

  }

}

Filter based on expression:

The filters can be specified to fetch specific content fragments from the list of content fragments by specifying filter expressions.

query {

  personList(filter: {

    firstName: {

     _expressions: [

        {

          value: "Test1"

          _operator: EQUALS_NOT

        }

    ]

    }

  }) {

    items {

      firstName

      lastName

      email

    }

  }

}

For the Multiline Text fields, the below properties can be used to fectch the different format data

html

plaintext

markdown

json

query{

  personByPath(_path:"/content/dam/mysite/person1"){

   item {      

      firstName

      lastName

      email

      additionalDetails

     {

      html

      markdown

      plaintext

      json

     }

    }

  }

}

The metadata and variation details can also be fetched, also other expressions can be used to filter the data - refer to https://github.com/AdobeDocs/experience-manager-cloud-service.en/blob/master/help/assets/content-fragments/content-fragments-graphql-samples.md#content-fragment-structure-graphql for more query operations and fields.

The GraphQL variables and Directives can be used to filter the data, refer https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/assets/admin/graphql-api-content-fragments.html?lang=en for more details.

Persisted Queries (Caching):

Prepare query with a POST request, it can be executed with a GET request and the responses can be cached by HTTP caches or a CDN. The Persisted queries help to improve the overall performance and also reduce the load on AEM servers.

Create Persisted Query(PUT) - may be the easy option is to copy the curl command from the GraphQL interface and modify 

The persisted query can be created by sending the PUT request to http://localhost:4502/graphql/persist.json/<Site Name>/<Query Name>

I am using the basic authentication for the demo but the token-based authentication should be used for AEM as a Cloud Service.

curl -u admin:admin -X PUT 'http://localhost:4502/graphql/persist.json/mysite/person' \

  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

  --data-raw '{"query":"query{\n  personByPath(_path:\"/content/dam/mysite/person1\"){\n   item {      \n      firstName\n      lastName\n      email\n    }\n  }\n}","variables":null}'

The output will provide a short path that can be used to execute the query e.g /mysite/person

Execute Persisted Query - the persisted query can be executed by sending get request to 

http://localhost:4502/graphql/execute.json/<Query Shortname>

curl -u admin:admin -X GET http://localhost:4502/graphql/execute.json/mysite/person

The existing persisted queries can be modified by sending the POST request to http://localhost:4502/graphql/persist.json/<Site Name>/<Query Name>

curl -u admin:admin -X POST 'http://localhost:4502/graphql/persist.json/mysite/persion' \

  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

  --data-raw '{"query":"query{\n  personByPath(_path:\"/content/dam/mysite/person1\"){\n   item {      \n      firstName\n      lastName\n      email\n    }\n  }\n}","variables":null}'

The max cache header value can be specified while creating the persisted queries - this will help us to cache the query result for an extended time

curl -u admin:admin -X PUT 'http://localhost:4502/graphql/persist.json/mysite/persion' \

  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

  --data-raw '{"query":"query{\n  personByPath(_path:\"/content/dam/mysite/person1\"){\n   item {      \n      firstName\n      lastName\n      email\n    }\n  }\n}","variables":null,"cache-control":{"max-age":300}}'

The persisted  queries are stored under /conf/<Site Name>/settings/graphql/persistedQueries

The list of Persisted queries can be fetched through /graphql/list.json endpoint - curl -u admin:admin -X GET   http://localhost:4502/graphql/list.json

To delete the existing query, send the DELETE request to the /graphql/persist.json/<Short Path> -  curl -u admin:admin -X DELETE   http://localhost:4502/graphql/persist.json/mysite/test

Refer to https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/assets/admin/graphql-api-content-fragments.html?lang=en for more details on persisted queries

Consume GraphQL API Data from External System:

The external system can retrieve the Content Fragment data by sending the POST request to /content/_cq_graphql/global/endpoint.json GraphQL API endpoint(copy the curl request from GraphQL interface UI)

I am using the basic authentication for the demo but the token-based authentication should be used for AEM as a Cloud Service(Let me explore and share this later). Every Content Fragment model can be accessed through a global endpoint but individual endpoints can be enabled if required.

  curl -u admin:admin 'http://localhost:4502/content/_cq_graphql/global/endpoint.json' \

  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

   --data-raw '{"query":"query{\n  personByPath(_path:\"/content/dam/mysite/person1\"){\n   item {      \n      firstName\n      lastName\n      email\n    }\n  }\n}","variables":null}'

The CORS and  Referrer filter should be configured to enable the access for external systems(for the demo I am showing the OSGI console but enable through code - AEM as a Cloud service won't provide access to OSGi console, ready only view is provided through Developer console - refer https://www.albinsblog.com/2021/10/developer-console-and-adobe-io-cli-for-cloud-manager-to-debug-aem-as-a-cloud-service.html for more details)

Enable the external domains as Allowed Origins and the below paths as Allowed Paths  through Adobe Granite Cross-Origin Resource Sharing Policy

/content/_cq_graphql/global/endpoint.json // everything should be accessible through global, individual endpoints can be enabled if required

 /graphql/execute.json/.* // endpoint to execute the persisted queries

The CORS Filter should be enabled while testing thorugh localhost SPA application, also ensure the Authorization token is whitelisted.

Referrer filter must be configured to allow access from external hosts.

Now the external system will be able to fetch the Content Fragment data from AEM through GraphQL API queries.

The GraphQL API of AEM provides a powerful query language to expose data of Content Fragments to downstream applications to support headless content sharing with external systems. Content Fragment models define the data schema that is used by Content Fragments. Whenever a Content Fragment Model is created or updated, the schema is translated and added to the “graph” that makes up the GraphQL API.

The GraphiQL IDE allows you to quickly test and refine the queries and data returned. GraphiQL also provides easy access to the documentation, making it easy to learn and understand what methods are available.

The AEM GraphQL API currently not supporting some of the GraphQL API features such as Mutations, Subscriptions, and Paging/Sorting, the API is read-only and the Asset API should be used to perform the data management operations.

References: