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How to enable Basic Authentication for Non-Prod AEM websites? | Support Authenticated Performance Testing with Cloud Manager

Enable Basic Authentication:

Most of the time we will have the use case to enable basic authentication for non-prod AEM websites to avoid non authenticated users accessing the content(another option is through IP whitelisting) also avoiding the non-prod contents getting indexed through google search(another approach to avoid the indexing is through Robots meta tag)

Easy to use generic user name/password for every website so that only the users know those credentials can access the password(if you need more security go with site-specific users or individual users)

In AEM the basic authentication can be enabled quickly through Dispatcher(Apache)

Create a common configuration file for authentication - /conf.d/htaccess/authentication.conf

   ## unsets authorization header when sending request to AEM

   RequestHeader unset Authorization

   AuthType Basic

   AuthBasicProvider file

   AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/conf.d/htaccess/credential.htpasswd 

   AuthName "Authentication Required"

   Require valid-user

Include this file into the individual Virtual Hosts

<Location />

    <If "'${ENV_TYPE}' =~ m#(dev|uat|stage)#">

Include /etc/httpd/conf.d/htaccess/authentication.conf

    </If>

</Location>

The ENV_TYPE can be set as an Environment variable e.g /etc/sysconfig/httpd (for AMS environment the required environment variables will be enabled by default)

ENV_TYPE='dev'

Create the credential file, execute the below command, you will be prompted to enter the password

htpasswd -c /etc/httpd/conf.d/htaccess/credential.htpasswd testuser

Execute the below command, to add additional users if required

htpasswd /etc/httpd/conf.d/htaccess/credential.htpasswd testuser1

Restart the Apache server, now basic authentication is enabled for the websites.

Authenticated Performance Testing with Cloud Manager:

https://www.albinsblog.com/2020/11/beginners-tutorial-what-is-cloud-manager-in-aem.html

The Cloud Manager enables the Performance Testing on Stage environment after every successful deployment. 

The list of Stage domains enabled for performance testing can be configured - this configuration is not supported through UI but needs to be enabled through the backend(Adobe team should be helping here)

Also, the required performance KPI's can be configured through Cloud Manager UI

Refer to the following URL for more details on performance testing - https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-cloud-manager/using/how-to-use/understand-your-test-results.html?lang=en#performance-testing

The performance testing will fail now due to the basic authentication enabled for the Stage websites, to overcome this the basic authentication credential should be configured in the Cloud Manager prod pipeline - the configuration cant be enabled through Cloud Manager UI but through Cloud Manager Plugin for the Adobe I/O CLI

This CLI supports two modes of authentication: Browser-based and Service Account. I am going to use browser-based authentication to enable the required configurations

As a prerequisite, ensure Node.js and NPM is installed in your machine, refer to the following URL for more details - https://www.npmjs.com/package/@adobe/aio-cli-plugin-cloudmanager

Identify the program ID and the production pipeline id by login to the Cloud Manager UI

Execute the below commands in your machine(ensure you have the required permissions)

npm install -g @adobe/aio-cli

aio plugins:install @adobe/aio-cli-plugin-cloudmanager 

aio auth:login - login through browser with your Cloud Manager credentials

aio cloudmanager:org:select - select your organization where your program and the pipeline is configured(most of the case signle org)

aio config:set cloudmanager_programid PROGRAMID - Add your program ID

aio cloudmanager:set-pipeline-variables PIPELINEID--variable CM_PERF_TEST_BASIC_USERNAME testuser--secret CM_PERF_TEST_BASIC_PASSWORD pwdtestuser- Add your pipeline ID and the basic credentials

Now the basic authentication is enabled and the basic authentication credential are set while performing the performance testing.

 AEM as a Cloud Service - Sandbox Setup

Enable Sandbox Program:

Setup Sandbox:

Let us now set up the Sandbox environment, Click on the Sandbox program created in the previous step

Click on "Setup", this will take some time to configure the program

Once the setup is completed you should be able to access the AEM servers and also deploy the code through the Cloud Manager pipeline.

While accessing the Author server you will be taken to the below screen with the option to log in with Adobe ID

The Administrator can enable the required access for the AEM users through Admin Console(https://adminconsole.adobe.com/)

Select the Author Instance

Select the Profile the user should be added (AEM administrator or AEM user) - Create new profiles based on the need

Now you should be able to access the author server

Sandbox program also enables Publish and Preview servers - You can view those details by going into the environment

Now you can push the changes to the git repository

By default the "main" branch is enabled for deployment, if required you can create the additional branch e.g dev, and enable the deployment through the new branch.

Now start the pipeline to deploy the changes

Even if you required the deployment can be initiated on repository change

The Sandbox setup is completed now,  enable the content and code based on your use cases.

Error while syncing the local git repository to remote repository | error: unpack failed: error Shallow object update failed | Shallow vs Full Cloning

bitbucket-pipelines.yml:

Blank screen displayed in edit mode | Adobe Experience Manager(AEM)

Editable templates have been introduced in AEM 6.2, which allows the authors to create and edit templates. Template authors can create and configure templates from the Templates console in the AEM without the help of the development team. Template authors can define the policies, structure, and initial content for the templates that will be shared by all the pages created based on this template.

Editable Templates allow the template-authors to configure the client libraries required to style the websites created based on this template — base/common client libraries are included through page rendering component but site-specific client libraries through template policy configuration.

Most of the time we will have a generic template enabled with headers and footers through experience fragment and the container with allowed components that can be managed by Authors while creating the pages, e.g.

This will have some constraint while reusing the template with multiple sites

• site-specific header and footer — customize the header/footer for individual website
• site-specific style/theme — enable different styles/themes for individual sites.

In this tutorial let us see how to enable the editable template with multiple sites that have the different header/footer and styling requirements.

site-specific header/footer:

Most of the time the header and footer are enabled through experience fragment and configured in template level by using experience fragment component so that all pages created based on this template will have the consistent header/footer experience. The issue is while reusing the template with sites that require a localized header and footer, the Experience Fragment core component saves us here, the Experience Fragment core component enables the support for localized fragment content

"Supports references for localized content: if the component is defined in a template and if the fragment is part of a localized structure below /content/experience-fragments that follows the same patterns as the site below /content, the fragment with the same localization (language, blueprint or live copy) as the current page will be rendered".

If the experience fragments and the sites follow the same localized structure, the experience fragment core component uses the localized fragment content based on the site language.

The experience fragment components in the template are enabled with default experiment fragment — /content/experience-fragments/my-site/us/en/header/master and /content/experience-fragments/my-site/us/en/footer/master, while accessing the different localized sites the experience fragment core component derives the localized fragment path based on the site structure and applies that to the pages.

e.g while accessing the content from /us/es the following fragments are applied —/content/experience-fragments/my-site/us/es/header/master and /content/experience-fragments/my-site/us/es/footer/master , the same case for other localized sites.

This experience fragment localization feature helps us to reuse the template across different websites that have localized header and footer needs without creating site-specific templates.

site-specific style/theme

Most of the time we may have the need to enable site-specific style/theme for the websites that are built on the same templates. By default Editable template and core components won't support different styles for the websites built on the same template — the client libraries are enabled either in the page rendering component or in the template. The cq:designPath value configured in the site property will not be honored by editable templates and core components, the cq:designPath is more used by the static template.

Let us see a custom approach that will help us to enable site-specific style/themes(client library).

The front end module should generate the site-specific client library that can be configured for individual websites, refer to the link below for the details on enabling site-specific client libraries through the UI frontend module.

The above front end module generates the site-specific client library in the following format

— <site name>.site e.g. site1.site, site2.site

— <site name>.dependencies e.g site1.dependencies, site2.dependencies

As a first step enable the additional property- styleName to the page dialog (if required enable dropdown list with predefined style values, also the property can be enabled in all level to apply different site and page level styles) — the styleName value is equal to the site names used by ui frontend module e.g site1, site2 (use context-aware configuration instead of page properties if required)

{
   "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
   "jcr:title":"Page",
   "trackingFeature":"core-components:page:v2",
   "helpPath":"https://www.adobe.com/go/aem_cmp_page_v2",
   "extraClientlibs":[
      "cq.common.wcm",
      "core.wcm.components.page.v2.editor",
      "cq.wcm.msm.properties",
      "granite.contexthub.configuration",
      "cq.siteadmin.admin.properties"
   ],
   "mode":"edit",
   "sling:resourceType":"cq/gui/components/authoring/dialog",
   "content":{
      "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
      "granite:class":"cq-dialog-content-page",
      "sling:resourceType":"granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/container",
      "items":{
         "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
         "tabs":{
            "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
            "granite:class":"cq-siteadmin-admin-properties-tabs",
            "size":"L",
            "sling:resourceType":"granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/tabs",
            "items":{
               "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
               "basic":{
                  "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
                  "jcr:title":"Basic",
                  "sling:resourceType":"granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/fixedcolumns",
                  "items":{
                     "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
                     "column":{
                        "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
                        "sling:resourceType":"granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/container",
                        "items":{
                           "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
                           "styleName":{
                              "jcr:primaryType":"nt:unstructured",
                              "name":"./styleName",
                              "fieldLabel":"Style Name",
                              "sling:orderBefore":"htmlid",
                              "sling:resourceType":"granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/form/textfield",
                              "fieldDescription":"Style Name - Site Specific Theme"
                           }
                        }
                     }
                  }
               }
            }
         }
      }
   }
}

Enable sling model to to return the site specific client library names based on the inherited styleName property passed from customheaderlibs.html and customfooterlibs.html files of the page rendering component.

import javax.inject.Inject;import org.apache.sling.api.SlingHttpServletRequest;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.Model;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.Optional;@Model(adaptables = {
    SlingHttpServletRequest.class
})
public class StyleNameModel {@Inject @Optional
private String styleName;public String getStyleNameSite() {return styleName != null ? styleName.concat(".site") : "site1.site";
    }public String getStyleNameDependency() {
        return styleName != null ? styleName.concat(".dependencies") : "site1.dependencies";
    } }

Enable the client library categories into the page rendering component(e.g /apps/multisitefrontenddemo/components/page) — customheaderlibs.html and customfooterlibs.html, the inherited style name property is injected to StyleNameModel — the property form current page if not available then from the parent hierarchy

Add the below code to customheaderlibs.html

<sly data-sly-use.style="${'com.multisitefrontenddemo.core.models.StyleNameModel' @styleName=inheritedPageProperties.styleName}"/><sly data-sly-use.clientLib="/libs/granite/sightly/templates/clientlib.html">
    <sly data-sly-call="${clientlib.css @ categories=[style.styleNameSite, style.styleNameDependency] }">
</sly>

Add the below code to customfooterlibs.html

<sly data-sly-use.style="${'com.multisitefrontenddemo.core.models.StyleNameModel' @styleName=inheritedPageProperties.styleName}"/><sly data-sly-use.clientLib="/libs/granite/sightly/templates/clientlib.html">
    <sly data-sly-call="${clientlib.js @ categories=[style.styleNameSite, style.styleNameDependency] }">
</sly>

Now remove the client library configurations from template policy and enable the required style name to the site root or individual pages

Now the site-specific style is applied based on the configuration, the style to the page is applied in the following order

— Apply the style name from the current page

— Apply the style name from any of the available parent page (navigated till root node)

— the default style is applied if no style name configured for the current page or to the parent hierarchy.

The default style is applied while editing the pages through the template editor — the structure and initial content.

The behavior can be changed based on your project need e.g. restrict the style configuration only to the site root node

Demo Project — https://github.com/techforum-repo/youttubedata/tree/master/aem/multisitefrontenddemo

Refer to the below video for more detail