Edit anything with the Universal Editor

The Universal Editor is the next generation of AEM in-context page editor and it solves the current limitations of the AEM Page Editor or SPA Editor. It is independent of frameworks, rendering engines, and data sources - thus providing all the freedom the developers are seeking and making it truly universal. All it requires is a rendered HTML with the required instrumentation.

In this session, you will learn all about the new Universal Editor, its architecture, currently available features, and a demo showcasing instrumenting a simple app to be editable on the Universal Editor.

Tomasz S

Are you planning to open source the editor and invite community to contribute (like Sanity Studio)?

(see answer in talk video)

Henry Kuijpers

Do you also have something in place for those cases where it's not easily (or even impossible) to add additional attributes (like the itemprop) or other markup to the output elements? How would you go and make those pieces of content editable?

(see answer in talk video)

Robin

Doesn’t the usage of the HTML attributes (itemtype, itemprop, …) clashes with the Schema.org standard? For example does a itemtype of itemtype="http://schema.org/Product“ work?

(see answer in talk video)

robertb

Does the metadata need to be part of the public site?

(see answer in talk video)

AlexanderEggers

Can you clarify a bit more how this differs from the current editor? It currently seems very similar, with some differences in configuration (components grouping vs policies) and UI. I would still need to switch views for different contexts (which in the current editor would happen via browser tools).

(see answer in talk video)

Henry Kuijpers

If the content that you're editing, is not inside AEM, but instead in another system, would it be realistic to make API calls based on the values that come from the in-place editing controls and/or the component dialogs? Or is this a feature that is merely made for persisting into AEM?

(see answer in talk video)

wolf

This appears to be in conflict with any HTML structure that already uses schema.org microformats. How is the conflict resolved?

Stefan Seifert

this is a duplicate to the question from robin, marking it as resolved

Konrad Windszus

Is the AEM extension using the Sling POST servlet to persist changes in AEM or some other endpoint?

(see answer in talk video)

Roy Teeuwen

What is the roadmap to add the correct properties to the AEM Core Components?

(see answer in talk video)
How does that work with approval Workflows? ( would have to find the content in the source anyway?)

sharanyavinod

We are working on creating extension points so that workflow operations can be performed from within the editor itself, thus making the experience more seamless. This is currently WIP but is planned to be available soon. Watch out for new release updates!

Robin

Will the Universal Editor eventually replace the Touch UI? Just like the Touch UI replaced the Classic UI?

sharanyavinod

There is no plan that the Universal Editor is replacing the Page Editor at this stage as feature parity is a very long way to go and we most likely don't want to re-implement all features

AlexanderEggers

It seems like a large part of this editor is the use of various rendering systems via the plugins. Does this make it compete with franklin, can the two work together, or am I misunderstanding the universal editor's purpose?

sharanyavinod

The Universal Editor is built backend agnostic, which makes it capable of editing for example Excel files. So yes, in a long run, document editing in WYSIWYG manner will be available at some point of time

wolf

Is there a plan to officially kill SPA Editor then?

sharanyavinod

No such plans whatsoever. But, the future of SPA Editor is indeed the Universal Editor. For new customers, we are recommending an approach combining the usage of Universal Editor + AEM headless (Content Fragments)

Samir Malpande

How does this work with translations? Do we need to update each translation individually using url?

sharanyavinod

The content is still sitting in AEM, therefore translation workflows & projects can still be used

Juan Sanchez

How to handle save option and workflows for approval process before publishing?

sharanyavinod

Duplicate of Q10 and answered.

Why? When to use?

sharanyavinod

Assume this is regarding Workflows: The next week we will have an AEM workflow picker and all instrumented elements on a page can be pushed into it (selection based)

apelluru

Could the universal editor provide support for headless content in the future?

sharanyavinod

Universal Editor doesn't care on where the content is coming from and in which format it is stored. Therefore, the Universal Editor is perfect for headless applications

Masoud

Are nested components also supported? For example a carousel with items as subcomponets or a link list with link items

sharanyavinod

Indeed! We have customers using components with varying degrees of complexity from simple text as shown during the demo, to teaser components, nested containers, etc. In the Universal Editor, it only comes down to if the items are appropriately instrumented for eg. the container with itemtype as "container".

Shakkir

Is there anyway to bring it to a non cloud AEM app?

sharanyavinod

As mentioned, the plan for 6.5 on prem is underway and is one of the top priorities for the year.

Can this be combined with content approval workflow or process.? How are user roles and permissions considered?

sharanyavinod

Workflow - Duplicate of Q10 and answered. User roles - On AEMaaCS, the user is already signed in and the IMS org and token are used for authenticating the requests against AEM, and AEM performs the request successfully ONLY if the user has the appropriate privileges.

what if multiple editors has to work in parallel on same page? on same components? is sync same as its on page?

sharanyavinod

At the moment, there is no page lock and the latest save wins. During demos during last Adobe Summit we have shown collaborative editing which might be included into the Editor at a later point of time again

Konrad Windszus

Does it require additional licensing to use it with AEM Classic (AMS/onPrem) as it involves hosting an Adobe IO service

sharanyavinod

No, it is part of AEM Sites license

Ankur

What about the heavily customised custom components on the client requirements. How flexible is this and also are validators in place ?

sharanyavinod

This shouldn't be a problem as the Universal Editor works on what it sees in the DOM. Therefore in-context editing should be feasible. Also in cases where in-context editing is not desirable, there is still the option of using the Properties Rail (similar as the AEM Dialog) to do additional configurations

Shakkir

How to integrate user roles and restrictions, does it work ootb?

sharanyavinod

Answered in Q20.

Georg Henzler

My understanding of the Universal Editor is that it is mainly targeted to non-AEM applications that consume "some content" from AEM while making it still editable WYSIWYG. What is the recommendation on how to do server side rendering for this purpse? Or do you recommend CSR?

sharanyavinod

As mentioned during our session and illustrated in the next session with Lucian and Duy, it doesn't matter to the Universal Editor if the app is client or server-side rendered. As long as the final DOM of the app opened in the editor has the appropriate instrumentation, editing is possible. All other rendering details are completely up to the app developers.

BartT

Plans to provide a full “wknd” tutorial for UE in the future?

sharanyavinod

Maybe, no detailed plans yet