Moving images not updating content references on CFs

​@DavidMa75  I will strongly advise leveraging Dynamic media for images. That ensures you are not relying on relative paths of the images. 

Sharing links for reference: Dynamic Media URL & Image Presets | Adobe Experience Manager

With current approach of yours, you will end up with requirements of utilities for content mapping.

​@DavidMa75 

In AEM as a Cloud Service, the recommended way to keep Content Fragment asset references stable when assets are moved in DAM is to use Content Reference (UUID) instead of the path-based Content Reference field type in the Content Fragment Model. With UUID-based references, the reference remains stable even if the asset path changes.

If your existing Content Fragments are using path-based references, there is no simple OOTB setting to automatically rewrite those references on every asset move. In that case, the options are to migrate the model/content to UUID-based references or implement a custom process for legacy content.

Hi, ​@SubbaraoGa1,

According to the documentation, it looks like this UUID will be changed when a CF is copied from one environment to another. It seems that this approach also has a downside compared to the path-based approach.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Further, I tried to create a new Content Fragment model and found that there is only 1 type of “Content Reference”, how could I choose between UUID / Path-based?

Cheers

Vicker

Hello ​@VickerL 

In AEM as a Cloud Service, UUID-based Content Fragment references help keep references stable when assets or fragments are moved within the same environment. However, those UUIDs are repository-specific, so when content is copied to another environment, the UUIDs can be recalculated there. Because of that, UUID-based references also have a limitation and are not guaranteed to remain identical across environment-to-environment content copy.

Regarding the model editor, Adobe documentation shows that UUID support is represented as separate reference types such as Content Reference (UUID). If your environment only shows a single Content Reference option, then UUID-based reference support does not appear to be exposed in that environment/UI at this time.

So the practical guidance is:

• Path-based references: easier for cross-environment portability, but may need updates when assets are moved.
• UUID-based references: better for move/rename stability within one repository, but not ideal for environment-to-environment copy scenarios.

Thanks, ​@SubbaraoGa1 

Nice and clear, and greatly appreciated.

Just a follow-up, does that mean the UUID Content Reference is new and may not be available to all customers yet? Just FYI, I am an AEM admin. If that’s something admins need to enable first, I am eager to give it a try.

Cheers

​@VickerL Yes — UUID Content References were introduced as a newer capability, but Adobe now documents Content Fragment UUID support as GA in AEMaaCS. I do not see a public admin-side toggle specifically for enabling UUID references. So if your environment still shows only a single Content Reference option, it likely means the UUID-specific option is not currently exposed in that environment/editor, and Adobe Support should confirm the feature state for your tenant.

Thank you, again. ​@SubbaraoGa1 

​@VickerL Let me know if you have any issues.