AEM References Manager

It is very common situation when for example an AEM component definition gets changed and the changes immediately need to be reflected on the content. For example a new field is added and it needs to set a default value on the component instance. When the component is newly dragged on the page, this new field is stored in JCR. But then when the component already exists on the page, the new field does not get reflected in the JCR. When content is too large, and contains dozens or hundreds of pages that have this component, if becomes very hard or even impossible for the authors to manually make a false edit of the component and do a dummy save just to have the new property in JCR. Usually either developers end up writing specific on-time-use code helpers to updated entire content in subject, or solution codebase is updated to handle newly added field using hardcoded value for default case.

Have a more smart way to track, visualize and update references and reflect changes on the fly.

Phase 1: We can start with a simple tool that initially tracks the references. Have the tool available for authors. Have the tool display a dependency graph and help authors check references routes. Is would display something like in the attached screenshot.

Phase 2: Depending on the selected route, it would be helpful to generate a query that would match the returning results with the graph selection. For example, if I am clicking on Component 2, it should generate a query that I know it would return Page 1, 2 and 3 (where the actual instances of this component will be). Then later developer can use the query safely to programmatically update the content according to the needs.

Phase 3: Changes should be done automatically by the system behind the scenes, or manually with one click away, but in both scenarios without any development needed. Authors should get a report of what content got updated.

Notes:
1. Approach can be extended to cover also CF and XF references, or templates usage.
2. Each component could have a on/off switch flag for the capability, to auto propagate or not the changes on the referent content

Maybe this is feasible idea only for a limited area or maybe is not feasible at all. Or maybe I am not fully evaluating every possibility or practicability of such tool, but I believe is worth analyzing the potential of it.

Mermaid link: https://mermaid.live/edit#pako:eNp9kUtvhCAUhf8KuWvHyAg-WDTpjH0sumjaXccu6Eh10gpGIalV_3vJUCdO0wwbuPd851wCA-xVIYBB2fKmQg9PuUR23e22qm6UFFIj8opWq6vRdKJASo7ofvfIS2HbDr1eoNihnWlEi3TfWMdbP6LNAlnPtvPQrQvFv-rm35xskROekZdzTuqNU-c7ZBe9f9Rbp7q5jsil28GDWrQ1PxT2IYejDroStciB2WPB248ccjlZjhutnnu5B6ZbIzxolSkrYO_8s7OVaQquRXbg9jfqU7fh8kWperbYEtgAX8CixKeEkpAGcZxQHK496IFhHPmERnGESRrENCBk8uD7GID9ICVpSpMYE4ojGuDpB74zm00