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Enhance your AEM Assets & Boost Your Development: [AEM Gems | June 19, 2024] Improving the Developer Experience with New APIs and Events

Enable commenting for reviewers on AEM pages

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Level 3

Hi everyone,
We have a requirement where a Content Owner / Reviewer is given the authoring URL, they should have the option to turn on annotations, enter a comment, save it and view others annotations.

We had the old forum links which speaks of this, but they are inaccessible now.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2325941

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2325941#10931831

 

If anyone has any suggestions for this, please do share.
Thanks

3 Replies

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Level 9

Hi @Jangra98 ,

To enable commenting and annotations for reviewers on AEM pages, you can leverage AEM's built-in annotation feature or develop a custom solution. Here's a detailed guide on how to achieve this using both approaches:

1. Using AEM Built-in Annotations

AEM provides built-in support for annotations which can be used to comment on pages. Here’s how you can enable and use this feature:

Step-by-Step Guide:

  1. Access AEM Author Instance:

    • Log in to your AEM author instance.
  2. Enable Annotations in Page Editor:

    • Open the page you want to review in the AEM Page Editor.
    • In the top toolbar, you should see an "Annotations" button (it looks like a pencil or speech bubble icon). Click on it to enable annotations.
  3. Add Comments:

    • With annotations enabled, click anywhere on the page where you want to add a comment.
    • A comment box will appear. Enter your comment and save it.
    • Other users with access to the page can view and respond to the annotations.
  4. View and Manage Annotations:

    • You can view all annotations on the page by clicking on the "Annotations" button.
    • To manage annotations, click on each annotation to edit or delete them.

2. Custom Annotation Solution

If you need more advanced features or a custom commenting solution, you might need to develop a custom component. Here’s a high-level approach to creating a custom annotation feature:

Step-by-Step Guide:

  1. Create a Custom Component for Annotations:

    • Define the Component: Create a new component in AEM for annotations, for example, /apps/your-project/components/annotations.

    • Component Dialog: Define a dialog for the component where users can enter their comments.

    • Component Script: Create the HTL (HTML Template Language) script to render the component on the page.

 

<!-- /apps/your-project/components/annotations/annotations.html -->
<div class="annotation-component">
  <h3>Annotations</h3>
  <div id="annotations-list">
    <!-- Annotations will be dynamically loaded here -->
  </div>
  <textarea id="new-annotation" placeholder="Enter your comment"></textarea>
  <button id="save-annotation">Save Comment</button>
</div>

 

Client-Side Javascript&colon; Add JavaScript to handle adding, displaying, and saving comments.

 

// /apps/your-project/components/annotations/clientlibs/js/annotations.js
document.getElementById('save-annotation').addEventListener('click', function() {
    const comment = document.getElementById('new-annotation').value;
    if (comment) {
        // Save the comment to the server
        saveAnnotation(comment);
    }
});

function saveAnnotation(comment) {
    // Implement AJAX call to save the comment to a JCR node or another storage
    // Example: POST request to a custom Sling servlet
}

function loadAnnotations() {
    // Implement AJAX call to load comments from the server
    // Example: GET request to a custom Sling servlet
}

// Load existing annotations when the page loads
loadAnnotations();

 

Create a Custom Sling Servlet:

  • Servlet to Handle CRUD Operations: Create a Sling servlet to handle saving, retrieving, and managing comments.

 

@Component(service = Servlet.class,
           property = {
               Constants.SERVICE_DESCRIPTION + "=Annotation Servlet",
               "sling.servlet.methods=" + HttpConstants.METHOD_POST,
               "sling.servlet.paths=" + "/bin/annotations"
           })
public class AnnotationServlet extends SlingAllMethodsServlet {
    @Reference
    private ResourceResolverFactory resourceResolverFactory;

    @Override
    protected void doPost(SlingHttpServletRequest request, SlingHttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        // Implement logic to save annotation
    }

    @Override
    protected void doGet(SlingHttpServletRequest request, SlingHttpServletResponse response)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        // Implement logic to get annotations
    }
}

 

 

Save Annotations in JCR: Save the annotations in the JCR repository under a specific path.

 

@Override
protected void doPost(SlingHttpServletRequest request, SlingHttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException {
    String comment = request.getParameter("comment");
    // Save the comment under a specific path in the JCR
    ResourceResolver resolver = request.getResourceResolver();
    Session session = resolver.adaptTo(Session.class);
    try {
        Node rootNode = session.getNode("/content/annotations");
        Node commentNode = rootNode.addNode(UUID.randomUUID().toString(), "nt:unstructured");
        commentNode.setProperty("comment", comment);
        session.save();
        response.getWriter().write("Comment saved");
    } catch (RepositoryException e) {
        response.setStatus(HttpServletResponse.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
    }
}

@Override
protected void doGet(SlingHttpServletRequest request, SlingHttpServletResponse response)
        throws ServletException, IOException {
    // Retrieve and return comments
}

 

Register the Component and ClientLibs:

  • ClientLibs Configuration: Configure client libraries to include your JavaScript and CSS files.

 

<!-- /apps/your-project/components/annotations/clientlibs/.content.xml -->
<jcr:root xmlns:jcr="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0"
          jcr:primaryType="cq:ClientLibraryFolder"
          categories="[annotations]">
    <js>
        <fileName>annotations.js</fileName>
    </js>
    <css>
        <fileName>annotations.css</fileName>
    </css>
</jcr:root>

 

Include the Annotation Component on Pages:

  • Add the annotation component to the pages where reviewers need to comment

 

<!-- Include the annotation component -->
<cq:include path="annotations" resourceType="your-project/components/annotations"/>
​

 


By using AEM's built-in annotations or developing a custom solution, you can enable content owners and reviewers to comment on AEM pages. The built-in feature is straightforward to use and sufficient for basic needs, while a custom solution offers greater flexibility and control over the functionality. Choose the approach that best fits your requirements.

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Administrator

@Jangra98 Did you find the suggestions from users helpful? Please let us know if you require more information. Otherwise, please mark the answer as correct for posterity. If you've discovered a solution yourself, we would appreciate it if you could share it with the community. Thank you!



Kautuk Sahni