What are the Key Differences and Best Use Cases for Adobe Experience Manager's Universal Visual Editor (UVE) and Page Editor?

[AEM_rookie]

I'm looking at insights into the two content editing tools in AEM—Universal Visual Editor (UVE) and Page Editor. Can you help me differentiate between them and offer guidance on when to use each?

1. What are the key features and strengths of Universal Visual Editor (UVE), and in which content creation scenarios does it be used?
2. How does Page Editor differ from UVE in terms of functionality and capabilities, and when should content authors consider leveraging its power?
3. Can you share real-world examples or use cases where UVE or Page Editor played a crucial role in achieving specific project goals?

[EstebanBustamante]

Hi @AEM_rookie 

I have previously written a blog about this topic some time ago that I think can be useful, and I address most of your questions there. Please feel free to read it here: https://www.oshyn.com/blog/aem-next-gen-editing-impressions.

Let me provide you with a short summary:

1. The UE aims to resolve a "universe" of scenarios, regardless of its architecture, content source, and type of content. This means you can make any website editable, and with the proper adjustments, you can integrate regular websites, SPAs, or other technologies into the Editor.
2. The UE is still in progress and is not fully released publicly. Not all the features have been completed; nevertheless, there is a main focus on this project, it seems to me. Also, as I explained in the blog, there is an ongoing program for some customers who would like to apply.
3. As I mentioned, this is not publicly available to Adobe's customers yet. However, that does not mean there are no success stories. I believe Adobe will inform us about them soon. I think this product provides a perfect option for a fully composable architecture if you are familiar with this concept and how it can fit into your company.

[Shashi_Mulugu]

@AEM_rookie you refer to @EstebanBustamante detailed answer but let me take it in simple way,

If you only have aem as your content management system you can host your pages in Aem and leverage aem inbuilt editing capabilities.

Along with aem, if you have other systems where your data/content is maintained but still don't want to navigate/login/train/learn all those different systems, then we generally target a distributed authoring environment kind of , ideal custom built, Here Adobe is offering such an UI called Universal Editor.

[Shailesh_Bassi_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @AEM_rookie 

There is a huge difference between the two.

Universal Editor

• is usually used in the scenarios where the application is created in the the FE technologies. 
• It is actually decoupling the content editing experience from any particular content delivery system.

Page editor

• offers an intuitive, visual, in-context WYSIWYG authoring experience that requires minimal training and shows authors exactly how the content will appear.

Use Case Scenario

If the application is developed using microfrontend architecture or the application is created using the state specific components and the editing capabilities are required, in this case you can go ahead with the Universal Editor.

But if the case if where the application is generating cachable content and the state management is also not required, in that case making use of the page editor is more beneficial as AEM other capabilties like dynamic generation of the content using event handlers, event drivent architecture problems and more things are easily achievable.

In addition to it, there are multiple items like page layout management, its governance, etc which is not yet GA for the Univeral Editor.

Reference - https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-cloud-service/content/universal-editor/in...

Hope this helps!

Thanks