AEM Developer Cheat Sheet

Mar 31, 2025 · 380 words · 2 minute read

Just a little something I wish I had when I first started working with AEM. Adobe Experience Manager can feel like a real chicken-and-egg situation—Adobe doesn’t provide an easy way to set up AEM instances for experimentation, so you’re kind of forced to learn on the job. That’s a tough spot to be in when a company is paying you to already know how to do AEM work.

Common URLs 🔗

Purpose	Path
AEM Author Login	`http://localhost:4502`
AEM Publish Instance	`http://localhost:4503`
CRXDE Lite	`/crx/de`
Felix Console (OSGi configs/bundles)	`/system/console/configMgr`
Sling Models console	`/system/console/adapters`
Dispatcher Flush Agent	`/etc/replication/agents.author/dispatcher`
Package Manager	`/crx/packmgr/index.jsp`
Useradmin	`/useradmin`
Sites Authoring	`/sites.html/content`
Template Editor	`/libs/wcm/core/content/sites/templates.html/conf`

Useful File System Paths (JCR) 🔗

Purpose	JCR Path
Page Content	`/content/your-site/...`
Components	`/apps/your-project/components/...`
Templates	`/conf/your-project/settings/wcm/templates/...`
Editable Template Policies	`/conf/your-project/settings/wcm/policies/...`
Core Components (Do not modify!)	`/libs/core/components/...`
Clientlibs	`/apps/your-project/clientlibs/...`
Designs (for legacy static templates)	`/etc/designs/`

Maven Commands 🔗

mvn clean install
mvn clean install -PautoInstallPackage
mvn clean install -PautoInstallPackage -pl ui.apps
mvn clean install -PautoInstallBundle -pl core

CRX Package Manager (Curl) 🔗

curl -u admin:admin -F file=@"my-package.zip" -F name=my-package -F force=true -F install=true http://localhost:4502/crx/packmgr/service.jsp

HTL (Sightly) Snippets 🔗

${myModel.title}
<ul data-sly-list.item="${myModel.items}">
  <li>${item.name}</li>
</ul>
<div data-sly-resource="${ 'mycomponent' @ resourceType='myproject/components/foo' }"></div>
<div data-sly-test="${myModel.showThing}">Shown if true</div>

Sling Models (Java) 🔗

@Model(adaptables = Resource.class)
public class ExampleModel {
    @Inject private String title;
    @ValueMapValue private String subtitle;
    @Default(values = "Default text") private String footer;
    public String getTitle() { return title; }
}

Registering an OSGi Servlet 🔗

@Component(service = Servlet.class,
           property = {
             "sling.servlet.methods=GET",
             "sling.servlet.paths=/bin/myendpoint"
           })
public class MyServlet extends SlingSafeMethodsServlet {
    @Override
    protected void doGet(SlingHttpServletRequest req, SlingHttpServletResponse resp) throws IOException {
        resp.getWriter().write("Hello from servlet!");
    }
}

Dispatcher Caching Quick Tips 🔗

Flush content via flush agent at /etc/replication/agents.author/dispatcher
Debug caching using X-Cache: HIT/MISS headers
Deny example: /filter { /0001 { /type "deny" /url "*.json" } }

Troubleshooting Tips 🔗

Symptom	Tip
Component not rendering	Check `resourceType` and Sling resolution
Model not working	Confirm `@Model` and Sling exporter
Bundle not active	Check `/system/console/bundles`
No logs from code	Use logger, check `error.log`
Dispatcher not updating	Clear cache or flush manually

Log Statements (Java) 🔗

private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MyModel.class);
log.info("Something happened");
log.debug("Variable value: {}", value);
log.error("Something went wrong", e);

Common Component File Structure 🔗

/apps/your-project/components/card/
  ├── card.html
  ├── _cq_dialog/.content.xml
  ├── _cq_editConfig.xml
  └── cq:template

Editable Template Setup 🔗

Template type: /apps/your-project/templates
Templates: /conf/your-project/settings/wcm/templates
Policies: /conf/your-project/settings/wcm/policies