Monday 25 November 2013

Creating a Custom Reporting Service for Adobe Experience Manager

You can create a custom reporting service for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) that stores AEM data. A benefit of creating a custom service is you can develop it to meet your business requirements and integrate the reporting service to use data queried from an AEM service. For example, you can create an AEM solution that queries enterprise data that a digital marketer is interested in viewing. Then you can write out the data to a report and store the report in the AEM Java Content Repository (JCR).

This development article extends an AEM application that is built by following another AEM development article that queries data from MySQL using a DataSourcePool. Before following this article, create the DataSourcePool application by following this article: Injecting a DataSourcePool Service into an Adobe Experience Manager OSGi bundle.

In this article, an option is added to the web application that lets a user specify if the queried data is written to a custom report. Consider the following AEM web application.


This development article walks you through how to build this custom reporting service. To read this development article, click http://helpx.adobe.com/experience-manager/using/aem-reporting-service.html.

Note: Adobe Experience Manager supports reports without creating a custom reporting service. You can create a report by configuring JCR nodes and properties. For information, see Developing Reports.

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I (Scott Macdonald) am a Senior Digital Marketing Community Manager at Adobe Systems with 20 years in the high tech industry. I am also a programmer with knowledge in Java, JavaScript, C#,C++, HTML, XML and ActionScript. If  you would like to see more CQ or other Adobe Digital Marketing end to end articles like this, then leave a comment and let me know what content you would like to see.


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Wednesday 13 November 2013

CommuniQAEM

Welcome to CommuniQAEM. The first digital magazine for Adobe Experience Manager developers and architects.





 The title of the magazine tries to consolidate all the names that the platform (now branded as Adobe Experience Manager) is known for in the community, while at the same time expressing the main goal of this initiative: communicate about Adobe Experience Manager.
We believe there is an audience for a magazine that our beloved Adobe Experience Manager developers and architects can read while not being busy on the job. As a way of catching up with new ideas, concepts, implementations, etc.,  not necessarily part of the engagements they are working on right now.
This magazine is inspired by a similar initiative started by Michael Chaize around web standards and technologies (HTML5, CSS, JSP) which is named Appliness, has established its footprint and is up to its 20th issue!
The issue you can view on your tablet right now is named Issue 0 and that is for a particular reason. We consider this first issue a soft launch of the magazine, not yet supported by an infrastructure consisting of a web site, social channels, etc. It is almost like we are ‘dipping our toes in the water’ before going for a full launch. The feedback we receive will further define the content, delivery, and supporting infrastructure of the magazine.
For now, enjoy this first issue of CommuniQAEM. You can read about
  • sending mobile push notification from your AEM environment,
  • using the adaptive image component within your responsive design,
  • clientlibs, their purpose and examples on how to use them,
  • an exciting new templating language that can make your component development so much easier (amongst others).
You can download the app and first issue from the iTunes app store (where it will appear in Newsstand) and Google Play. Be aware that the first issue is a large download as we have included videos for offline viewing.

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I (Scott Macdonald) am a Senior Digital Marketing Community Manager at Adobe Systems with 20 years in the high tech industry. I am also a programmer with knowledge in Java, JavaScript, C#,C++, HTML, XML and ActionScript. If  you would like to see more CQ or other Adobe Digital Marketing end to end articles like this, then leave a comment and let me know what content you would like to see.


TwitterFollow the Digital Marketing Customer Care team on Twitter @AdobeExpCare.

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Saturday 9 November 2013

Creating Adobe Experience Manager services that invoke third party Restful web services

You can create an Adobe Experience Manager service that consumes data from a third-party Restful  web service and displays the data in an AEM web page. For example, assume that you have a requirement to create an AEM component that calculates the distance between two cities and displays the results in an AEM web page. In this situation, you can develop an OSGi bundle that contains Java classes located in the org.apache.http package that are able to invoke a third-party Restful service. The following illustration shows data being retrieved from a third-party Restful service and displayed in an AEM web page (JSP).

An AEM OSGi bundle invoking a third-party Restful service


The use case in this article is to calculate the distance between two cities, return the data within JSON, parse the JSON using an AEM page component (using JavaScript), and display the results in an AEM web page.

An AEM page that uses a Restful request to calculate the distance between two cities


To calculate the distance between two cities, the Google Distance Matrix API is used. For information about this API, see:

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/distancematrix/

To read this article, click  http://helpx.adobe.com/experience-manager/using/restful-services.html.

Note: For information about creating an AEM OSGi bundle that consumes a third-party WSDL, see http://scottsdigitalcommunity.blogspot.ca/2012/05/creating-adobe-cq-bundles-that-consume.html.

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I (Scott Macdonald) am a Senior Digital Marketing Community Manager at Adobe Systems with 20 years in the high tech industry. I am also a programmer with knowledge in Java, JavaScript, C#,C++, HTML, XML and ActionScript. If  you would like to see more CQ or other Adobe Digital Marketing end to end articles like this, then leave a comment and let me know what content you would like to see.


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Friday 8 November 2013

Developing a Java Swing Application that displays Adobe Experience Manager Data

When working with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), sometimes you need to query data that is located in the AEM JCR and view results. Typically you write an AEM component to display the results within a web application. However, sometimes you want to be able to view the data without writing an AEM component or viewing the data from within an AEM web application. Even our team at Adobe has these requirements. That is, we want to be able to quickly get at data without having to write an AEM web application. For example, consider AEM community members which of course is data stored in the AEM JCR. We want the ability to quickly view community members, scores, and even activity based on date values.

In this situation, a Java Swing application is a good choice to use to build a custom tool that enables you to quickly get at the JCR data and view the result set. You can display the result set in a Swing data type that extends javax.swing.JTable, as shown in this illustration.

A Java Swing application that displays data retrieved from the AEM JCR


For information about javax.swing.JTable, see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/javax/swing/JTable.html.

AEM 5.5-6.1

This development article walks you through how to build a Java Swing application that queries the AEM JCR and displays the result set. To read this development article, click http://helpx.adobe.com/experience-manager/using/java-swing-applications.html.

AEM 6.3

To read this development article for AEM 6.3 (which uses JCR SQL2 API), click https://helpx.adobe.com/experience-manager/using/java-swing-applications-aem63.html.

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I (Scott Macdonald) am a Senior Digital Marketing Community Manager at Adobe Systems with 20 years in the high tech industry. I am also a programmer with knowledge in Java, JavaScript, C#,C++, HTML, XML and ActionScript. If  you would like to see more CQ or other Adobe Digital Marketing end to end articles like this, then leave a comment and let me know what content you would like to see.


TwitterFollow the Digital Marketing Customer Care team on Twitter @AdobeExpCare.

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Sunday 3 November 2013

Creating an Android PhoneGap 1.x application using IntelliJ IDEA

You can create an Android PhoneGap application by using the Android SDK, the PhoneGap API, and the IntelliJ development environment. The PhoneGap API can be used to develop mobile applications for iPhones, Androids, BlackBerries, and other mobile devices. You can use an IntelliJ Android project to wrap HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), and JavaScript code to create a mobile application. Also, when developing a PhoneGap application, you can use other  open source APIs like jQuery Mobile to create rich graphical user interfaces (GUIs). You can also make AJAX calls to enterprise servers to send or retrieve mobile data.

Note: Future PhoneGap development articles will illustrate how to develop PhoneGap applications that interact with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). One use case that you can perform is taking a picture with the mobile device's camera and then sending the photo to the AEM DAM.

Most end to end articles that you find on the web show how to develop a PhoneGap application using Eclipse or the command line (I personally like IDEs much better than command line). While I use the Eclipse IDE in many articles appearing on Scott's Digital Community, in this development article, I am going to use IntelliJ (version 12.6).

This development article walks you through downloading the PhoneGap API, the Android SDK, and then how to use the IntelliJ IDEA to develop a PhoneGap application. The PhoneGap application is deployed to an Android device.

An Android PhoneGap application

To create an Android PhoneGap application by using IntelliJ IDEA, perform these tasks:
  1. Install the Android SDK.
  2. Download the PhoneGap API.
  3. Create the PhoneGap application using Intellij IDEA.

Install the Android SDK

The first step to create an Android PhoneGap application is to install the Android SDK. You use the Android SDK from the IntelliJ IDEA. For information about installing the Android SDK, see the detailed instructions at http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html.

Install the PhoneGap API

You can download the PhoneGap API from the following URL:


When downloading the PhoneGap API, you have library files for IOS devices, Android devices, Blackberry devices, and so on as shown in this illustration. 

PhoneGap library files

This development article uses the PhoneGap API for Android. Download the PhoneGap ZIP file from the PhoneGap archive section, as shown here.

PhoneGap Download options
In this development article, the PhoneGap 1.8.1 is used. The three files that are used in this development article are cordova-1.8.1.jar, cordova.js, and plugins.xml.

Note: You can also install the PhoneGap API using a command line. However, this development article does not use the command line to install the PhoneGap API. 

Create an Android PhoneGap project using IntelliJ

After you have installed the Android SDK and downloaded the PhoneGap API, you can use IntelliJ IDEA to create an Android PhoneGap application. This development article uses IntelliJ version 12.1.6.

Create an IntelliJ project

The first step is to create an IntelliJ Android project as shown here.

IntelliJ Android New Project

Create an Android PhoneGap project by performing these tasks:
  1. Start IntelliJ IDEA.
  2. Click File, New Project. 
  3. In Project Name, type MyPhoneGap.
  4. In Project Location, specify a location for your project. In this example, C:\PhoneGapFirst is specified. 
  5. In the Project SDK, specify the location to where you downloaded the Android SDK. 
  6. Click Next.
  7. In the application name, specify a name for your application. Specify MyPhoneGap.
  8. In the package field, specify: com.example.PhoneGapFirst.
  9. In the Activity name field, keep the default value: MyActivity.
  10. Click the show device chooser dialog radio button.
  11. Click Finish. 

Add sub folders to your project

After you create the IntelliJ Android project, your project should reflect the following illustration:

Project files generated by IntelliJ

Next, add new folders to your project. In the assets folder, create a sub folder named www. Place the cordova.js in the www folder. 

Place the cordova-1.8.1.jar in the libs folder.  Also add the cordova-1.8.1.jar to your IntelliJ project's class path. Right click on the Project Name ( PhoneGapFirst) and press F4. This action opens the Project Structure dialog.

Select Libraries and then click the little '+' icon near the top of the dialog. Select Java and browse to the cordoba.jar file. Click OK, then click OK again.

Expand the res folder, right click and create a new folder named xml. Copy the plugins.xml file from your PhoneGap installation and add this file to the xml folder.

The following illustration shows the PhoneGap files that you added to your Android IntelliJ project. 

PhoneGap files added to the IntelliJ project 

Modify the Java file

The next step is to modify the MyActivity Java class. Add the following import statement to this file:

import org.apache.cordova.*;

Next change the class that the MyActivity class extends from Activity to DroidGap. This class is the main Android activity that represents a PhoneGap application. For more information, see DroidGap.

The following represents the modified MyActivity class.

package com.example.PhoneGap;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import org.apache.cordova.*;

public class MyActivity extends DroidGap
{
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        super.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/www/index.html");
    }
}

Notice that the loadURL method references an HTML file named index.html. This is the HTML file where you can add your PhoneGap JavaScript logic. This PhoneGap JavaScript API is very rich API that lets you interact with most features of your smartphone. This development article simply writes out text. 

Modify the AndroidManifest.xml file

Modify the AndroidManifest XML file located in your IntelliJ project. Copy and paste the following XML to this file between the <uses-sdk.../> and <application.../> tags:

<supports-screens 
    android:largeScreens="true" 
    android:normalScreens="true" 
    android:smallScreens="true" 
    android:resizeable="true" 
    android:anyDensity="true" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" /> 
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BROADCAST_STICKY" />

The following XML represents the entire XML file. 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="com.example.PhoneGap"
          android:versionCode="1"
          android:versionName="1.0">
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4" android:targetSdkVersion="4"/>
    <supports-screens
            android:largeScreens="true"
            android:normalScreens="true"
            android:smallScreens="true"
            android:resizeable="true"
            android:anyDensity="true" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.VIBRATE" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_LOCATION_EXTRA_COMMANDS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BROADCAST_STICKY" />
    <application android:label="@string/app_name" android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher" android:debuggable="true">
        <activity android:name="MyActivity"
                  android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

Notice the bolded line: android:debuggable="true". This lets you write your project to an Android device. 

Add the HTML file that references the  PhoneGap JavaScript file

In the assets/www folder that you created, add a new HTML file named index.html. This is the file where you can place your PhoneGap JavaScript code. However, for this article, the HTML writes text. Add the following HTML to this file.

 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
    <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="cordova.js"></script>
    <title>Hello PhoneGap</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Hello, this is a very basic Android PhoneGap application!</h2>
</body>
</html>

Notice that the cordova.js file is referenced. This is how you can use the PhoneGap JavaScript API within an Android application. 

Deploy your PhoneGap application to an Android Device

The final task is to deploy the PhoneGap to the Android device. For this to be successful, you have to perform a few tasks:

1. Declare your application as "debuggable" in your Android Manifest. (this is shown in this article). 
2. Enable USB debugging on your device.
3. Configure your computer to detect your device. You may have to install a driver file. 

For information about performing these tasks, see http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html.

Once you are done with these tasks, you can run your Android IntelliJ application. You will be presented with the Choose Device dialog:

The IntelliJ Choose Device dialog that shows a device

Notice that under the Serial Number column, you device is displayed. Also make sure that the Compatiable column displays yes. Ensure that you specify the correct Android OS version in the AndroidManifest XML file. If your device does not match the values that you specified, you will not be able to run your PhoneGap application on your device.

Run your application and choose your device from the Choose Device dialog. Congratulations, you have just developed and deployed your first PhoneGap application using IntilliJ IDEA. 


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I (Scott Macdonald) am a Senior Digital Marketing Community Manager at Adobe Systems with 20 years in the high tech industry. I am also a programmer with knowledge in Java, JavaScript, C#,C++, HTML, XML and ActionScript. If  you would like to see more CQ or other Adobe Digital Marketing end to end articles like this, then leave a comment and let me know what content you would like to see.


TwitterFollow the Digital Marketing Customer Care team on Twitter @AdobeExpCare.

YouTube: Subscribe to the AEM Community Channel