FluentForms API

The FluentForms API project is a set of Java libraries that allow remote access to Adobe Experience Manager Forms (a.k.a. AEM Forms) functionality.

In addition to providing remote access to AEM Forms functionality, it also provides a modern, typesafe, and fluent facade over the existing AEM Forms APIs.

It has a layered architecture with four layers. Each layer targets a different type of client application. Each layer is built upon the previous layers and requires less client code to use than the layers below it. The top layer is the Spring Boot Starter.

Spring Boot Starter

This is the easiest way to use the FluentForms integration with AEM. The Spring Boot starter publishes Spring beans into the Spring context that can be utilized easily by any Spring Boot application.

Getting started with the Spring Boot starter

Retrieve OSGi bundles and install into your AEM server
Add starter to project using maven
Add AEM code to your project

There is a sample web application that uses the Spring Boot starter library. There are also documents outlining the Spring Beans provided by the starter library and the configuration properties that is uses.

Java Client Library

This is the targeted at customers with Java applications that are not based on Spring Boot.

Getting started with the Java Client Library

Retrieve OSGi bundles and install into your AEM server
Add client library to project using maven
Add AEM code to your project

AEM REST Services

This is targeted at customers with non-Java applications.

Getting started with the AEM REST Services

Retrieve OSGi bundles and install into your AEM server
Make REST calls to the REST services

Fluent Forms Core Libraries

This is used internally by the AEM Server REST Services but could be utilized by customers writing OSGi bundles in Java that will run directly on the AEM server.

Getting started with the Fluent Forms Core Libraries

Retrieve OSGi bundles and install into your AEM server
Add AEM code to your project

Retrieving the Fluent Forms OSGi Bundles

The bundles can either be built from source or retrieved from this project's GitHub Packages Repository.

There are a couple of ways to retrieve files from this project's GitHub Packages Repository. The GitHub Packages Repository is a maven repository that requires authentication, so both approaches require that you have a GitHub account and that you set up your GitHub credentials in your local maven settings.xml file (i.e. ~/.m2/settings.xml).

To set up your maven credentials, create a settings.xml file within a .m2 directory underneath your home directory. The settings.xml file should look like this:

 <settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0
                          https://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">
      <servers>
        <server>
            <id>github</id>
            <username>your GitHub user name goes here</username>
            <password>your personal access token goes here</password>
        </server>
      </servers>
    </settings>

Both methods outlined below assume that the server's id is set to github as in the sample above.

The two common methods for retrieving the bundles are:

Use JBang and run the GrabBundles.java script located under the jbang_scripts directory.
Use Maven to retrieve the artifacts using the Maven Dependency Plugin.

This is a sample maven pom.xml that accompilishes this task:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>com._4point.aem</groupId>
    <artifactId>fluentforms-get</artifactId>
    <packaging>pom</packaging>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>Retreive FluentForms bundles</name>
    <description>Retreive FluentForms bundles from GitHub Package Repository</description>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.6.0</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>get_fluentforms_core</id>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>get</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <artifact>com._4point.aem:fluentforms.core:0.0.3-SNAPSHOT</artifact>
                            <remoteRepositories>
                                github::::https://maven.pkg.github.com/4PointSolutions/FluentFormsAPI
                            </remoteRepositories>
                            <packaging>jar</packaging>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                    <execution>
                        <id>get_restservices_server</id>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>get</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <artifact>com._4point.aem.docservices:rest-services.server:0.0.3-SNAPSHOT</artifact>
                            <remoteRepositories>
                                github::::https://maven.pkg.github.com/4PointSolutions/FluentFormsAPI
                            </remoteRepositories>
                            <packaging>jar</packaging>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                    <execution>
                        <id>copy</id>
                        <phase>package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>copy</goal>
                        </goals>
                        <configuration>
                            <artifactItems>
                                <artifactItem>
                                    <groupId>com._4point.aem</groupId>
                                    <artifactId>fluentforms.core</artifactId>
                                    <version>0.0.3-SNAPSHOT</version>
                                    <type>jar</type>
                                    <overWrite>true</overWrite>
                                </artifactItem>
                                <artifactItem>
                                    <groupId>com._4point.aem.docservices</groupId>
                                    <artifactId>rest-services.server</artifactId>
                                    <version>0.0.3-SNAPSHOT</version>
                                    <type>jar</type>
                                    <overWrite>true</overWrite>
                                </artifactItem>
                            </artifactItems>
                        </configuration>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

After executing mnv package the files should be available in the target\dependency dependency under the directory where the pom.xml resides.

Deploying the Fluent Forms OSGi Bundles

The easiest way to install the Fluent Forms OSGi bundles is to copy them to AEM's crx-quickstart/install directory (this directory is not created by default, so you may have to create the directory before copying the bundles into it). AEM monitors this directory and when the bundle .jar files are copied there, it will detect and install them.

You can verify that the bundles are installed and running by locating them in the OSGi bundles console (located under http://<machine>:<port>/system/console/bundles). Both bundles should be present with a status of Active: Screenshot showing bundles with Active status

4PointSolutions / FluentFormsAPI

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