AEM Sites Developer Professional key terms

The AEM environment where content is created, edited, and reviewed by authors. It hosts the authoring user interfaces and normally does not serve public traffic directly, pushing approved content to publish instances instead.

The AEM environment that serves rendered pages and assets to end users. It typically sits behind the Dispatcher, receives content from the author instance through replication, and runs without authoring user interfaces.

A configured transport on an AEM instance that serializes content and sends it to another instance, such as a publish server. It defines the target URL, credentials, and the triggers that start a transfer.

The hierarchical repository structure under /content where pages and assets are stored as nodes. Because URLs map onto this tree, the node layout directly determines a site's page hierarchy and navigation.

An AEM feature that reuses content across sites through blueprints and live copies. Shared pages inherit updates from a source site while allowing local changes where inheritance is deliberately broken.

The source site configuration in Multi Site Manager from which live copies are created and rolled out. It defines the structure, content, and rollout settings that inheriting sites receive.

A site section that inherits content from a blueprint through Multi Site Manager. Its pages remain linked to the source and can be synchronized by rollouts, with inheritance breakable per page or component.

A translated version of site content produced by translation workflows or connectors. Unlike a live copy, it is independent after creation and does not keep inheriting ongoing changes from the source.

A parallel branch of site content used to prepare a future release. Authors edit the launch while the current site stays live, then promote it to replace the live content when ready.

An automated multi-step process in AEM that moves content or assets through participant and process steps. Workflows are commonly used for review and approval before publication.

The tooling that builds and installs zip-based content packages. It is used to move content and code between instances, install releases, and back up repository subtrees.

A template defined in the repository with the template editor. It holds structure, initial content, and policies, and lets authors create pages without developer involvement.

A configuration attached to a template or structure component that governs allowed components, styling choices, and other behavior. Policies replaced much of what the older design mode handled.

The older template model stored under /apps with a fixed structure defined by developers. Component availability and layout are set in code, so authors cannot restructure pages freely.

The HTML Template Language, a server-side templating syntax that renders markup from AEM components using data-sly attributes. It keeps logic out of markup and escapes output automatically by default.

A class annotated with the Sling Models annotation that adapts a resource or request into a plain object. It exposes business logic and getters that templates consume, typically through data-sly-use.

The XML definition that renders the authoring interface for a component's properties. Its fields map to repository properties that the component's rendering logic later reads.

A component that inherits from another component, usually a Core Component, and overrides only dialogs, markup, or policies. This reuses existing logic without copying the original implementation.

Adobe-maintained, extensible building blocks such as page, image, and text, distributed as a package. They are designed to be extended through proxies and configured rather than edited directly.

A mechanism that lets authors apply CSS classes from a policy-defined list to a component. Styling choices stay separate from content and from the component's own code.

The responsive grid container component that lets authors place and resize child components per breakpoint. The resulting layout is stored as properties on the container's child nodes.

Structured content based on a schema model and stored as an asset rather than a page. It can be delivered headlessly or rendered by components and reused across multiple channels.

The Sling API object that maps a request path to a resource and controls the effective user and search paths. It determines which permissions apply for the current request.

A property on a content node that names the component responsible for rendering it. Sling resolves this string to a script or servlet, making it the core link between content and code.

Extra dot-separated segments in a Sling URL that sit between the extension and the resource path. They let one resource render alternate outputs, such as print views or JSON variants.

A JAR with a manifest that runs inside the AEM OSGi container. Bundles register and consume services and can be started, stopped, updated, and configured at runtime.

Settings bound to a service's persistent identifier and supplied through the web console, repository nodes, or files. They let behavior change per environment without rebuilding code.

A label such as author, publish, dev, or prod that is active on an instance. It selects which configurations and content apply, letting one codebase behave differently per environment.

A schema definition in the repository declaring allowed properties, child nodes, and constraints. Node types such as the page type enforce structure and validation on stored content.

The JCR implementation underlying AEM. It stores content in segments or a document store and provides indexing, observation, versioning, and the persistence guarantees that the Sling layer relies on.

A repository folder holding CSS and JavaScript together with a client library folder node and categories. AEM merges, minifies, and serves its files to pages that include the matching categories.

Identifiers declared on a client library that pages use to include it. Dependencies and embeds let libraries pull in others, controlling load order and bundling of front-end code.

A generated variant of an asset, such as a thumbnail or web-optimized image, stored alongside the original. Renditions deliver different sizes and formats without reprocessing the source each time.

Adobe's caching and load-balancing module for a web server that sits in front of publish instances. It serves cached pages, filters incoming requests, and shields AEM from unnecessary load.

A configuration block that pairs a cache section with one or more publish renderers. It defines what gets cached, which requests are filtered, and how invalidation happens for that site.

A Dispatcher setting controlling how deep invalidation marker files are placed in the cache directory. It sets the granularity at which changed content flushes cached pages.

A replication agent on a publish instance that sends invalidation requests to the Dispatcher when content changes. It removes stale cached pages so updated content becomes visible.

Adobe's continuous delivery service for AEM as a Cloud Service. It runs build, quality-check, and deployment pipelines across environments and manages the associated infrastructure configuration.