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AEM Forms REST API Integration As Datasource

The document discusses how to configure a REST API as a data source in AEM Forms by using a Swagger file. It covers scenarios where a Swagger file may already exist, need to be authored manually, or generated from code. It then explains the steps to configure the data source in AEM Forms and create a form data model using the REST API schema.

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Chandrasekhar Kothuri
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1K views

AEM Forms REST API Integration As Datasource

The document discusses how to configure a REST API as a data source in AEM Forms by using a Swagger file. It covers scenarios where a Swagger file may already exist, need to be authored manually, or generated from code. It then explains the steps to configure the data source in AEM Forms and create a form data model using the REST API schema.

Uploaded by

Chandrasekhar Kothuri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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AEM Forms: Rest API Integration as a Datasource

Samit Narula, Technical Architect, Adobe Partner Experience

Overview
The Swagger (OpenAPI) specification is quite detailed and defines various directives,
constraints, and configurations to be used by an API Gateway that serves the API’s
consumers. However, for creating a datasource within AEM, only a subset of these
Swagger directives and constraints need to be interpreted. AEM developers should be
aware of which these are.

This whitepaper also discusses scenarios where APIs are missing documentation, or their
documentation is based on other specifications, like RAML, and so on. Here, tools and
techniques are available to create a Swagger file corresponding to such a REST API.

Data Integration in AEM Forms

Form Model Integration with Datasources


§ Configure data sources
§ Create form data model
§ Test data model objects and services in form data model
§ Use form data model in adaptive form workflows

©2018 Adobe Systems, Inc.


Swagger requirements
The first step for configuring the datasource that corresponds to the REST API is to source
a Swagger file. The developer may encounter the following cases for Swagger availability.

Already available as a published resource


The Swagger file is usually hosted on a public server that runs an API Management
solution for a SaaS product. In this case, the API documentation is occasionally updated.
However, the developer needs to keep track of the API documentation to note any
deprecation or retirement of APIs. Though less frequent, these changes might result in the
AEM datasource becoming out of sync with the hosted API due to mismatched lifecycles.

Sometimes the API is owned by the same organization and hosted on an accessible
server. The lifecycles of the API documentation and the AEM Forms data model can be
synchronized, using continuous integration and integration testing that is set up to
account for the changes, and the data model and associated forms updated according to
the AEM maintenance cycle.

Also, hosted APIs are detailed and their Swagger complex, in which case a subsection of
the API can be extracted into a Swagger file on the filesystem and used.

Note: The AEM Forms data model may have issues with deeply nested complex objects
used as parameters and defined inline within the Swagger file. It is recommended to use
a single level of attributes within the parameters section and any complex objects
extracted and referenced from the definitions section of the Swagger.

Authoring a handcrafted Swagger file


For REST APIs without any API documentation available, or for REST APIs documented as
per RAML specification or some other non-Swagger specification. Authoring your
Swagger file without using any tools is feasible for small and simple REST APIs. It is the
developer’s responsibility to keep the Swagger file updated with the changes in the
hosted API’s operations and data model, with the AEM Form Data Model being updated
when the API and its Swagger changes.

When handcrafting the Swagger file, some external tools can simplify the process. The
tools mentioned here are illustrative, and you can use others. A rough process can be:

1. Generate schema from JSON request or response for an API operation.


• https://jsonschema.net/#/editor
2. Create Swagger using the above schema.
• http://editor.swagger.io/#/

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3. Test the API using the created Swagger.
• https://swagger.io/swagger-ui/

The discussion on using these tools is outside the purview of this whitepaper.

Automated generation from code


Given a scenario where the AEM’s developer organization has appropriate change
request agreements with the product management of the SaaS solution, it is possible to
generate a Swagger from the API code itself, if the design allows for it.

A Swagger resource for the API can be created during build time, using the following
Maven plugin. This requires Swagger annotations to be inserted into the code.
<groupId>com.github.kongchen</groupId>
<artifactId>swagger-maven-plugin</artifactId>

To generate Swagger resource at runtime where JAX-RS has been used to create the REST
API, it is recommended to use the following Maven plugin, which again requires Swagger
annotations in the code.
<groupId>io.swagger</groupId>
<artifactId>swagger-jaxrs</artifactId>

AEM Form Data Model configuration from Swagger


RESTful, SOAP-based, and OData services are configured in AEM Cloud Services under
Form Data Model.

1. Log into AEM author instance using your admin credentials and navigate to:
http://localhost:4502/etc/cloudservices.html

2. Find Form Data Model under Third Party Services.

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3. Click Configure Now or Show Configurations based on if you have created a
Form Data Model already. Configure the following screen:

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Here, the Swagger JSON file corresponding to a REST API can either be uploaded from
the filesystem or a URL can be specified, when the file is hosted on a server that is
accessible to the machine on which AEM instance is running.

Select the Authentication Type from the drop-down: None, OAuth2.0, Basic Authentication,
API Key, or Custom Authentication.

Note: AEM does not choose the security definitions and security constraints defined
within the Swagger file. Configure the authentication requirement separately while
configuring the REST service.

Once the REST API datasource has been configured, the schema from the Swagger
becomes available to be used when creating a Form Data Model.
Navigate to:
http://localhost:4502/aem/createfdm.html/content/dam/formsanddocuments-
fdm

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Create and enter basic information about the Form Data Model, and then click Next.

On the next screen, choose the REST API datasource you created.

Once the Form Data Model is created and you open it, you will see that the schema from
the Swagger datasource is now available and you can configure the associated services
from the Form Data Model Editor.

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Select the Model objects that you want to use in your form.

Configure read and write service for the Model objects.

Example 1

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Example 2
Test the Form Data Model.

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And when authoring Adaptive Forms:

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