News

AEM Update Email: October 19, 2020

Monthly email series with tips and best practices for AEM Authors

trail boardwalk strewn with fall leaves
Blueberry Ridge Boardwalk Bekah Herndon hikes amidst colorful fallen leaves on a boardwalk along the Blueberry Ridge Trail in the Nags Head Woods Preserve © Ben Herndon © © Ben Herndon/Tandemstock.com

Hello AEM Authors!

Following our AEM 6.5 upgrade and September release we have many items to share this month! Here’s what we’ve got for October’s AEM tips and updates: 

In this edition:

  • Authoring Update - Audience Tags: Audience Tags now required. 
  • Authoring Update - Page Properties Issue: Secondary Business Group
  • System Update - AEM DAM Image Size Limits: Images loaded into the AEM DAM must be smaller than 5 MB. 
  • Authoring Tool – Page Properties Guide: Page Properties have been updated, and we have a guide to help. 
  • ICYMI – GDU: Hidden Data Gems GDU recording
  • International Content Owners – Component Update: C27 Related Articles (Auto) now working

The Audience Tag now appears in Page Creation…and it’s Required?

During the latest AEM upgrade to 6.5, one of the major optimizations was a cleanup of the page properties for all templates. One of the newly required fields on the Page Creation screen (but not a new page property) is the Audience tag field. Why? It primarily helps us understand (via page reports) what audiences you all are building content for, and can help us see data on how content performs by audience. In the future, this could also help us with personalization (more to come on that). For now, we’ll be working to clean up some of the audience tags to make it easier to distinguish and select the most appropriate audience. If you are having difficulty choosing at least one audience tag, think about the broadest audience that would benefit from the goals of the page. We’ll also work to restrict this to only certain templates that have a promotional angle, such as articles, landing pages and press releases. In the meantime, please let me know (clemente.santiago@tnc.org) if you have any immediate questions as you are creating content.

Page Properties Issue: Secondary Business Group

Earlier this year, we implemented a new page properties field – Secondary Business Group. The field was created to resolve issues with analytics arising when more than one business group was added to the existing business group field. Having more than one tag in the business group field created errors with automated tracking and aggregation components. We needed to limit the primary business group field to one value to stabilize automated reporting and functionality of auto-generated components. To continue to allow for multiple business groups for sorting and filtering, we created a secondary business group field. However, when we streamlined the page properties, this field was accidentally removed from all templates. At the moment, there is only one business group field that is restricted to one tag. We are working on restoring the Secondary Business Group field for the November AEM release. When the field is restored the values should also be restored, so you will not need to reenter them. Here is a refresher on how to use the two different fields:

  • Primary Owner or Business Group: This field will always be picked up by Parsely as the primary owner of the page and the page will always be tracked and aggregated by this value. The field is single-select and required.
  • Secondary Business Group: If the article should appear connected with other business group(s) in search, filtering, and sorting, additional business group or groups should be entered here. This field is optional and multi-select (will be restored to page properties in November).

AEM DAM Image Size Limits

One important change that occurred in the most recent AEM release (on 9/30 – release notes here) is that we have restricted the size of images that can be uploaded to the AEM DAM. The Aprimo DAM is now the place for storing master image files that will be used in digital materials. All new images added to the AEM DAM must be smaller than 5 MB. The reason for this change is to improve and maintain our page speeds. For any images NOT already in the Aprimo DAM, we recommend that you first load them there, then download a smaller image to upload into the AEM DAM. For most images, a 1-2 MB image will still be plenty large and we recommend that you aim for 2000pixels on the longest edge when resizing images. This file size restriction only applies to images – not to videos, documents, or other file types. Please refer to the release notes for additional information.

Updated Page Properties Guide

In the September 2020 AEM release we overhauled and streamlined page properties across all templates. We reduced the number of tabs and fields that authors will see, and we also added, renamed, and tweaked many existing fields. To help you navigate the updated page properties, we have created an updated Guide to AEM Page Properties. Also, remember to check tool tips when you are in the system!

Unearthing the Hidden Data Gems of Nature.org

In September, the Global Digital Analytics team worked with the Content team to bring you little known insights in the nature.org data. The session was recorded and posted on GD Central. Watch the recording and view the slide deck to learn how the home page fits into our audience's journey on the site, what pages impact visitors who will go on to donate online, as well as many other insights from our ongoing content optimization activities. If you are involved in content or campaign strategy, or if you are just curious about how we are using all the new digital systems to generate data insights, we encourage you to check out this presentation! Link to Course Page

Related Articles Auto (C27) Component Working on International Domains

In the most recent release, we fixed a bug that impacted a couple international domains and allows for the use of the C27 Related Articles Auto component. This only applies to international domains that have Parsely installed. Prior to the release, using this component on the select international domains would not produce any results. The following international domains can now utilize the C27 Related Articles Auto component:

  • Natureaustralia.org.au
  • Tnc.org.br
  • Tnc.org.hk
  • Natureunited.ca
  • Tncindia.in

As a reminder, our next AEM release will take place on November 4th and the Marketing Requests Portal is always available for your questions!