Best Practices for Creating Extensible and Secure Sling Models in AEM

Problem Statement:

What is the best way to use the Sling model?

Requirements:

Need to create a sling model with best practices like OOTB components and increase the extensibility of the component and security.

Introduction:

The Sling model is a basic POJO, the class is annotated with @Model and the adaptable class. Fields that need to be injected are annotated with recommended injectors.

Its commonly used for injecting component resources and handling manipulation on those properties

Create a Sling model interface

Create a Sling model interface class and impl package with its implementation this helps in the long run when we are trying to write extra features by creating versions for the same component:

Create Interface Class – HelloWorldModel

In the below code, we can see an interface that extends the Component and a few constants and methods which increases the security

package com.mysite.core.models;

import com.adobe.cq.wcm.core.components.models.Component;
import org.osgi.annotation.versioning.ConsumerType;

@ConsumerType
public interface HelloWorldModel extends Component {
    /**
     * if required by multiple classes
     */
    String PN_PARENT_PAGE = "navigationRoot";

    /**
     * Returns the hellow world message
     *
     * @return the message containing resourcetype and page path.
     */
    default String getMessage() {
        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
    }
}

Create Implementation Class – HelloWorldModelImpl

package com.mysite.core.models.impl;

import static org.apache.sling.api.resource.ResourceResolver.PROPERTY_RESOURCE_TYPE;
import java.util.Optional;
import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
import org.apache.sling.api.SlingHttpServletRequest;
import org.apache.sling.api.resource.Resource;
import org.apache.sling.api.resource.ResourceResolver;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.Default;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.Exporter;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.Model;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.injectorspecific.InjectionStrategy;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.injectorspecific.SlingObject;
import org.apache.sling.models.annotations.injectorspecific.ValueMapValue;
import com.adobe.cq.export.json.ExporterConstants;
import com.day.cq.wcm.api.Page;
import com.day.cq.wcm.api.PageManager;
import com.mysite.core.models.HelloWorldModel;

@Model(adaptables = SlingHttpServletRequest.class, adapters = {HelloWorldModel.class}, resourceType = HelloWorldModelImpl.RESOURCE_TYPE)
@Exporter(name = ExporterConstants.SLING_MODEL_EXPORTER_NAME , extensions = ExporterConstants.SLING_MODEL_EXTENSION)
public class HelloWorldModelImpl implements HelloWorldModel {

    public static final String RESOURCE_TYPE = "mysite/components/content/hello";

    @ValueMapValue(name=PROPERTY_RESOURCE_TYPE, injectionStrategy=InjectionStrategy.OPTIONAL)
    @Default(values="No resourceType")
    protected String resourceType;

    @SlingObject
    private Resource currentResource;

    @SlingObject
    private ResourceResolver resourceResolver;

    private String message;

    @PostConstruct
    protected void init() {
        PageManager pageManager = resourceResolver.adaptTo(PageManager.class);
        String currentPagePath = Optional.ofNullable(pageManager)
                .map(pm -> pm.getContainingPage(currentResource))
                .map(Page::getPath).orElse("");

        message = "Hello World!\n"
                + "Resource type is: " + resourceType + "\n"
                + "Current page is:  " + currentPagePath + "\n";
    }

    public String getMessage() {
        return message;
    }
}

Implementation class will implement and adapters to interface class HellWorldModel

Please make sure

The default adaption(adaptables) strategy is preferably SlingHTTPRequest compared or Resource
We should always add Jackson exporter so that the model will be export ready
Make sure always use relevant injector instead of @inject annotations refer to all the injectors: https://sling.apache.org/documentation/bundles/models.html
if multiple fields have the optional injection, then add the following code to the class to make all the variables optional

@Model(adaptables = SlingHttpServletRequest.class, defaultInjectionStrategy = DefaultInjectionStrategy.OPTIONAL)

Project structure

AEM Core Image component:

References

Interface:
https://github.com/adobe/aem-core-wcm-components/blob/master/bundles/core/src/main/java/com/adobe/cq/wcm/core/components/models/Image.java

Implementation:
https://github.com/adobe/aem-core-wcm-components/blob/master/bundles/core/src/main/java/com/adobe/cq/wcm/core/components/internal/models/v3/ImageImpl.java

Advantages of this pattern:

Create multiple versions of the component
Improves code readability
Don’t have to retouch the existing implementation but can extend the parent class to improve functionality
Easy to revert back to the production code
Improves unit testing and regression testing

Best Practices for Creating Extensible and Secure Sling Models in AEM

Problem Statement:

Requirements:

Introduction:

Create a Sling model interface

Create Interface Class – HelloWorldModel

Create Implementation Class – HelloWorldModelImpl

Project structure

AEM Core Image component:

Advantages of this pattern:

Published by Kiran Sg

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Problem Statement:

Requirements:

Introduction:

Create a Sling model interface

Create Interface Class – HelloWorldModel

Create Implementation Class – HelloWorldModelImpl

Project structure

AEM Core Image component:

Advantages of this pattern:

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Published by Kiran Sg

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