This conversion tool is used to manipulate the structure of a page from a Static definition, to an Editable Template. The intent is to help customers move from the limited capabilities of the legacy features to the robust, modern AEM offerings.
The operations referenced here are performed on the content in the repository, this tool does not modify any code. There is an implicit expectation that a new Editable Template has been created to support the content updated by these conversions. See the Plan & Operate section for more information.
Here you’ll find information on what conversion operations occur. For information on how to configure the tool, see the associated configuration page. For information on how the services perform the changes, and options for extending or enhancing, see the developer detail pages.
Conversions
Root Container
Static templates are based on embedded components, the template defines the order and structure through code. The image on the right shows the structure of the Geometrixx Shapes home page. You'll see that there a number of components embedded in the template itself.
However, standard Editable Templates use a responsive grid container at their root, to contain the base template structure. Therefore, the first step of conversion is to create a new Container proxy component, with the node name of root.
Content Relocation
Once the root node is created, the next conversion step is to move the existing nodes to the newly created parent. The components are moved over in the order specified in the OSGi Configuration for the template. This reordering is necessary to ensure the same display order as was previously managed by the static template.
There are some nodes which are ignored for relocation. Out-of-the-box configurations include Blueprint and Live Copy metadata nodes; these will remain at the root of the page tree to ensure continued operation. Additional ignored nodes can be added via configuration, see the configuration page for more information.
Node Renaming
While moving the static node structure to the new root container, the nodes may require renaming. This is again due to the inherent difference in the static structure to the editable template layout. The static structure likely relied on nodes named parsys, whereas an editable template uses layout containers which are named container or some derivation thereof. Node renaming is configured in the OSGi service definition.
Content Removal
Since static templates function via code defined paths, there are times when a template update creates orphaned content. The only way to remove this content is to do it manually. This conversion allows specified nodes to be deleted during the transformation process.