Sync content using AEM

Use Adobe Experience Manager as your single source of truth for managing your valuable content. Our AEM connector automatically syncs documents, document properties, and permissions to Showpad and optimizes them for web and mobile usage.

By syncing content, you can rest assured that all content in Showpad is the most current and up-to-date without manually updating single assets at a time.

Key features

• Streamline your asset management in Showpad
• Use Adobe Experience Manager as your single source of truth
• Map certain asset properties to Showpad based on connector preferences 
• Continue to upload assets directly to the Content Library as needed

You need this to succeed

• Ultimate subscription for Showpad
• AEM familiarity  
• Content in AEM Folders 

The quick way to awesomeness

1. Install the AEM Connector via Cloud Version or On Premise 
2. Designate Showpad permissions on the asset level 
3. Understand the connector field functionality
4. Review good practices

Note: Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager to gain access to the AEM connector package.

Do this step by step

Installing the AEM connector on premise 

1. Install the provided Showpad AEM Connect on the AEM package manager.
2. Restart the AEM instance to make sure the listeners are registered to the Observation Manager.

Installing the AEM connector via the cloud 

1. Add local filesystem based maven repository to the AEM cloud service project root pom.xml:

   <repositories>
   
   ...
   
     <repository>
   
       <id>project.local</id>
   
       <name>project</name>
   
       <url>file:${maven.multiModuleProjectDirectory}/repository</url>
   
     </repository>
   
   ...
   
   <</repositories>

2. Add Showpad connector Plugin dependency to all/pom.xml:

   <dependency> 
   
   <groupId>com.showpad.adobe</groupId>
   
   <artifactId>showpad-connector.ui.apps</artifactId>
   
   <version>2.4.10</version>
   
   <type>zip</type>
   
   </dependency>

3. Add embedded block to all/pom.xml -> filevault-package-maven-plugin configuration:
   

   ...
   
   <plugin>
   
     <groupId>org.apache.jackrabbit</groupId>
   
     <artifactId>filevault-package-maven-plugin</artifactId>
   
     <extensions>true</extensions>
   
     <configuration>
   
     <group>my_packages</group>
   
     <embeddeds>
   
      <embedded>
   
        <groupId>com.showpad.adobe</groupId>
   
        <artifactId>showpad-connector.ui.apps</artifactId>
   
        <type>zip</type>
   
                    <target>/apps/showpad-example-packages/application/install</target>
   
     </embedded>
   
     …

4. Add the plugin to the local maven repository. Run the following command from AEM cloud service project root replacing {showpad-connector.plugin.path} placeholder with the path to the plugin (e.g. /tmp/ showpad-connector.ui.content-2.4.10.zip):

   mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-install-plugin:2.5.2:install-file -Dfile={showpad-connector.plugin.path} -DlocalRepositoryPath=./repository/ -Dpackaging=zip

5. Set the correct plugin version in all/pom.xml (e.g. 2.4.10):
   

   <dependency>
   <groupId>com.memsource</groupId>
   <artifactId> showpad-connector.ui.apps</artifactId>
   <version>2.6.1</version>
   <type>zip</type>
   </dependency>

 Configuring the connection

1. In your AEM tools section, you will now find a new section called Showpad on the left side menu.
   
2. Click Showpad from the menu and you will see the configuration screens. There will be three configuration tabs: Authentication Configuration, Functional Configuration, and Connection Configuration.
3. First, authenticate the configuration by enter your Showpad admin username and password.
4. In the next configuration tab, fill in the following fields for the Functional Configuration.
   • Showpad Permissions default settings
     • Is sensitive
     • Can be shared
     • Can be downloaded internally
     • Can be downloaded externally 
     • Can be annotated
     • Only share entire document
     • Library shared
     • Remove ownership
     • Hide label
   • Asset configuration
     • Use asset title 
   • Automatic flow configuration
     • Enable automatic flow on publish/unpublish
     • Enable automatic flow on new version creation 

     Note: If automatic flow is enabled, AEM will sync to Showpad when an asset has ‘Is Showpad asset’ set to Yes and a Quick Publish is done. This also needs to occur for a resync.

   • Sync mapping
     • Divisions
     • Folders
     • Sync tag
   • Tag sync configuration
     • Use tag title
     • Tag namespaces to sync
     • Flatten tags
     • Match tags 
   • Custom fields configuration
     
     • Custom expiration field 
     • Custom is Showpad asset field
     • Custom tag fieldnames
     • Custom author field
     • Default author 
5. Lastly is the Connection Configuration tab. Here you will fill in your:
   • Server URL
   • Client ID
   • Client Secret
   • Max connections per host
   • Connection timeout
   • Max connections
   • Socket timeout

Designate Showpad permissions on the asset level 

Within the Showpad tab in AEM, you will have the option to dedicate certain properties on the asset-level, regardless of the original configuration settings.

1. With a particular asset open, click Properties. Click the Showpad tab.
2. Select Yes from the Is Showpad Asset dropdown. This will push the asset to Showpad once you click Save.
3. Add any additional tags you wish to sync to Showpad. Tags will only be synced if they are added to an asset. 
4. You can now select permission settings in the Showpad Security column, which will transfer to Showpad. Learn more about these permissions below. 
5. Click Save & Close once you're done, then click Quick Publish to push the asset to Showpad.

Connector field descriptions

Pushing assets to Showpad to be processed by the connector can be configured in three different ways. By Path, by tag, or by Metadata.

• To sync assets by path, paths need to be configured in AEM. All assets in a particular folder or sub folder can be pushed to Showpad. For every folder, a Showpad division needs to be configured.
• To sync assets by Tag, a tag needs to be specified in the configuration. If this tag is set on the cq:tags property, the asset can be pushed to Showpad.
• To sync assets via metadata, the “Is Showpad Asset” flag needs to be set to yes. Then, the asset will be pushed to Showpad.

Best practices for synced assets and tags

Asset updates

• File name: Asset names can be changed by editing the title in AEM under the Meta data. Once synced, it will also update the name is Showpad. If the file is reshared after a name change, the previous share link will still work, as it functions as a regularly updated asset in Showpad.
• Permission changes: When updates happen to assets in AEM, the name changes and permissions will be updated in Showpad, and previously shared links will stay the same, as with all Showpad updated assets.
• Updated fields: Currently, any changes to a document in AEM synced to Showpad (tag, new upload, permissions, etc) will update both the Last Updated and Last Upload fields in Showpad. This is not the same behavior as assets that are manually uploaded to Showpad and updated in Showpad.
  

Tags

• Update tag name: If a tag is renamed in AEM, once synced, all assets in Showpad will contain the new tag. We recommend then replacing the old tag using the replacement feature in Showpad’s tag tab. This will replace the tag everywhere in Showpad, including in your Smart Folder configurations. Otherwise, the previous tag will still exist in Showpad, but will not be linked to any assets.
• Duplicate tags: When a tag already exists in Showpad and one with the same name is synced from AEM, the connector looks to the Match Tags configuration.
  If ‘own’ is selected, every tag synced from AEM will be created in Showpad as an external tag.
  If ‘all’ is selected, the connector will try to match (by name) a tag synced from AEM with internal tags in Showpad. If the tag already exists, it will apply the internal tag that matches. If not, the connector will create a new external tag.
• AEM synced tags cannot be renamed in Showpad. 
• We recommend using one type of tag in Showpad, either Local Tags (Showpad Tags) or External Tags (Tags synced from AEM).