Create a custom AEM workflow process step with a dialog

In this tutorial I talk about how to create a custom workflow step process with an additional dialog for configuring it, above is the vid and below you will find some useful notes.

1. 1.

   Pre-reqs

   • Have access to an Adobe Experience Manager instance.
     Have Maven installed, understand how it works and also understand how to use Adobe's archetype, you can watch my video about maven here: Creating an AEM application using Maven and Adobe's archetype
2. 2.

   What is an AEM Workflow and workflow model

   • Workflows allow you to automate different tasks inside AEM by defining a sequence of steps to be executed and the actions to be performed at each step.
   • A workflow model represents the definition of a workflow using nodes for the steps or actions to be executed and transitions to define how the steps are organized and what is going to be the execution sequence
3. 3.

   Creating the base app with the custom workflow step

   • Create the app using adobe's archetype

     mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-archetype-plugin:2.4:generate "-DarchetypeGroupId=com.adobe.granite.archetypes" "-DarchetypeArtifactId=aem-project-archetype" "-DarchetypeVersion=20" "-DarchetypeCatalog=https://repo.adobe.com/nexus/content/groups/public/" "-DgroupId=co.dlighthouse.aem.workflowstepdialog" "-DartifactId=aem-workflow-step-dialog" "-Dversion=0.1.0-SNAPSHOT" "-Dpackage=co.dlighthouse.aem.workflowstepdialog" "-DappsFolderName=workflow-step-dialog" "-DconfFolderName=workflow-step-dialog" "-DartifactName=Workflow Step Dialog" "-DcomponentGroupName=Workflow Step Dialog" "-DcontentFolderName=workflow-step-dialog" "-DcssId=workflow-step-dialog" "-DpackageGroup=workflow-step-dialog" "-DsiteName=Workflow Step Dialog" “-DoptionIncludeExamples=n” “-DoptionIncludeFrontendModule=n” “-DoptionAemVersion=6.5.0”
     

   • Use the yeoman generator and create the custom workflow step, you can also check the code on github or do it by hand.

     npm install -g yo
     npm install -g generator-aem-application
     cd aem-workflow-step-dialog
     yo aem-application:workflow workflowName="Sample Application - Sample Workflow Process Step" componentParentPath=workflow-step-dialog/components/workflow componentNodeName=workflow-process javaRootPackageName=co.dlighthouse.aem.workflowstepdialog.core javaWorkflowClassName=SampleWorkflowProcess
     

   • For the dialog for the custom workflow step component we need the following:

     Component node (.content.xml)

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
     <jcr:root xmlns:sling="http://sling.apache.org/jcr/sling/1.0" xmlns:cq="http://www.day.com/jcr/cq/1.0" xmlns:jcr="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0"
         jcr:primaryType="cq:Component"
         jcr:title="Sample Application - Sample Workflow Process Step"
         sling:resourceSuperType="cq/workflow/components/model/process"
         allowedParents="[*/parsys]"
         componentGroup="Workflow"/>
     

     cq:EditConfig node (_cq_editConfig.xml)

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
     <jcr:root xmlns:cq="http://www.day.com/jcr/cq/1.0" xmlns:jcr="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0" xmlns:nt="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/nt/1.0"
         cq:dialogMode="floating"
         cq:inherit="{Boolean}true"
         jcr:primaryType="cq:EditConfig">
         <cq:formParameters
             jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
             jcr:title="Sample Application - Sample Workflow Process Step"
             PROCESS="co.dlighthouse.aem.workflowstepdialog.core.workflows.SampleWorkflowProcess"
             PROCESS_AUTO_ADVANCE="true"/>
     </jcr:root>
     

     Touch UI dialog cq:dialog node (_cq_dialog/.content.xml)

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
     <jcr:root xmlns:sling="http://sling.apache.org/jcr/sling/1.0" xmlns:cq="http://www.day.com/jcr/cq/1.0" xmlns:jcr="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0" xmlns:nt="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/nt/1.0"
         jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
         jcr:title="Sample Application - Sample Workflow Process Step Properties"
         sling:resourceType="cq/gui/components/authoring/dialog">
         <content
             jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
             sling:resourceType="granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/fixedcolumns">
             <items jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured">
                 <common
                     jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
                     cq:hideOnEdit="true"/>
                 <process
                     jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
                     cq:hideOnEdit="true"/>
                 <column
                     jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
                     sling:resourceType="granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/container">
                     <items jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured">
                         <text
                             jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
                             sling:resourceType="granite/ui/components/coral/foundation/form/textfield"
                             fieldLabel="Something Important"
                             name="./metaData/somethingImportant"/>
                     </items>
                 </column>
             </items>
         </content>
     </jcr:root>
     

   • We need the class that implements WorkflowProcess and overrides the execute method.

     package co.dlighthouse.aem.workflowstepdialog.core.workflows;
     
     import com.adobe.granite.workflow.WorkflowException;
     import com.adobe.granite.workflow.WorkflowSession;
     import com.adobe.granite.workflow.exec.WorkItem;
     import com.adobe.granite.workflow.exec.WorkflowData;
     import com.adobe.granite.workflow.exec.WorkflowProcess;
     import com.adobe.granite.workflow.metadata.MetaDataMap;
     import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
     import org.osgi.service.component.annotations.Component;
     import org.slf4j.Logger;
     import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
     
     @Component(
         service=WorkflowProcess.class,
         property = {"process.label=Sample Application - Sample Workflow Process Step"}
     )
     public class SampleWorkflowProcess implements WorkflowProcess {
         private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SampleWorkflowProcess.class);
     
         @Override
         public void execute(WorkItem workItem, WorkflowSession workflowSession, MetaDataMap args) throws WorkflowException {
     
             final WorkflowData workflowData = workItem.getWorkflowData();
             final String type = workflowData.getPayloadType();
     
             // Check if the payload is a path in the JCR; The other (less common) type is JCR_UUID
             if (!StringUtils.equals(type, "JCR_PATH")) {
                 return;
             }
             // Get the path to the JCR resource from the payload
             final String path = workflowData.getPayload().toString();
     
             String somethingImportant = args.get("somethingImportant", "not set");
     
             log.info("Sample Application - Sample Workflow Process Step - somethingImportant: {} - payload: {}", somethingImportant, path);
         }
     }
     

   • Finally build and deploy your new app into AEM

     mvn clean install -PautoInstallPackage -Padobe-public
     

4. 4.

   Resources

   Repository with the examples

   AEM application - Yeoman Generator

   Creating Workflow Models

   Developing and Extending Workflows

   Maven template to create new Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) projects that follow best practices