AEM Capability Matrix

I always get asked does AEM has any components that come out of the box (OOTB)? What is the list of OOTB component? Can I use them?

A lot of people don’t know and believe that AEM is a blank canvas and you just start from scratch. Obviously this assumptions are built on other platform people have used in the past. Now of course I would not be writing this if this was the case, but it can be cumbersome to get hand on this information.

Anyways, YES AEM does have OOTB component and yes you can use them for your projects and I would recommend use and build on them as needed. Primary reasons is that OOTB components:

1. can and will save you development work
2. already have a Authoring Experience which you should pay attention to, as they already have tried and tested pattern that you should look at adopting. If you don’t consider them you end up with building lots of components with totally disconnected authoring experiences across components and you won’t be able to train your Authors how to use each and every component.

Now before you jump in I suggest read additional information about AEM so that you understand AEM terminology etc:

• What is a component?
• What is a template? (you must not have a lot of these in CMS)
• Default components in AEM - You will notice that list on Adobe site is very short.
• Granite UI Reference - When you want to build and update new Authoring Experiences in “Touch UI”
• Touch UI Concepts
• Classic UI Widgets - Updating Classic UI
• Classic UI Widgets API Library - more detailed widget API reference

So finally have had some time to compile and publish this list. This list is a combination of all components available in the Design Mode in each of the AEM version.

In addition to this many clients I have spoken to always ask about AEM Capabilities and Features, so I have started to put together a list of these so that it can be used for all sorts of Strategic and Analytical work.

You could use this list to drive your Discovery of AEM and use it to compare AEM to other CMS platform.

The document is located here please feel free to have a look and add comments if you wish:

AEM Capability Matrix

Have fun!