Consistent and Clean Rich Text and Images in CQ5

Published on by Dan KlcoPicture of Me Dan Klco

How can you improve on the humble TextImage component; the basis for most Adobe CQ5 website implementations? This component (as one would imagine from the name) allows authors to put both text and an image on the page. There are both Text and Image components which are suited for each separate task, however it has always seemed silly to me to have two components when one can do both jobs.

Well, one of the first tasks most projects will do is customize the TextImage component to either enable plugins in the Rich Text Editor or add some custom editing features. Once the developers are finished, they happily move on to the next component, but what if that component also requires a Rich Text editor or to specify an image?

You can copy your customizations or use references to the dialogs, but you may have also customized the JSP code for the TextImage. The solution is to customize the TextImage component and make it easy to extend and reference.

Extending the TextImage Component

First, copy the TextImage component from /libs/foundation/components into your application folder. Make sure you update the component group and Sling resource super type.

Next, edit the JSP code and separate the image rending code and the text rendering code into separate scripts called image and text. Use CQ Script Includes to include both scripts. At this point the textimage.jsp should essentially just be a comment, the global include and includes for the two scripts. Doing this allows you to easily use CQ Script Includes from other components to use the same JSP code.

Finally, edit the dialog and rename the tabs as follows:

  • tab1 -> test
  • tab2 -> image
  • tab3 -> advancedImage

The new names will make it easier to include these tabs in other dialogs.

Reusing for Other Components

Once you have everything all separated and organized, rendering text on another component is as easy as doing a script include in the JSP to your text script, ex:

<cq:include script="/apps/myapp/components/general/textimage/text.jsp" />

and include the text dialog tab in your dialog, ex:

<text
	jcr:primaryType="cq:Widget"
	path="/apps/myapp/components/general/textimage/dialog/items/text.infinity.json"
	xtype="cqinclude"/>

And when you want to include an image, add the image script in your JSP, ex:

<cq:include script="/apps/index-institute/components/general/textimage/image.jsp" />

and include both the image and advancedImage tabs into the dialog

<image
	jcr:primaryType="cq:Widget"
	path="/apps/myapp/components/general/textimage/dialog/items/image.infinity.json"
	xtype="cqinclude"/>
<advancedImage
	jcr:primaryType="cq:Widget"
	path="/apps/myapp/components/general/textimage/dialog/items/advancedImage.infinity.json"
	xtype="cqinclude"/>

Of course, if you need to include multiple text or image selections in a component you will either have to create duplicates or include sub-components. By using some creativity and including sub-components, you should be able to use only one instance of the dialog and JSP to render all of the authored text and images on the site using this technique.


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