Creating a DXA Java Module

In my previous blog post Troubleshoot a DXA Java Module, I presented a solution for a very specific issue with loading a DXA Java module. Then I had the idea for this blog post -- write a short tutorial on how to write a DXA module.

What follows are the steps to create a new DXA Java module (I am using DXA v1.5). In this post, I present the Content Manager items needed for the new module. In fact, these are the minimum items and properties needed for having a new working DXA module.

In next post Creating a DXA Java Module (part 2), I present the Java code and configuration needed to run the new DXA module in a web-application.

1. Create a New Module in Tridion Content Manager

I am using DXA reference implementation, and I created a new module called Emerald, next to the Core module of the reference implementation. Create the following Tridion folder structure starting from Folder Emerald:

2. Create Module Configuration Component

In Folder Admin, create new Component Emerald on Schema Module Configuration. For minimum configuration, it's enough to only fill in the the mandatory fields.

3. Publish Module Configuration

If using the DXA reference implementation, publish page Publish Settings from Structure Group _System. You don't need to do anything else.

Otherwise, create a Page on Page Template JSON, File Name settings.

Add one Component Presentation to this Page. The Module Configuration component Emerald. If you have more than one module, only place one module Component on this Page, otherwise you will get errors during publishing.

Publish the Publish Settings page.

4. Create Schemas

In Folder Editor, I'm only going to create a Main Navigation Schema that points to an embeddable Schema Navigation Links.

It is very important to give it a unique Root Element Name. I chose MainNavigation and NavigationLinks respectively.

In order to keep things simple, I chose the already predefined target namespace http://www.sdl.com/web/schemas/core. This name is used by the Semantic Mapper vocabularies and it coincides with the Core module vocabulary name. If not define, you must define it in a vocabulary Application Data -- not a nice thing to do. Luckily, we can re-use the existing predefined namespace for the Core module.

5. Create Content

In Folder Editor, create a simple Component Main Navigation on Schema Main Navigation.

6. Create a Component Template

Create a Component Template Main Navigation CT and link it to the Schema Main Navigation. Make it use Metadata Schema Component Template Metadata and fill in the view to use Emerald:MainNavigation. According to DXA naming convention, the view name is prefixed with the name of the module, separated by colon (:).

7. Create a Content Page

Create a Page using File Name Navigation Test Page and Page Template Section Page. Add one Component Presentation to it using Component Main Navigation and Component Template Main Navigation CT.

Publish the Page.

At this moment, the Content Delivery Datastore has all the information necessary to support the DXA web application in fetching the model and rendering the Page. But more about that, in the next post.