Session 2 — JCR & content modelling basics
Purpose: Understand the repository as a tree of nodes and properties, and learn the principles for modelling page content well.
Who this page is for
| Audience | Why it matters to you |
|---|
| All engineers | Content modelling decisions outlive code decisions |
The repository is a tree
The JCR is one big tree — think a persistent Redux store with paths instead of selectors. Every node has a type, properties, and children. Every piece of the PHI plan page is a node you can inspect in CRXDE.
/content/phi/plans/gold-hospital ← cq:Page (the route)
└── jcr:content ← the page's state
├── root/ ← layout container
│ ├── hero/ ← component node (resourceType: .../herobanner)
│ │ ├── title = "Gold Hospital Cover"
│ │ └── image = /content/dam/phi/gold-hero.jpg
│ ├── benefits/ ← benefits table component
│ └── cta/ ← call-to-action component
└── (page props: jcr:title, template, …)
Well-known top-level paths
| Path | Holds | Rule of thumb |
|---|
| /content | Pages and site content | Authors own it |
| /content/dam | Assets (images, PDFs) | Authors own it |
| /apps | Your code: components, templates' code side | Developers own it; immutable in prod |
| /conf | Editable templates, policies, CF models | Governed collaboration |
| /etc | Legacy shared config | Avoid adding new things here |
| /var | Runtime data (workflows, audit) | Machines own it |
Modelling principles
| Principle | Meaning | PHI example |
|---|
| Model content, not layout | Store facts; let components present them | Store excessAmount: 500, not "$500 excess" markup |
| One source of truth | Shared data lives once, referenced everywhere | Disclaimers as a Content Fragment, referenced by all plan pages |
| Structure for authors | The tree should match how authors think | Benefits as child nodes, one per row — not a JSON blob property |
| Respect the hierarchy | Inheritance and permissions follow paths | All plans under /content/phi/plans/ inherit that subtree's ACLs |
Node types you will meet constantly
| Type | Meaning |
|---|
cq:Page / cq:PageContent | A page and its content payload |
nt:unstructured | Free-form node — most component content |
dam:Asset | An asset with renditions under it |
sling:Folder / sling:OrderedFolder | Organisational folders |