AEM Forms Training

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AEM Adaptive Forms (Foundation Components) Training

Enterprise Adaptive Forms Training

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Adaptive Forms built with Foundation Components represent the original, server-driven framework for creating dynamic, data-driven forms within AEM Forms. These forms leverage a robust feature set that includes rule editors, fragment-based design, tight integration with XDP-based Document of Record (DOR), and deep workflow connectivity. Foundation Components are widely used in established enterprise implementations where stability, mature feature coverage, and compatibility with legacy architectures are critical.

Screenshot of an AEM Adaptive Form

This training section focuses on real-world implementation and maintenance of Foundation Component Adaptive Forms. Students learn how to design complex forms, manage fragments and data models, implement rules and validations, and integrate with AEM workflows and document services. The emphasis is on understanding how to work effectively within existing environments—optimizing performance, troubleshooting common issues, and extending functionality in large-scale, production AEM deployments.

This training section includes the following courses:

Course Outline

Introduction

This introductory course provides a comprehensive foundation for working with AEM Adaptive Forms built on Foundation Components, beginning with a guided tour of the AEM Touch UI and the Forms module. Students learn how to navigate key areas of the platform—including Forms and Documents, Themes, Data Integrations, and Templates—while gaining practical familiarity with essential tools such as the Action Bar, Edit Mode, side panel configuration, and Omni Search. The course also introduces core authoring concepts by reviewing existing forms, including Adobe’s We.Gov sample application and a dynamic, real-world SmartDoc Expense Report, highlighting responsive design, validation patterns, and Document of Record (DOR) capabilities.

Building on this foundation, students move into hands-on development by creating their own multi-panel adaptive forms using a Wizard layout and implementing submission functionality. Through guided exercises, participants learn how to structure forms with panels, configure navigation, and apply basic submit actions such as email-based PDF delivery. The course emphasizes how Adaptive Forms dynamically respond to user input, enforce validation rules, and adapt seamlessly across devices—providing a clear, practical entry point into enterprise form development within AEM.

XDP Files and AEM Forms

This course is designed specifically for experienced Adobe AEM Forms Designer developers who are transitioning from XDP/PDF-based forms into AEM Adaptive Forms. It bridges the gap between traditional XFA development and the Adaptive Forms framework by demonstrating how existing XDP assets can be brought into AEM and leveraged within a modern, web-based form experience. Students learn how XDP files are uploaded, rendered, and interpreted in AEM, including how XFA properties translate into Adaptive Form configurations and how embedded XMP metadata is preserved and utilized for asset management and searchability.

The course also explores one of the most critical architectural shifts: the move from script-centric XFA development to the visual Rule Editor and JavaScript-based logic in Adaptive Forms. Students see how existing XDP scripts continue to execute behind the scenes, while learning how to recreate and extend that functionality using the Rule Editor, Code Editor, and built-in functions. Through hands-on exercises—including field visibility, calculations, and rule creation—participants gain a practical understanding of how to modernize legacy form logic while maintaining compatibility with existing Designer-based assets.

Templates

This course provides a deep understanding of how templates serve as the architectural foundation for all AEM Adaptive Forms. Students learn the critical differences between Static Templates and Editable Templates, with a strong emphasis on why Editable Templates are the modern, best-practice for scalable, maintainable form development. The course also introduces the AEM Configuration Browser and demonstrates how configuration containers are used to support editable templates, cloud services, and enterprise form capabilities such as reCAPTCHA, Adobe Sign integration, and data source connectivity.

Screenshot of AEM Adaptive Form Templates

Building on this foundation, students gain hands-on experience using the Template Editor to create and manage reusable form templates. They learn how to define structure and initial content, configure policies, apply themes, and set default submit actions that govern all derived forms. The course also covers template lifecycle management, including enabling templates for use in form creation. Through guided exercises, participants develop practical skills for designing templates that enforce consistency, streamline development, and support enterprise-scale Adaptive Forms implementations.

Create Adaptive Forms (Foundation Components)

This course is the core, hands-on development experience for building AEM Adaptive Forms using Foundation Components, with a strong focus on how form data is structured, bound, and managed. Students gain a clear understanding of the role of the Form Model in defining data structure and data types, and how different model choices impact form behavior, integration, and maintainability. The course begins by establishing the conceptual foundation behind Adaptive Forms architecture, including the differences between implicit and explicit data binding, and the distinction between XML-based and JSON-based data models.

Students then build four complete Adaptive Forms, each based on a different Form Model: XML Schema, Form Data Model (FDM), XDP Template, and a hybrid approach combining Schema-based data capture with an XDP-based Document of Record. Through these exercises, participants learn how to work with the Data Sources panel, drag-and-drop data elements, and automatically inherit field properties such as names, data types, and binding references. Special emphasis is placed on the advantages of Form Data Models, including their ability to integrate with backend services and use JSON-based data structures, as well as the unique role of XDP templates in defining form structure and generating Document of Record outputs.

In addition to data binding, the course covers essential form design techniques including panel-based layout, Wizard navigation, responsive design using Layout Mode, and the use of display and validation patterns to control user input. By the end of the course, students will have a practical, working knowledge of all major Adaptive Form creation patterns and will be equipped to select the appropriate approach for a given business requirement—whether building standalone forms, data-integrated solutions, or forms that generate precise, enterprise-grade documents.

Scripting

This course introduces the scripting capabilities of AEM Adaptive Forms, enabling developers to implement dynamic, data-driven behavior that goes beyond static form design. Students learn how scripting controls key aspects of form functionality, including calculations, validation, and runtime user interaction. Using real-world examples such as expense calculations and date validation, the course demonstrates how scripting enhances the user experience by enforcing business rules and ensuring accurate data capture.

Students gain hands-on experience with the AEM Rule Editor, a visual tool that allows authors to create JavaScript-based logic through a drag-and-drop interface, as well as the Code Editor for writing and customizing scripts directly. The course also covers the use of built-in functions, creation of dynamic behaviors such as repeating panels and conditional visibility, and implementation of validation patterns with custom error messaging. By the end of the course, participants will be able to design Adaptive Forms that intelligently respond to user input and enforce complex validation requirements in enterprise environments.

Themes

This course focuses on controlling the visual presentation of AEM Adaptive Forms through the use of Themes and CSS. Students learn how themes define the look and feel of forms and how the AEM Theme Editor serves as a visual interface for generating and managing CSS. The course introduces the structure of the Theme Editor—including the Sidebar of selectors and the Canvas preview—and explains how CSS fundamentals such as selectors, properties, and cascading behavior directly influence form styling. Participants also gain a practical understanding of responsive design techniques, including the use of relative units such as ems and rems to ensure consistent rendering across devices.

Building on these fundamentals, students learn how to design efficient and maintainable themes using CSS inheritance and overrides. The course emphasizes best practices such as defining common styles at the widget level and allowing those styles to cascade to individual components, while selectively overriding values when needed. Additional topics include managing interactive states (hover, focus, error, success), correcting layout inconsistencies, and understanding how the Theme Editor persists styling in AEM. Through hands-on exercises, students update an existing theme and create new themes, gaining the skills needed to deliver consistent, polished user experiences in enterprise Adaptive Forms implementations.

Themes and CSS

This course extends the styling capabilities of AEM Adaptive Forms by demonstrating how to combine Themes with Client Library CSS to achieve more advanced and precise control over form presentation. Students begin by enhancing form navigation using CSS pseudo-classes to create dynamic visual states such as active, visited, and hover interactions. The course also introduces the practical limitations of the Theme Editor, helping students understand when theme-based styling alone is not sufficient for complex design requirements.

Screenshot of an AEM Adaptive Form's CSS

Building on this foundation, students learn how to transcend these limitations by integrating Client Library CSS into their Adaptive Forms. The course covers advanced CSS selector techniques—including child, descendant, and group selectors—and demonstrates how to apply them to real-world styling scenarios such as table formatting and navigation enhancements. Students also learn how to properly reference client libraries within the form container and manage multiple CSS sources. By the end of the course, participants will be able to combine Themes and custom CSS to deliver highly refined, enterprise-quality user interfaces.

Form Fragments

This course teaches how to design and manage reusable form components using Form Fragments, a key building block for scalable AEM Adaptive Forms implementations. Students learn how to create fragments from scratch and from existing panels, and how to organize them as part of a broader form system that promotes reuse, consistency, and maintainability. The course emphasizes the architectural shift from building individual forms to building modular form systems, where shared components—such as signature sections or address panels—can be centrally managed and reused across multiple forms.

Students also explore advanced topics such as embedding fragments versus referencing them, and the performance benefits of lazy loading in multi-panel forms. The course covers best practices for configuring lazy-loaded fragments, including managing variable scope, ensuring data accessibility, and avoiding common pitfalls in dynamic form behavior. Through hands-on exercises, participants gain practical experience creating, updating, and integrating fragments into Adaptive Forms, enabling them to build efficient, high-performance form solutions in enterprise environments.

Client Libraries

This course teaches how to extend the capabilities of AEM Adaptive Forms by using Client Libraries to manage custom CSS and JavaScript. Students learn how Client Libraries serve as the foundation for organizing browser-side resources, enabling developers to go beyond the limitations of Themes and built-in functionality. The course demonstrates how Client Library CSS can be used to create more precise selectors that override theme styling when needed, providing fine-grained control over the visual presentation of Adaptive Forms.

In addition to styling, students learn how to develop and integrate custom JavaScript to enhance form functionality. The course covers how to write reusable functions, incorporate third-party libraries, and connect these scripts to Adaptive Forms through Client Library categories. Through hands-on exercises, participants create and deploy both CSS and JavaScript assets, gaining the skills needed to deliver fully customized, interactive form experiences that meet complex enterprise requirements.

Toolbar Buttons

This course focuses on customizing the toolbar experience in AEM Adaptive Forms by designing and styling action buttons such as Submit, Next, and Previous. Students learn how to create distinct button styles for both desktop and mobile layouts, using icons and labels to ensure clarity and consistency across devices. The course introduces Style Mode and the AEM Emulator, enabling developers to design responsive button behavior and visually validate how toolbar elements adapt to different screen sizes. Special attention is given to interactive button states—such as default, hover, focus, active, and disabled—to enhance usability and provide clear visual feedback to form users.

Screenshot of an AEM Adaptive Form toolbar in the TouchUI and in CRXDE Lite

Building on these styling techniques, students learn how to create custom toolbar components that extend beyond the standard AEM offerings. The course demonstrates how non-programmers can develop reusable action components by configuring properties, dialogs, and templates within AEM, allowing these custom buttons to behave like native Adaptive Form components. Through hands-on exercises, participants create and deploy custom toolbar buttons, gaining practical skills to deliver polished, user-friendly form navigation experiences tailored to enterprise requirements.

Client Library JavaScript

This advanced course demonstrates how to significantly extend the functionality of AEM Adaptive Forms using Client Library JavaScript. Students learn how to centralize and standardize browser-side logic by creating reusable functions, variables, and constants within client libraries. The course shows how to architect JavaScript in a scalable way—avoiding duplication, improving maintainability, and ensuring consistent behavior across forms. Participants also learn how to integrate external JavaScript libraries such as Bootbox.js for custom modal dialogs and Moment.js for advanced date and time handling, enabling sophisticated user interactions that go beyond native AEM capabilities.

Through hands-on exercises, students build and deploy client library JavaScript assets, connect them to Adaptive Forms, and test their functionality in real-world scenarios. The course also covers practical development considerations such as organizing reusable utility files, managing development versus production assets (minified vs. non-minified libraries), and controlling how JavaScript is included in form output. By the end of the course, participants will have the skills to implement advanced, enterprise-grade form logic and deliver highly customized user experiences using modern JavaScript techniques within AEM.

guideBridge

This course introduces the guideBridge API, a powerful integration mechanism that enables external web pages to communicate with embedded AEM Adaptive Forms. Students learn how guideBridge provides programmatic access to form data and behavior from outside the form itself, allowing developers to build tightly integrated user experiences that extend beyond the boundaries of the Adaptive Form container. The course covers how to properly initialize and access the guideBridge object, and how to use it to retrieve and interact with form field values using SOM expressions.

Building on this foundation, students implement guideBridge within Client Library JavaScript to connect AEM Sites pages with embedded Adaptive Forms. The course demonstrates how to structure container-page JavaScript, reference client libraries, and use methods such as resolveNode() to access form data in real time. Through hands-on exercises, participants create a fully integrated page and form solution, gaining the skills needed to synchronize form data with external components, enhance interactivity, and support advanced enterprise use cases that require cross-component communication.

jQuery

This course introduces jQuery as a powerful JavaScript library for extending and customizing AEM Adaptive Forms beyond native capabilities. Students learn how jQuery simplifies interaction with the HTML DOM using CSS-style selectors, enabling efficient access to form fields and components. The course demonstrates how to create jQuery objects, apply methods, and manipulate form elements dynamically—without the need for complex looping or verbose JavaScript code.

Building on these fundamentals, students apply jQuery within Adaptive Forms and Client Libraries to implement dynamic behaviors such as showing and hiding fields, applying styles, and modifying form content at runtime. The course also explores advanced use cases, including customizing form fragments from the parent form using jQuery methods. Through hands-on exercises, participants gain practical experience integrating jQuery into AEM forms, enabling faster development and more flexible, responsive user interfaces.

The jQuery logo.

jQuery DataTables

This course focuses on using the jQuery DataTables plugin to enhance table-based functionality in AEM Adaptive Forms. Students learn how DataTables can serve as a powerful alternative to the native Adaptive Form table component, providing advanced features such as pagination, sorting, and searching that are not available out of the box. The course introduces how standard HTML tables can be transformed into fully interactive DataTables through simple initialization and configuration.

Students then build dynamic, data-driven tables that support real-world form scenarios, including adding and removing rows, customizing table behavior, and integrating user actions directly into the table interface. Through hands-on exercises, participants implement multiple DataTable configurations and connect them to form logic using JavaScript and JSON data. By the end of the course, students will be able to design highly interactive, scalable table solutions that significantly extend the capabilities of AEM Adaptive Forms in enterprise applications.

Custom Functions

This course teaches how to extend the capabilities of the AEM Adaptive Forms Rule Editor by creating custom JavaScript functions that can be reused across forms. Students learn how to develop functions within Client Libraries and expose them to form authors as drag-and-drop options in the Rule Editor—just like Adobe’s built-in functions. The course also introduces the use of JSDoc annotations to document function behavior, parameters, and return values, enabling clear communication and usability for non-developer form authors working within the visual rule interface.

In addition to JavaScript, the course demonstrates how to create custom CSS class selectors within Client Libraries and apply them directly to form components for targeted styling. Students learn how to properly structure and reference client libraries so that both custom functions and CSS classes are available during form authoring. Through hands-on exercises, participants build reusable logic and styling assets that improve development efficiency, promote consistency, and empower form authors to implement advanced functionality without writing code.

Foundation Components

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to AEM Adaptive Form Foundation Components, establishing a clear understanding of how they compare to newer Core Components while reinforcing their continued importance in enterprise implementations. Students review Adobe’s out-of-the-box Foundation Components and learn how they form the building blocks of Adaptive Forms. The course also introduces key architectural concepts, including component groups, inheritance, and how Foundation Components are structured and used within the AEM environment.

Building on this foundation, students learn how to create custom form components that extend and standardize functionality across form implementations. Through hands-on exercises, participants develop reusable components such as Social Security Number and ZIP Code fields, complete with predefined properties, validation scripts, and display patterns. The course demonstrates how to leverage inheritance, configure component templates, and embed business logic directly into components—allowing form authors to reuse high-quality, preconfigured elements while maintaining flexibility at the form level. This approach enables more efficient development, improved consistency, and scalable form design across enterprise AEM environments.

Custom Adaptive Form Components

This course provides a deep dive into extending AEM Adaptive Forms by building fully custom components based on Adobe’s out-of-the-box Foundation Components. Students begin by analyzing how standard components are structured and then learn how to replicate and customize them to meet specific business requirements. The course demonstrates how to create specialized components—such as dynamic text fields, predefined dropdown lists, and enhanced UI elements—by leveraging existing components as a foundation and adapting them for reuse across form implementations.

Screenshot showing AEM Forms components

Students then explore the full technical stack required for custom component development, including JSP/HTL rendering, Client Library integration for CSS and JavaScript, and optional Java classes for advanced functionality. Through hands-on exercises, participants build a library of reusable custom components and integrate them into Adaptive Forms, gaining practical experience with AEM’s component architecture. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to design and implement highly customized form components that extend beyond standard capabilities and support complex enterprise requirements.

Multilingual Forms

This course teaches how to build and manage multilingual AEM Adaptive Forms, enabling organizations to deliver form experiences across multiple languages and regions. Students learn how to create and configure dictionaries that store translated strings for form elements, and how these dictionaries integrate with AEM’s translation framework. The course also introduces translation workflows using AEM Translation Projects, including the use of both machine and human translation to support scalable, enterprise-level localization strategies.

In addition to form translation, the course covers multilingual Document of Record (DoR) generation, demonstrating how AEM automatically creates language-specific renditions of XDP templates at runtime. Students gain hands-on experience creating dictionaries, viewing multilingual forms, and validating translated outputs, while understanding how multilingual assets are structured and managed within the repository. By the end of the course, participants will be equipped to implement fully localized form solutions that meet global business and compliance requirements.

Accessibility – Adaptive Forms

This course teaches how to design and build AEM Adaptive Forms that meet modern accessibility standards and compliance requirements. Students learn how to apply accessibility principles such as Section 508 and WCAG guidelines, focusing on color contrast, typography, and visual clarity through accessible themes.

Image of a woman using a Braille keyboard.

Students also configure screen reader support, keyboard navigation, and accessible component usage, while testing their forms with tools such as ANDI and browser-based accessibility checkers. By the end of the course, participants will be able to deliver inclusive, compliant form solutions that meet enterprise and government requirements.

Adaptive Form Workshop

This comprehensive workshop guides students through the complete lifecycle of building an AEM Adaptive Form solution using Foundation Components. In the first phase, participants design and develop a fully functional adaptive form based on an XML Schema, leveraging the Form Editor, Data Sources panel, and rule configuration to create a dynamic, data-driven user experience. Students implement validation logic, configure submission behavior, and enhance form security with CAPTCHA, while gaining a clear understanding of how form data, attachments, and Document of Record (DoR) outputs are structured and passed into downstream processes.

In the second phase, students focus on the visual design and user experience by creating a custom theme using the AEM Theme Editor. The workshop covers CSS fundamentals, inheritance and overrides, responsive design techniques, and the use of mobile selectors and media queries to ensure optimal presentation across devices. Participants learn how to apply consistent branding, improve usability, and validate their designs using the Emulator, resulting in a polished, production-ready form interface.

In the final phase, students build an AEM workflow to process form submissions, completing the end-to-end solution. This includes creating workflow models, defining and mapping variables, and using out-of-the-box workflow steps such as Set Variable and Generate Non-Interactive PDF to merge form data with XDP templates. The course also demonstrates how to integrate document services, manage workflow instances, and connect the adaptive form submission to the workflow engine. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a fully integrated solution that captures data, generates documents, and executes business processes—mirroring real-world enterprise implementations.

Automated Forms Conversion

This course introduces Adobe’s Automated Forms Conversion (AFC) service, a powerful tool that accelerates the modernization of legacy forms by converting PDF, Acroform, and XFA-based forms into HTML5 Adaptive Forms. Students learn how the service—powered by Adobe Sensei—analyzes existing form structures and automatically generates responsive Adaptive Forms, preserving key elements such as field types, validation patterns, display formats, and help text. The course also covers service configuration for administrators and demonstrates how developers can immediately begin using pre-configured environments to perform conversions.

Image of an IRS W-9 form on the left and an AEM Adaptive Form on the right that was created with Adobe Automated Forms Conversion service.

Students then gain hands-on experience converting multiple form types and refining the results using AEM’s Review and Correct editor. The course emphasizes understanding what is successfully converted and what requires manual enhancement—particularly JavaScript logic, which must be recreated using the Adaptive Forms Rule Editor. Through practical exercises, participants learn how to efficiently transition legacy form assets into modern, maintainable Adaptive Forms, significantly reducing redevelopment effort while maintaining control over final form behavior and quality.

Publishing Introduction

This course introduces AEM Adaptive Forms developers to the publishing architecture and processes required to move forms from development to production environments. Students learn how AEM run modes—specifically Author and Publish—define the roles of each server, and how content is promoted through the system using the publishing (replication) process. The course also explains how AEM integrates with web servers and Dispatcher to deliver published content securely and efficiently to end users.

Students then gain hands-on experience publishing Adaptive Forms and their associated assets, including themes, templates, and supporting resources. The course demonstrates how to use the Publishing Assets dialog to ensure all dependencies are correctly included and deployed. By the end of the course, participants will understand how to successfully promote forms to a live environment and verify that all components are properly available on the Publish Server, completing the final step in the Adaptive Forms development lifecycle.

These courses are part of our complete AEM Forms eLearning platform, designed for developers, administrators, and architects building modern enterprise form solutions. Visit aemforms.training to access our full library of hands-on AEM Forms courses and accelerate your expertise with real-world training.