---
title: "XML Documentation for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) — Integrating documentation and marketing content into a seamless whole"
date: 2019-03-10
description: "Introducing XML Documentation for Adobe Experience Manager Combining documentation and marketing content What a CCMS provides Features provided through XML..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2019/03/10/introducing-xml-documentation-for-adobe-experience-manager/
---
# XML Documentation for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) — Integrating documentation and marketing content into a seamless whole
## Introducing XML Documentation for Adobe Experience Manager

[XML Documentation for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)](https://www.adobe.com/products/xml-documentation-for-experience-manager.html) was initially released in July 2016. One of the early adopters was Palo Alto Networks, which Adobe featured in a [case study](https://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2018/08/adobe-customer-story-palo-alto-networks.html) on their blog. The following video tells the story of why Palo Alto Networks implemented XML Documentation for AEM:

![The video is embedded from a post on the Adobe Tech Comm blog called [Adobe Customer Story] Palo Alto Networks – Increasing Content Reach with Integrated Technical Documentation.](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/paloaltonetworksvideo.png)

I actually recognize a couple of people in the video: Laralyn Melvin and Matangi Vaidyanathan. They presented to the STC Silicon Valley chapter in 2016 (see this STC Silicon Valley post titled [March 21, 2016: Building a Documentation Portal](http://stcsiliconvalley.com//2016/03/06/march-21-2016-building-a-documentation-portal/)), and explained some of the challenges they were trying to solve.

Their presentation was so thought-provoking, I ended up [writing a post](/2016/05/11/establishing-more-context-in-tech-comm/) at the time reflecting on some of the themes. In their STC presentation, Laralyn and Matangi came across as extremely sharp, organized, and strategic, so it doesn’t surprise me that they developed the impressive AEM-based documentation portal at [docs.paloaltonetworks.com](https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/) (pictured below):

![Palo Alto Networks Documentation Portal. A key design principle in building the site was to make it look like web content rather than an antiquated documentation site.](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/palo_alto_networks_doc_home.png)

More recently, at [Adobe DITA World 2018](https://2018-adobe-dita-world.meetus.adobeevents.com/register/), Laralyn and Bernadette Javier presented their story about moving to XML Documentation for AEM. You can view their recording on the [Day 1 recordings](https://2018-adobe-dita-world.meetus.adobeevents.com/register/#_atcs-dita-world-day-1). Their presentation is titled “Moving to DITA without Losing Your Soul: The Palo Alto Networks success story” and lasts an hour. (The reference to not “losing your soul” refers to keeping the larger stories coherent in their docs even when chunking the content up in the DITA information model.)