CQ5 widget with xtype hidden - aem

Question

I am trying to add a hidden property (key-value pair) to a page using a 'hidden' xtype in the page properties. But the property always returns a null/blank
The widget code is as below.
<vanitycheck
jcr:primaryType="cq:Widget"
defaultValue="myValue"
hidden="{Boolean}true"
name="./myKey"
value="myValue"
xtype="hidden"/>
The JSP code is as below:
<%=currentPage.getProperties().get("myKey" , "") %>

Answer 1

Are you opening the dialog? The default values held in the dialog.xml will only get applied after editing the component & saving it (i.e. the dialog has to be brought into play — they're defaults for the dialog itself, not the JCR).
If you want a default value held in the JCR when the component is created, put a cq:template.xml file in your component alongside your dialog.xml. This will specify default properties that get added into the node on creation.
E.g., you could have a file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jcr:root xmlns:cq="http://www.day.com/jcr/cq/1.0"
xmlns:jcr="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0"
xmlns:nt="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/nt/1.0"
jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
defaultValue="myValue"/>
EDIT:
For default values within templates, edit the .content.xml file under /apps/[your-design]/[template-name]/.content.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<jcr:root xmlns:sling="http://sling.apache.org/jcr/sling/1.0"
xmlns:cq="http://www.day.com/jcr/cq/1.0"
xmlns:jcr="http://www.jcp.org/jcr/1.0"
jcr:primaryType="cq:Template"
jcr:title="Content Page Template">
<jcr:content
jcr:primaryType="cq:PageContent"
sling:resourceType="foo/components/page/bar"
defaultValue="myValue"/>
</jcr:root>
Either of these solutions though will only work on newly created content (i.e. a new component for cq:template.xml or new page with .content.xml).
For existing pages, default values in the dialog can be used, as you suggested; but since these values only get loaded when the dialog is opened & saved to the JCR on "OK" within the dialog, it requires the user to edit the Page Properties on each page in order to persist the values to the JCR.
If this isn't suitable, using a fallback value in the JSP/class might be the preferred solution: resource.get(defaultValue, "myValue");