[dasc] Renamed structured content keys are not removed from EDS JSON response

[kozmaadrian]

Renamed structured content keys are not removed from EDS JSON response

Issue

EDS structured content currently retains the old key when a field key is renamed.

Steps to Reproduce:

• Create a structured content field with key employeeCommsManifest.
• Rename the key to employeeCommsConfig.
• Publish/update the content.
• Inspect the JSON response.

Current Behavior

The JSON response contains both:

{
  "employeeCommsManifest": { ... },
  "employeeCommsConfig": { ... }
}

The old key employeeCommsManifest remains in the response even after the rename.

Expected Behavior

When a key is renamed, the old key should be removed from the generated JSON response. Only the new key should be present.

{
  "employeeCommsConfig": { ... }
}

[besimhu]

Adding more context from internal slack discussion commented by @kozmaadrian

---

The editor always renders against the latest schema: when a document is loaded against a schema that has since dropped fields, the orphaned data is kept intact (across all supported types) and simply hidden. The current schema governs what gets rendered and validated, while the stored JSON data is preserved in full rather than rewritten to match the schema. This is intentional, since silently stripping data on a schema edit would be data loss. We don't currently provide a cleanup path for orphaned fields, and we'd welcome input on the use cases and priority to help us shape that capability.

I agree that an official cleanup tool/workflow would be valuable, and it’s something I’d like to improve. For now, there are a few ways to update the underlying data:

• Edit the form data directly in the DA Editor https://da.live/edit#/aem-sandbox/examples/events/events-catalog. This is generally not recommended, as you need to understand the underlying table structure to make changes safely and correctly.
• Re-import the JSON data. Today, this can be done in a few different ways:
  • Using the experimental import tool: https://da.live/app/kozmaadrian/aem-experimental/tools/import-sc/import-sc
  • Using your AI agent together with https://github.com/adobe-rnd/da-sc-mcp (see the quick-start setup with Claude), and asking the agent to import the desired JSON data, replacing the existing content
  • Using a custom script based on https://github.com/adobe/da-sc-sdk to convert the target JSON into the corresponding HTML, then using the DA API to store the generated HTML as an EDS document.

They can be useful workarounds, especially for advanced users, but we’d definitely like to provide a more straightforward and supported experience in the future. Any feedback on the workflows you’re trying to support would help us better understand the requirements and prioritize that work. 

[github-actions]

Just checking in on this one. It has been quiet for a while, so we have labeled it stale to make sure it does not get forgotten. Is it still relevant? A quick comment (or removing the stale label) keeps it active. If you were waiting on a review from us, that is on our side, not yours, so give us a nudge. No action needed right now; we will post a final notice before anything closes.