Hi Adrian,

in a similar scenario I use the #parse directive and placed the code snippets 
(aka. macros) into a *.vtl file each. Something like:

#set( $component = ... )
#set( $type = $component.type )
#parse("renderComponent${type}.vtl" )

This has the advantage, that these rendering Templates parsed once and cached.

The downside is that the parameter passing is implicit (here $component is the input 
parameter for the parsed template) and that these parsed templates must be careful not to 
overwrite existing variables. For this I used a different namespace (postfixed variables 
with "_"), but you can also use the new #local directive to avoid conflicts.

Cheers,
Christoph

Adrian Tarau wrote:
I've always imagined a macro as a function, but as the name says, the macro body is expanded at parsing time in the current template. This has the advantage to have the template tree in memory and the rendering speed is the fastest possible.

What I need is more like calling a template as a function(which behave like a function) in the context of the current execution context(same context, same writer) without too much overhead.

I will try to implement something like that and I will publish the result, maybe it will be useful for somebody else.

Thanks.

Massip, Etienne wrote:
A dynamic call of a parameter-given name is a minimal parsing, but still is, preventing 
any kind of "compile-time linkage" from being done.

The "expression" seems to be known only at template-parsing-time, isn't it ?

I think

#call('render'+$component.type $component)

makes very little difference with

#evaluate('#render' + $component.type + '($component)')

If the evaluate directive really performs poorly, then maybe it should be a 
good idea to speed it up other than create a new and specialized one ?

-----Message d'origine-----
De : Adrian Tarau [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Envoyé : mardi 19 février 2008 16:14
À : Velocity Developers List
Objet : Re: Call a velocity macro

Velocity.evaluate or Velocity.invokeVelocimacro(which calls evaluate) doesn't 
provide support to pass objects as parameters and is not suitable to be called 
from a template.

The new directive #evaluate is actually Velocity.evaluate. It is still an evaluate, which means expression parsing. I would like to avoid that. If you will call "call/invoke" directive too often I think it will perform badly, due the fact that a parsing step is performed.

In this case, a call to a velocity macro, we don't need the parsing step. We know the 
"expression", and what we need is to prepare the node without parsing.I don't 
know much about the velocity internals, but I presume it should be possible.
And I think such a directive should be part of the core, I mean it will be easy to 
implement a "switch"(is what I need actually) based on some variable. Like in 
my case :

#macro(renderLabel $component)
....
#end

#macro(renderTextField $component)
....
#end

#macro(renderRadioButton $component)
....
#end

.....

#call('render'+$component.type $component)

where 'type' is 'label', 'text-field', 'radio-button'(of course there is a 
normalization of the type value, first character upper case, '-' makes the next 
character uppercase, etc).

Instead of lots of tests with #if, it will be better(and faster) to have this 
'switch'.At least it looks better, the template is cleaner and it is (it will 
be)also faster.

Thanks.

        /Reader reader = *new* BufferedReader(*new* StringReader(sourceText));
        String templateName = context.getCurrentTemplateName();
        SimpleNode nodeTree = *null*;

        *try*
        {
            *nodeTree* = rsvc.parse(reader, templateName);
        }
        *catch* (ParseException pex)
        {
            //// use the line/column from the template
            Info info = *new* Info( templateName, node.getLine(), 
node.getColumn() );
            *throw*  *new* ParseErrorException( pex.getMessage(), info );
        }
        *catch* (TemplateInitException pex)
        {
            Info info = *new* Info( templateName, node.getLine(), 
node.getColumn() );
            *throw*  *new* ParseErrorException( pex.getMessage(), info );
        }/



Massip, Etienne wrote:
Hello

Take a look at the actual RenderTool 
(http://velocity.apache.org/tools/releases/1.4/generic/RenderTool.html).

Or at the new evaluate directive, although still in developement 
(http://velocity.apache.org/engine/devel/vtl-reference-guide.html#aevaluate_-_dynamically_evaluates_a_string_or_reference).

Etienne

-----Message d'origine-----
De : Adrian Tarau [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Envoyé : mardi 19 février 2008 07:29 À : dev@velocity.apache.org Objet : Call a velocity macro

Hello,

I have the following problem : I would like to call a macro but the macro name 
must be a variable.

Ex: instead of #renderLabel($component) to have #call("renderLabel"
$component) - of course "renderLabel" can be any (existing) macro name.

I started to create a directive #call, but of course the render method fails because the nodeTree is not initialized. nodeTree is initialized during parsing like this

public class ASTDirective extends SimpleNode {

...

directive = rsvc.getVelocimacro( directiveName, context.getCurrentTemplateName());

            try

            {

                directive.init( rsvc, context, this );

            }

..

{

Any thoughts? I think such a directive is very useful, I don't know why is not 
part of the library.

Thanks.

CallDirective source code :
public class CallDirective extends Directive {

    public String getName() {

        return "call";

    }

    public int getType() {

        return LINE;

    }

public boolean render(InternalContextAdapter context, Writer writer, Node node) throws IOException, ResourceNotFoundException, ParseErrorException, MethodInvocationException {

        if (node.jjtGetNumChildren() < 1) {

rsvc.error("#" + getName() + " : invalid number of parameters, must be at least the macro name and 0..N parameters");

            return false;

        }

String macroName = (String) node.jjtGetChild(0).value(context);

VelocimacroProxy velocimacro = (VelocimacroProxy) rsvc.getVelocimacro(macroName, context.getCurrentTemplateName());

        if (velocimacro == null) {

rsvc.error("A macro with name '" + macroName + " in context '" +
context.getCurrentTemplateName() + "' doesn't exists");

            return false;

        }

        return velocimacro.render(context, writer, node);

    }

}


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]




---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reply via email to