The first release of FreeMarker 2.2 labeled production/stable is available. FreeMarker 2.2 may be of special interest to Struts users because it is the first template engine, to our knowledge, that supports
the usage of 3rd party JSP taglibs. This means that you can have the cleanness and simplicity of a template engine like FreeMarker without
giving up the ability to use powerful 3rd party JSP taglibs like Cewolf
or SiteMesh and so on. You have the best of both worlds!
See http://freemarker.org/docs/pgui_misc_servlet.html for more details about how to configure Struts for use with FreeMarker. There is also an example of struts usage in the distro.
For those who don't know it, FreeMarker is a well-known, tried-and-true tool for doing page templates in Java. In practice, it is mostly used in the web space to get data from servlets into HTML pages.
Aside from the ability to use JSP taglibs, FreeMarker 2.2 introduces a
host of powerful new features. Here is a not-necessarily exhaustive list:
namespaces -- macro libraries can be defined in separate namespaces so that different people can work on different pieces without any
possibility of naming clashes. For more details, see: http://freemarker.org/docs/dgui_misc_namespace.html
fine control of whitespace -- this has been the bane of template
engines and a constant subject on mailing lists. We think we've really
nailed this problem now. For more details, see: http://freemarker.org/docs/dgui_misc_whitespace.html
more powerful macros -- Macros can defined with default parameters, and
can be invoked with optional body content. For more details, see: http://freemarker.org/docs/ref_directive_macro.html
Simplified syntax -- Macros and transforms are now invoked with a common
syntax, so, despite the increased power, FM 2.2 is actually
substantially simpler! For more details, see: http://freemarker.org/docs/ref_directive_userDefined.html
clean interoperability with jython -- Of special interest to python fans, jython objects can be used transparently from within FreeMarker templates. For more details, see: http://freemarker.org/docs/pgui_misc_jythonwrapper.html
Okay, 'nuff said, I guess. If that doesn't pique your interest, I don't know what will.
Enjoy,
Jonathan Revusky -- lead developer, FreeMarker project, http://freemarker.org/ Available for java/internet consulting
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