Carsten Rhod Gregersen wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> First, thank you for a really nice tool.
>
> I'm using velocity and anakia to automatically generate
> some files based on a xml description.
>
> I've run into some different problems.
>
> I'm using the programs in a little different way than the
> examples, and that might be the source to all my problems.
Nah. Different is good.
> I'm using a single xml file in combination with several
> stylesheets (velocity templates) to generate about 6-8
> different "final" files (e.g. 6-8 autogenerated files pr. xml file)
> that all are different but based on the same data.
>
> This can today only be acomplished by creating 6-8 links
> and using the extension to decide which style (template) to
> use. Has anyone done something like this before, and how
> did they do it (e.g. is there a smarter way) ??
>
> I've read the source code of the anakia task, and it would seem
> quite easy to code something for my specific purpose, but
> if someone has done it before and submitted it I would rather
> work on that.
I've done exactly that when my needs were different. The basic model
that Anakia uses is pretty straightforward :
1) parse your XML into a JDOM Document
SAXBuilder builder;
Document root = null;
try
{
builder = new SAXBuilder(
"org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser" );
root = builder.build( file );
}
catch( Exception )
{
System.out.println( ... );
}
2) Stuff the Document (or root Element) into the context
context.put("root", root );
3) Render a template.
Anakia is a nice tool, but it is tailored for a specific purpose. You
can extend it to make it do more (and contribute it back here if its
general and you like it...) or make a new tool, drawing on Anakia as an
example, to solve whatever problem you have.
>
> Also I've found out that it seem that the macro's spans over multiple
> stylesheets (velocity templates). So if I have a macro in one
> template the same name can not be used in another. I'm not
> saying this is an error, but quite some time was invested before
> i found out that the macro's seemed to have a global definition.
Yes, that's the idea - that you can create a library of VMs
(Velocimacros) that anyone can share. Of course, there are issues with
that, like when you *don't* want that to be the case. If so, you can
turn on what is called 'local scope' :
velocimacro.permissions.allow.inline.local.scope = true
and that should keep the macro definition local to the template that
declared it. Anakia can take a properties file, so you can put it
there, or in your own code either read a properties file, or do
something like
Velocity.setProperty(
"velocimacro.permissions.allow.inline.local.scope", Boolean.TRUE );
or if you don't like the string :
Velocity.setProperty( Velocity.VM_PERM_INLINE_LOCAL, Boolean.TRUE );
geir
--
Geir Magnusson Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
System and Software Consulting
Developing for the web? See http://jakarta.apache.org/velocity/
