Hi, For a few months now, we at Nature have been throwing around the idea of developing a whole bunch of Velocity Tools to enable us to develop a truly component-based templating solution for our sites.
I noticed Nathan's comment (http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=20404#89523) about this from 2003 and was wondering whether anyone out there has any experiences of developing this kind of solution that they would like to share? Our basic idea was this: Outline: We have multiple sites with many different views, but most reuse broadly similar 'components' to construct these views. Through use of Velocity Tools, we could make these components independent and reusable by making available methods that, using a passed argument, knew how to retrieve the data they required in any particular instance. 1. Sub-class VelocityViewServlet to initialize required contexts (e.g. global, group, site etc) and populate with configuration data from files (file retrieval based on convention / data being the basic stuff like names of sites, values used throughout all sites or all of group etc) 2. Create a suite of Velocity Tools, each with an accompanying velocity template ... or multiple templates - which template was used could be determined by the presence or absence of vm files based upon convention? for example: a "MenuTool" might have a template that looked like this: #set ( $Menu.name = 'main menu' ) #* a string which identifies which type of menu we're dealing with *# #set ( $Menu.site = $Config.siteName ) #* so it knows where to get the correct menu items *# <ul> #foreach ( $MenuItem in $Menu.items ) <li><a href="$MenuItem.getURL()">$MenuItem.getText()</a></li> #end </ul> Through its interface with the Velocity Tool, this one 'main menu' template file could then be used globally and multiple times in the same view. Another way to do the same thing without the use of Velocity Tools is to create extensive configuration files using standard *.vm files and #set directives. However, in my experience, that solution is quite laborious to maintain and prone to error when editing is done by inexperienced users. Your comments and suggestions / experience would be most gratefully received. Best wishes, Chris -- Christopher Townson New Technology Developer Nature Publishing Group t. +44 (0)20 7843 4644 e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************************************************************** DISCLAIMER: This e-mail is confidential and should not be used by anyone who is not the original intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error please inform the sender and delete it from your mailbox or any other storage mechanism. Neither Macmillan Publishers Limited nor any of its agents accept liability for any statements made which are clearly the sender's own and not expressly made on behalf of Macmillan Publishers Limited or one of its agents. Please note that neither Macmillan Publishers Limited nor any of its agents accept any responsibility for viruses that may be contained in this e-mail or its attachments and it is your responsibility to scan the e-mail and attachments (if any). No contracts may be concluded on behalf of Macmillan Publishers Limited or its agents by means of e-mail communication. Macmillan Publishers Limited Registered in England and Wales with registered number 785998 Registered Office Brunel Road, Houndmills, Basingstoke RG21 6XS ********************************************************************************
