[groovy-user] SimpleTemplateEngine and static imports

[Erik Pragt]

Hi all,

I'm trying to use the SimpleTemplateEngine in combination with some static imports to capitalize some words, like this:

import static org.apache.commons.lang.WordUtils.capitalize

import groovy.text.SimpleTemplateEngine

def text = 'Dear "${capitalize(\'erik\')} $lastname",\nSo nice to meet you in <% print city %>.\nSee you in ${month},\n${signed}'

def binding = ["firstname":"Sam", "lastname":"Pullara", "city":"San Francisco", "month":"December", "signed":"Groovy-Dev"]

def engine = new SimpleTemplateEngine()

template = engine.createTemplate(text).make(binding)

def result = 'Dear "Sam Pullara",\nSo nice to meet you in San Francisco.\nSee you in December,\nGroovy-Dev'

assert result == template.toString()

This doesn't work, because it cannot find the capitalize method:

groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: SimpleTemplateScript14.capitalize() is applicable for argument types: (java.lang.String) values: [erik]

        at SimpleTemplateScript14.run(SimpleTemplateScript14.groovy:2)

        at groovy.text.SimpleTemplateEngine$SimpleTemplate$1.writeTo(SimpleTemplateEngine.java:164)

        at groovy.text.SimpleTemplateEngine$SimpleTemplate$1.toString(SimpleTemplateEngine.java:176)

        at ConsoleScript15.run(ConsoleScript15:14)

Whenever I use the fully qualified name, it works, but importing brings me no luck, even though it's nicely advertised on the documentation page: http://groovy.codehaus.org/Groovy+Templates

For what it's worth, I've tried it with the Groovy which comes with Grails 1.3.2.

Kind regards,

Erik Pragt

[Roshan Dawrani]

Confirmed the issue on 1.7.6 too.

Since the documentation clearly says that it should work, it makes it a bug.

Static imports have been changing quite dynamically in recent past, so maybe some regression there.

--
Roshan
Blog: http://roshandawrani.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @roshandawrani
Skype: roshandawrani

[Erik Pragt]

Hi Roshan,

Should I file a JIRA for this?

Erik

[roshan...@gmail.com]

Hi Erik,

Yes, please do.

Cheers.

---------------------------------------------------
Sent from BlackBerry

---

From: Erik Pragt <erik....@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:11:37 +0100

To: <us...@groovy.codehaus.org>

ReplyTo: us...@groovy.codehaus.org

Subject: Re: [groovy-user] SimpleTemplateEngine and static imports

[Erik Pragt]

Hi Roshan,

I finally filed a bug for this:

http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/GROOVY-4668

Kind regards,

Erik Pragt

[Cédric CHAMPEAU]

I've checked an eye on this issue. It's not especially related to static imports : any import made in the caller won't be made available to the template engine (I would have been surprised that it worked). So I guess that when the documentation states that you should have set a static import, it means *inside* the template. There are two workarounds for this :

1. export the capitalize function in the binding :
    def binding = ["firstname":"Sam", "lastname":"Pullara", "city":"San Francisco", "month":"December", "signed":"Groovy-Dev", "capitalize":  org.apache.commons.lang.WordUtils.&capitalize]

2. add a static import *in* the template (just like you would add imports in a JSP) :

    def text = '<% import static org.apache.commons.lang.WordUtils.capitalize %>Dear "${capitalize(\'erik\')} $lastname",\nSo nice to meet you in <% print city %>.\nSee you in ${month},\n${signed}'

Whatever suits your needs.

Cédric

[Xiaoping Jia]

Hi,

It seems neither of the suggested solutions works in 1.8.0. The only way
that works is to use the fully qualified names.

Is this a regression in 1.8?

Best regards,

Xiaoping Jia

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[Cédric Champeau]

Can you paste an example which does not work in 1.8 ?

Thanks,

[Xiaoping Jia]

Hi, Cédric,

I attach a simple test and the output of the test runs. There are 4
tests, only test3() works. I tested with both SimpleTemplateEngine and
GStringTemplateEngine. Note that the exceptions thrown by the two
engines are different for test2()

Thanks!

Xiaoping

[Cédric Champeau]

Did it work in Groovy 1.7 ? If so, it's a regression. If not, anyway, you should file a JIRA issue for this. As a workaround, you can add the following setup line :

Binding.metaClass.methodMissing = { String name, args -> delegate[name](args) }

The problem is that the template engine uses a Binding class internally instead of a map, and Binding doesn't support method calls like Map does. I tested the workaround with success.