Layout Files and Velocity templating engine.

Jake Kaad

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Jun 1, 2015, 1:14:27 PM6/1/15

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Hey All,

I am using this template engine to render my templates: https://github.com/perwendel/spark-template-engines/blob/master/spark-template-velocity/src/test/java/spark/template/velocity/example/VelocityExample.java

I want to have a default "layout" page to load all of my scripts and dependencies into. From what I understand, velocity doesn't look for a default file to render through, so I kinda hacked my way around it. I save a default layout template as an instance variable. I then will put in the model the path to the template I would actually like to render.

Here is an example of my route:

public class App {

public static void main(String[] args) {

staticFileLocation("/public");

String layout = "templates/layout.vtl";

get("/", (request, response) -> {

HashMap<String, Object> model = new HashMap<String, Object>();

model.put("todos", request.session().attribute("todos"));

model.put("template", "templates/index.vtl");

return new ModelAndView(model, layout);

}, new VelocityTemplateEngine());

And here is what my layout.vtl file looks like

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Template</title>

</head>

<body>

#parse( $template )

</div>

</body>

</html>

This feels very clunky to me, does anybody have any suggestions on how I could make this code a little bit easier to read?

Much appreciated,

Jake

David Åse

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Jun 2, 2015, 12:32:50 PM6/2/15

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You can use the $!bodyContent variable. I usually make a macro called main, and call that in all my templates. In your case:

layout.vm:

#macro(mainLayout)
<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Template</title>
    <link rel='stylesheet' href='https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.2.0/css/bootstrap.min.css

'>
    <link rel='stylesheet' href='app.css'>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="container">   ## consider using <main> HTML5 tag
      $!bodyContent##         ## "##" trims trailing whitespaces
    </div>
  </body>
</html>
#end

index.vm:

#@mainLayout()
  <h1>Index page</h1>
#end

Jake Kaad

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Jun 3, 2015, 4:01:37 PM6/3/15

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That is a lot easier, thank you!

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