Pro Jakarta Velocity: From Professional to Expert

378 Pages·2004·13.93 MB·English

by  Rob Harrop (auth.)

Pro Jakarta
Velocity:
From Professional
to Expert
ROB HARROP
Pro Jakarta Velocity: From Professional to Expert
Copyright © 2004 by Rob Harrop
Originally published by APress in 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-59059-410-0 ISBN 978-1-4302-0750-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4302-0750-4
Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every
occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the
benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Lead Editor: Steve Anglin
Technical Reviewer: Jan Machacek
Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Dan Appleman, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Tony Davis,
Jason Gilmore, Chris Mills, Steve Rycroft, Dominic Shakeshaft, Jim Sumser, Gavin Wray
Project Manager: Tracy Brown Collins
Copy Edit Manager: Nicole LeClerc
Copy Editor: Kim Wimpsett
Production Manager: Kari Brooks
Production Editor: Laura Cheu
Compositor: Linda Weidemann, Wolf Creek Press
Proofreader: Linda Seifert
Indexer: Valerie Perry
Artist: Kinetic Publishing Services, LLC
Cover Designer: Kurt Krames
Manufacturing Manager: Tom Debolski
The information in this book is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranty. Although every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author{s) nor Apress shall
have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work.
To my Dad, Ken, who bought me my first computer
and supplied me with endless programming manuals
when I was just a wee boy. And, ofc ourse, to my girlfriend Sally,
who put up with the late nights and lack of weekends
while the book was underway.
Contents at a Glance
About the Author ................................................... xi
About the Technical Reviewer .................................... xii
Acknowledgments ................................................... xiii
Introduction ...................................................... xiv
Chapter 1 Introducing Velocity ................................ 1
Chapter 2 Getting Started wi th Velocity ......................9
Chapter 3 Using the Velocity Template Language ............ .41
Chapter 4 Introducing Patterns and Best Practices ..........8 1
Chapter 5 Creating Stand-Alone Applications
with Velocity ......................................1 17
Chapter 6 Creating Web Applications with Velocity ......... 157
Chapter 7 Using Velocity and Anakia .........................2 15
Chapter 8 Using Additional Velocity Tools ..................2 35
Chapter 9 Going Inside Velocity .............................2 67
Chapter 10 Extending Velocity .................................3 13
Chapter 11 Using Velocity Development Tools .................3 39
Appendix Velocity Reference .................................3 47
Index ..............................................................3 57
v
Contents
About the Author ................................................... xi
About the Technical Reviewer .................................... xii
Acknowledgments ................................................... xiii
Introduction ...................................................... xiv
Chapter 1 Introducing Velocity ............................ l
What Is Velocity? .................................................. 1
Introducing Java Template Engines ................................2
Understanding the Uses of Velocity .............................. .4
Seeing Velocity in Detail .........................................5
Seeing Velocity in Action .........................................6
Summary ..............................................................B
Chapter 2 Getting Started with Velocity ................ 9
Installing Velocity ................................................9
Creating Hello World .............................................. 13
Using Context Chaining ............................................ 17
Configuring the Velocity Runtime ................................ 18
Configuring VTL ....................................................3 5
Summary .............................................................3 9
Chapter 3 Using the Velocity Template Language ...... 41
Introducing VTL ....................................................4 1
Introducing VTL Constructs ...................................... .42
Improving Reusability with Macros ............................... 64
Overcoming VTL Shortcomings with VelocityTools ................ .71
Summary .............................................................B O
Chapter 4 Introducing Patterns and
Best Practices ...................................
81
Hints, Tips, and Best Practices .................................B 1
Using Velocity in an MVC Environment ............................9 4
vii
Contents
Decoupling Velocity ............................................. .1 05
Summary ............................................................1 16
Chapter 5 Creating Stand-Alone Applications
with Velocity ....................................
117
Application Overview .............................................1 18
Building the Application ......................................... 119
Summary ............................................................1 55
Chapter 6 Creating Web Applications
with Velocity ................................... .
157
Using VelocityServlet ............................................1 57
Easier Views with VelocityViewServlet ..........................1 64
Building a Web Application ...................................... 172
Using Velocity with Struts ...................................... 197
Using Velocity with the Spring Framework ..................... .2 06
Summary ............................................................2 14
Chapter 7 Using Velocity and Anakia ...................
215
Getting Started ...................................................2 16
Summary ............................................................2 34
Chapter 8 Using Additional Velocity Tools ...........
235
Using Vel tag ......................................................2 35
Using Texen .......................................................2 43
Using DVSL ........................................................2 53
Summary ............................................................2 66
Chapter 9 Going Inside Velocity ........................ .
267
Introducing a Typical Processing Cycle .........................2 67
Examining the Initialization Phase .............................2 70
Using the Velocity Template Parser .............................3 05
Summary ............................................................3 11
viii
Contents
Chapter 10 Extending Velocity ............................. 313
Hooking Into Velocity Events ....................................3 14
Creating a Custom logSystem .....................................3 20
Creating a Custom Resourceloader ...............................3 23
Creating Custom Directives ......................................3 30
Summary ............................................................3 38
Chapter 11 Using Velocity Development Tools .......... 339
Introducing VeloGUI ..............................................3 39
Introducing VeloEdit for Eclipse ............................. ..3 40
Using Velocity in IntelliJ IDEA ................................3 42
Using Velocity in J Edit ..........................................3 42
Using Velocity in Ul traEdit .....................................3 43
Using Velocity in TextPad .......................................3 44
Using Velocity in Emacs ..........................................3 45
Summary ............................................................3 45
Appendix Velocity Reference .............................
347
Introducing the Directives ......................................3 47
Configuring Velocity .............................................3 50
Index .............................................................
357
ix
About the Author
Rob Harrop is the lead software architect of the
UK-based development house, Cake Solutions
Limited (http://WvM.cakesolutions.net). At Cake,
Rob leads a team of six developers working on
enterprise solutions for a variety of clients, in
cluding the Department of Trade and Industry,
the Metropolitan Police, and NUS Services
Limited. Rob (and Cake) specializes in both .NET
and J2EE-based development, with Rob having
been involved with .NET since the alpha stages.
Rob is also the coauthor of Pro Jakarta Struts,
Second Edition (Apress, 2004), Pro Visual Studio
.NET(Apress, 2004), and Oracle Application
Server 109: J2EE Deployment and Administration
(Apress, 2004).
In his limited spare time, Rob enjoys playing with different technologies; his
current favorites are Groovy and AOP. Rob is a committer on the open-source
Spring project (http://www . springframework. org), a Java and .NET application
framework built around the principle of dependency injection. When not sitting
in front of the computer, Rob usually has his head buried in a book and prefers
the fantasy parodies of Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
xi
About the
Technical Reviewer
Jan Machacek is the lead programmer at the UK-based software company Cake
Solutions Limited (http://www.cakesolutions.net). where he has helped design
and implement enterprise-level applications for a variety of UK- and US-based
clients. In his spare time he enjoys discovering new software and hardware
technologies. Apart from Java, Jan is interested in the .NET Framework and non
procedural and AI programming. As a proper computer geek, Jan loves Star Wars
and The Lord a/the Rings. Jan lives in Manchester, UK, and can be reached at
[email protected].
xii