This tool exposes methods to evaluate the given strings as VTL (Velocity Template Language) and automatically using the current context.

<tool>
  <key>render</key>
  <scope>request</scope>
  <class>org.apache.velocity.tools.view.tools.ViewRenderTool</class>
</tool>

Method Overview

eval()	Evaluates a String containing VTL using the current context, and returns the result as a String.
recurse()	Recursively evaluates a String containing VTL using the current context, and returns the result as a String.

Evaluates a String containing VTL using the current context, and returns the result as a String.

String eval(String vtl)

Parameters

vtl

The code to be evaluated.

Returns

The evaluated code as a String.

Evaluates a String containing VTL using the current context, and returns the result as a String. If this fails, then null will be returned. This evaluation is not recursive.

#set( $list = [1,2,3] )
#set( $object = '$list' )
#set( $method = 'size()' )
$render.eval("${object}.$method")

This will produce the following output:

3

Recursively evaluates a String containing VTL using the current context, and returns the result as a String.

String recurse(String vtl)

Parameters

vtl

The code to be evaluated.

Returns

The evaluated code as a String

Recursively evaluates a String containing VTL using the current context, and returns the result as a String. It will continue to re-evaluate the output of the last evaluation until an evaluation returns the same code that was fed into it.

#macro( say_hi )hello world!#end
#set( $foo = '#say_hi()' )
#set( $bar = '$foo' )
$render.recurse('$bar')

This will produce the following output:

hello world!