RE: html macro library

Hey Jonathan,

Thank you for your response and I'm with you on the need for
#directiveA(#directiveB)).  It'd also be mighty handy to be able to
overload methods.  That is have methods with the same name with
different arguments.  

I'll look into FreeMarker.

Thanks,
Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: news [mailto:news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jonathan Revusky
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 11:34 AM
To: velocity-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: html macro library


Kevin Bolton wrote:
> Has anyone developed a macro library for standard html items?  For
> example:
>  
> #macro (html_href $link $text)
> 
> <a href='$link'>$text</a>

I don't know whether anybody has developed such a library for Velocity, 
but it seems to me that, unless the macros could be applied recursively,

such a library would be of very limited use-value. Unfortunately, 
Velocimacros have design problems or limitations that prevent this.

You see, to be generally useful, a block-oriented HTML generating macro 
would have to be able to take a block (containing potentially other 
template directives) as its parameter. That is your $text parameter in 
the above.

FYI, at least one other template engine does afford this possibility. 
FreeMarker has had the ability to define macros with associated blocks 
since version 2.2.

If the Velocity community does resume active development of the template

engine, then the above kind of feature is probably well worth lobbying 
them for.

Best Regards,

Jonathan Revusky
--
lead developer, FreeMarker project, http://freemarker.org/ FreeMarker
vs. Velocity comparison page: http://freemarker.org/fmVsVel.html

FreeMarker 2.3 preview 1 is out! :-)



> 
> #end
> 
>  
> --------------------
> Kevin Bolton
> Paychex Inc
> (585) 216-0808
>  <mailto:kbolton@paychex>  
>  
> 
> 
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The information contained in this message may be privileged, confidential, and 
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the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, 
distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you 
have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by 
replying to the message and deleting it from your computer. 

Thank you. Paychex, Inc.