FreeMarker

FreshMarker Switch On Directive

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Nothing is so good that it can’t be reworked. The switch directive in FreshMarker differed from the FreeMarker variant quite early on. FreshMarker’s switch directive does not have a fall-through mechanism. This mechanism is a legacy of the C language family, whose switch statements with break also found their way into the template syntax. Since the end of 2024, FreeMarker now also has a new switch directive. How can this be incorporated into FreshMarker?

FreshMarker Includes

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Some time ago I had the pleasure of giving a talk about FreshMarker at the Java User Group Bielefeld. At this event, the question arose as to why FreshMarker does not have an include directive like FreeMarker. The include directive can be used in FreeMarker to insert additional content into templates.

List Directives with filter and limit

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One of the fundamental design decisions for FreshMarker is always the question of whether a feature is actually needed or whether pre-processing the data can solve the problem. This is always a delicate balancing act, because any unnecessary pre-processing casts a shadow on the attractiveness of the template engine. It’s always a question of whether … Read more

More About Range Expressions

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FreshMarker as a Template Engine supports a whole range of data types for its model values. This data type are usually a mapping of the corresponding Java types such as String, Boolean, Long, Beans, Records, List and Maps. In addition, FreshMarker has the data type Range, which describes intervals with a lower and an optional upper limit.

FreshMarker and ⊻, ¬, ≠, ≤, ≥, ∨, ∧

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Sometimes a new feature also needs to be a bit of fun. When updating the FreshMarker Grammar, I noticed that the operators lt, gt, gte and lte were still present. These are variants of the usual <, >, <= and >= operators and are reminiscent of the opcodes of a long-forgotten era when assembler languages still roamed the steppes of programming. Since FreshMarker was given its Unicode capabilities by CongoCC, the question arose as to why not allow ≠ and other operator characters in the template.

FreshMarker und OWASP

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It will come as no surprise that FreshMarker, like all other template engines, must take precautions against template injection. Template injection is a security vulnerability that occurs when an application handles templates insecurely. Templates are prefabricated files or strings with placeholders that are replaced by data from users or other sources. Similar to FreeMarker, FreshMarker also has an escape mechanism that detects special characters in the interpolations using a harmless variant. If the standard mechanism is not enough, OWASP can help out.

FreshMarker Performance (1)

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FreshMarker started as an academic project. The main aim was to show how a template engine can be created. At some point, however, the question arose as to how fast the template engine actually is. To be honest, it has been slow so far. But first things first.

FreshMarker Sorted Hash Lists

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I really like it when I can add new features to FreshMarker, especially if they are easy to implement and integrate elegantly into the overall system.

FreshMarker Template Engine 1.0.0

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I am proud to announce the release of FreshMarker 1.0.0! Having started as a small example for blog posts two years ago, FreshMarker has evolved into a robust and versatile framework designed to meet diverse templating needs.

FreshMarker Import Directive

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FreshMarker is an embedded Java template engine that focusses on extensibility and simplicity. For this reason, every implementation of an extension is associated with weighing up its pros and cons. For a long time, the import directive therefore remained an unrealised feature.