Apache Velocity - Resource not found exception - servlets

Question

I have a requirement to generate some automated mails and so I wanted to use velocity for this task.I have copied all velocity jars to the lib folder and created a hello.vm template and placed in WEB-INF/templates folder.Below is exception I am getting,
org.apache.velocity.exception.ResourceNotFoundException: Unable to find resource 'hello.vm'
userCount incremented to :1
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.ResourceManagerImpl.loadResource(ResourceManagerImpl.java:474)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.ResourceManagerImpl.getResource(ResourceManagerImpl.java:352)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.getTemplate(RuntimeInstance.java:1533)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.getTemplate(RuntimeInstance.java:1514)
at org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine.getTemplate(VelocityEngine.java:373)
at indian.test.handleRequest(test.java:34)
at org.apache.velocity.tools.view.VelocityViewServlet.doRequest(VelocityViewServlet.java:217)
at org.apache.velocity.tools.view.VelocityViewServlet.doGet(VelocityViewServlet.java:182)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:621)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:722)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:305)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.netbeans.modules.web.monitor.server.MonitorFilter.doFilter(MonitorFilter.java:393)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at listener.trimresponse.doFilter(trimresponse.java:46)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:225)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:169)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:168)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:98)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:927)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:999)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:565)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:307)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
I tried all the other ways to load resource using classloader/webapps and still the error remains the same.I am using netbeans 7.2.x with tomcat 7.27. Appreciate if someone can suggest something for this.
Below is my velocity properties file,
resource.loader = file
file.resource.loader.class = org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.loader.FileResourceLoader
file.resource.loader.path = C:\Users\kiran\Desktop\Netbeans Projects\ourstory\web\WEB-INF\templates
file.resource.loader.cache = true
file.resource.loader.modificationCheckInterval = 2
runtime.log=/WEB-INF/logs/velocity.log
runtime.log.logsystem.class=org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.Log4JLogSystem
runtime.log.logsystem.log4j.pattern=%d - %m%n
runtime.log.logsystem.log4j.file.size=10000
runtime.log.logsystem.log4j.file.backups=1
and below is servlet I am using
import java.util.Properties;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import org.apache.velocity.Template;
import org.apache.velocity.VelocityContext;
import org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine;
import org.apache.velocity.context.Context;
import org.apache.velocity.tools.view.VelocityViewServlet;
public class test extends VelocityViewServlet {
private String htmlTemplate = "hello.vm";
VelocityContext context = new VelocityContext();
#Override
public Template handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response,
Context context) {
// Properties props = new Properties();
// props.setProperty("resource.loader", "class");
// props.setProperty("class.resource.loader.class", "org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.loader.ClasspathResourceLoader");
// props.setProperty("webapp.resource.loader.path", "/WEB-INF/templates/");
VelocityEngine engine = new VelocityEngine();
engine.init();
Template template = null;
try {
context.put("name", "Velocity Test");
template = engine.getTemplate(htmlTemplate);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
System.err.println("Exception caught: " + e.getMessage());
}
return template;
}
}
its simple servlet but for some reason I am unable to get it working.

Answer 1

(Answered in comments and edits. See Question with no answers, but issue solved in the comments (or extended in chat) )
The OP wrote:
Update Solved.
Finally After wasting good 2 days and pulling out lot of hairs,and banging the head many times, its resolved.here is what I did to resolve this, added couple of logging statements to ensure that it points correct to the templates folders and then pasing the absolute path to the template file. Watch out for backslashes and forward slashes. Need to log the folder paths and see where exactly its looking for and then keep dubugging. Its pain in the ass to fix such a simple stuff.
/*
* To change this template, choose Tools | Templates
* and open the template in the editor.
*/
/**
*
* #author kiran
*/
import java.io.File;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.Properties;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import org.apache.velocity.Template;
import org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine;
import org.apache.velocity.context.Context;
import org.apache.velocity.tools.view.VelocityViewServlet;
public class Hellotest extends VelocityViewServlet {
#Override
public Template handleRequest(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response,
Context context) {
Properties prop = new Properties();
// prop.put("resource.loader", "class");
// prop.put("class.resource.loader.class", "org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.loader.ClasspathResourceLoader");
String absolutePath = new File(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader().getResource("").getFile()).getParentFile().getParentFile().getPath();
prop.put("file.resource.loader.path", absolutePath + "\\templates\\");
System.out.println("absolute path is : " + absolutePath);
System.out.println("keyset is : " + prop.keySet());
Enumeration em = prop.keys();
while (em.hasMoreElements()) {
String str = (String) em.nextElement();
System.out.println(str + ": " + prop.get(str));
}
VelocityEngine Velocity = new VelocityEngine();
Velocity.init(prop);
Template template = null;
context.put("name", "Velocity Test");
try {
System.out.println("absolute path inside is : " + context);
template = Velocity.getTemplate("hello.vm","UTF-8");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
System.err.println("Exception caught: " + e.getMessage());
}
return template;
}
}
and here is updated velocity properties file,
resource.loader = file
file.resource.loader.class = org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.loader.FileResourceLoader
file.resource.loader.cache = true
file.resource.loader.modificationCheckInterval = 2
and finally I put the templates under webpages folder. Maybe I will try to push this in web-inf and see how it goes. Its not good thing to keep templates under webpages given that we are exposing it.