Importing spring.ftl using Spring MVC, Sitemesh, Freemarker - spring-mvc

Question

How can I import the spring.ftl macros into a Freemarker template page using Spring MVC, Sitemesh, and Freemarker?
I've configured a Spring MVC app using Sitemesh and Freemarker based on Ted Young's configuration example. According to the Spring MVC/Freemarker integration reference, it is necessary to import the spring.ftl macros in order to bind the backing model to the view via <#spring.bind "command.name"/>. However, doing this:
<#import "/spring.ftl" as spring>
<#spring.bind "command.user"/>
Results in this exception:
org.springframework.web.util.NestedServletException:
Request processing failed; nested exception is freemarker.
template.TemplateException: Error reading imported file spring.ftl
Others have experienced this issue, but I've yet to find a solution in google land. I also attempted to use this technique (zipping up spring.ftl, placing it in META-INF/lib, and adding the zip to the build path), but it didn't seem to work out.
Thanks!

Answer 1

The problem is that spring dont know where to look after the spring.ftl file:
This is my custom configuration for an MVC project using Boot
/**
* Otras configuraciones de la aplicaciones web, incluyendo algunas definidas en
* xml. Usar #ImportResource("classpath:/extra-config.xml") en caso de quererse
* importar configuracion en xml
*/
#Configuration
#PropertySource("classpath:application.properties")
public class WebAppConfig
{
#Autowired
private ServletContext context;
#Bean
public static PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer propertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer() {
PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer placeHolderConfigurer = new PropertySourcesPlaceholderConfigurer();
return placeHolderConfigurer;
}
#Bean
public FreeMarkerConfigurer freeMarkerConfigurer() throws IOException, TemplateException
{
FreeMarkerConfigurer configurer = new FreeMarkerConfigurer()
{
#Override
protected void postProcessConfiguration(freemarker.template.Configuration config) throws IOException, TemplateException
{
WebappTemplateLoader WebAppTplLoader = new WebappTemplateLoader(context, "/WEB-INF/ftl");
ClassTemplateLoader classTplLoader = new ClassTemplateLoader(context.getClassLoader(), "/templates");
ClassTemplateLoader baseMvcTplLoader = new ClassTemplateLoader(FreeMarkerConfigurer.class, "");
MultiTemplateLoader mtl = new MultiTemplateLoader(new TemplateLoader[]
{
WebAppTplLoader,
classTplLoader,
baseMvcTplLoader
});
config.setTemplateLoader(mtl);
}
};
configurer.setDefaultEncoding("UTF-8");
configurer.setPreferFileSystemAccess(false);
return configurer;
}
#Bean
public FreeMarkerViewResolver viewResolver()
{
FreeMarkerViewResolver viewResolver = new FreeMarkerViewResolver();
viewResolver.setExposeSpringMacroHelpers(true);
viewResolver.setExposeRequestAttributes(true);
viewResolver.setPrefix("");
viewResolver.setSuffix(".ftl");
viewResolver.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");
return viewResolver;
}
}
The first 2 loaders allow to load .ftl templates in war files from "/WEB-INF/ftl" and from regular jar files from src/resources/templates.
If you want to use security tags in freemarker the escense are this two lines:
viewResolver.setExposeSpringMacroHelpers(true);
viewResolver.setExposeRequestAttributes(true);
And the baseMvcTplLoader loader to get the spring.ftl from org.springframework.web.servlet.view.freemarker. I advice to explore ftl templates in some example project or documentation to have a clue of how spring.ftl works.
The configuration of the placeholder is not related to the freemarker
configuration, yet its very useful for injecting values in variables
from src/resources/application.properties by using the #Value
annotation.
With this you can use all the spring power within freemarker templates.

Answer 2

I like my spring.ftl included by default without having to add it manually within each view. In your configuration.
Define your freemarkerConfigurer as such.
#Bean(name = "freemarkerConfig")
public FreeMarkerConfigurer freemarkerConfig() {
FreeMarkerConfigurer configurer = new FreeMarkerConfigurer();
configurer.setTemplateLoaderPath("/WEB-INF/views/");
Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<>();
map.put("xml_escape", new XmlEscape());
configurer.setFreemarkerVariables(map)
def settings = new Properties()
settings['auto_import'] = 'spring.ftl as spring, layout/application.ftl as l'
configurer.setFreemarkerSettings(settings)
println "returning freemarker config"
return configurer;
}

Answer 3

<#import "spring.ftl" as spring/>
Without /