FreeMarker

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: 2.3.7

Notes:
Maintenance release with important new features.

Changes:
If you are switching from 2.3.6, and not from 2.3.7 RC1, add the
change log of 2.3.7 RC1 to the list of changes. I have included the
change log of 2.3.7 RC1 in this file for your convenience.


Differences between 2.3.7 and 2.3.7 RC1
---------------------------------------

This release, compared to 2.3.7 RC1, contains new operators for
handling null/missing variables, the "substring" built-in, and some
more bugfixes.

Note:
  Numbers inside [] are bug tracker Request ID-s. You can visit the
  bug-tracker here:
  http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=794&atid=100794


Changes on the Java side:

* The "seq_contains" built-in now handles TemplateCollectionModel-s as
  well.

* Bug fixed: In 2.3.7 RC1 FreemarkerServlet has always died with
  NullPointerException during initialization.

  
Changes on the FTL side:

* 3 new operators were added for terser missing variable handling.
  These operators make the "default", "exists" and "if_exists"
  built-ins deprecated. (The parser doesn't issue any warning messages
  when you use deprecated built-ins, and they are still working.):

  . exp1!exp2 is near equivalent with exp1?default(exp2), also
    (exp1)!exp2 is near equivalent with (exp1)?default(exp2). The only
    difference is that this new operator doesn't evaluate the exp2
    when the default value is not needed.

  . exp1! is similar to exp1?if_exists, also (exp1)! is similar to
    (exp1)?if_exists. The difference is that with this new operator
    the default value is an empty string and an empty list and empty
    hash at the same time (multi-type variable), while with
    "if_exists" the default value was an empty string and an empty
    list and empty hash and boolean false and a transform that does
    nothing and ignores all parameters at the same time.

  . exp1?? is equivalent with exp1?exists, also (exp1)?? is equivalent
    with with (exp1)?exists.

* New built-in: exp?substring(from, toExclusive), also callable as
  exp?substring(from). Getting substrings was possible for a long time
  like myString[from..toInclusive] and myString[from..]. This syntax
  is now deprecated for getting substrings (but it's still working),
  and instead you should use myString?substring(from, toExclusive) and
  myString?substring(from). Sequence (list) slices still has to be get
  with the old syntax, since substring only applies to strings. Please
  note that the ``to'' parameter is 1 greater with this new builtin, as
  it is an exclusive index. Further difference is that the substring
  built-in requires that the ``from'' index is less than or equal to
  the ``to'' index. So 0 length substrings are possible now, but not
  reversed substrings.

* Bug fixed: [1487694] malfunction when the "recover" directive has no
  nested content


Differences between 2.3.7 RC 1 and 2.3.6
----------------------------------------

This release contains many bugfixes and FreemarkerServlet/JSP related
new features. It's a Release Candidate, which means that it shouldn't
be used in production environment yet. We recommend this release for
development, however. Please test it!

Note:
  Numbers inside [] are bug tracker Request ID-s. You can visit the
  bug-tracker here:
  http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=794&atid=100794

Changes on the Java side:

* JSP support improvement: [1326058] Added support for
  DynamicAttributes (new in JSP 2.0)
      
* JSP support improvement: Added support for pushBody()/popBody() in
  FreemarkerPageContext

* JSP support improvement: Added support for getVariableResolver()
  (new in JSP 2.0).

* JSP support improvement: Added support for include(String, boolean)
  (new in JSP 2.0).

* JSP support improvement: Added support for getExpressionEvaluator()
  (new in JSP 2.0). However, it will need Apache commons-el in the
  class path, or else this method will not work (it's optional). Note
  that EL support is not needed in principle, since FreeMarker has
  it's own expression language. But some custom JSP 2 tags may still
  want to use this method, after all it's in the JSP 2 API.

* FreemarkerServlet improvement: AllHttpScopesHashModel is now public,
  so you can add unlisted variables to the data-model.

* FreemarkerServlet improvement: When it throws a ServletException,
  the J2SE 1.4 cause exception is now set under J2SE 1.4.

* Bug fixed: [1469275] NullPointerException when using BeansWrapper
  with reloaded classes

* Bug fixed: [1449467] HttpSessionHashModel is not Serializable

* Bug fixed: [1435113] Error in BeanWrapper with indexed properties

* Bug fixed: [1411705] Acquisition bug in TemplateCache

* Bug fixed: [1459699] Tag syntax can't set with
  Configuration.setSetting(String, String)

* Bug fixed: [1473403] ReturnInstruction.Return should be public

Changes on the FTL side:

* Bug fixed: [1463664] [/#noparse] is printed out