freeMarker issue: Encountered "{" at line 36, column 38

[momotaro]

am trying to generate some html files using Templates with freeMarker but I stumbled on this error at this line:

instance="#{${entityName}Controller.selectedInstance}"

Encountered "{" at line 36, column 38 in \Templates\templateComp.xhtml.
Was expecting one of:
";" ...
"}" ...
"." ...
"[" ...
"(" ...
"?" ...
"!" ...
<TERMINATING_EXCLAM> ...
"??" ...
"+" ...
"-" ...
"*" ...
"/" ...
"%" ...
"!=" ...
"=" ...
"==" ...
">=" ...
<ESCAPED_GTE> ...
">" ...
<ESCAPED_GT> ...
<LESS_THAN_EQUALS> ...
<LESS_THAN> ...
".." ...
<AND> ...
<OR> ...

thank's in advance.

[Oralloy]

momotaro,

You need to escape the sharp character ('#') in the string. I think you simply need to prefix it with a back-stroke ('\') or a dollar sign ('$'), I don't remember which.

Luck!
Oralloy

[momotaro]

In fact this is how it should be done:

instance="#\{${entityName}Controller.newInstance}"

but the output will be then:
instance="#\{EmployeeController.newInstance}"
which is not correct since I don't need the extra backslash there.Any ideas ?
thank's in advance.

[Oralloy]

momotaro,

Did you try

instance="\#{${entityName}Controller.newInstance}"

Otherwise, it may be time get ugly and build the string the hard way....
either:

instance="\u0022{${entityName}Controller.newInstance}"

or:

instance="#set($sharp='#')$sharp{${entityName}Controller.newInstance}"

Luck,
Oralloy

I'm familiar with Velocity, which has similar problems.

[momotaro]

first one \#: gives errors
second one prints that: instance="\u0022{EmployeeByDepartmentController.ne wInstance}"
third one prints that:
instance="#set($sharp='#')$sharp{EmployeeByDepartm entController.newInstance}"

PS: freemarker consider everything as static to be printed unless it is an interpolation...So unless I come up with an idea to change the interpolation and make it user defined , which is I think impossible, it will not work.
thank's anyway.

[momotaro]

I don't wanna hard code it :D

[Oralloy]

momotaro,

Unfortunately this has gone beyond my ability. I use velocity, and I've had similar problems in the past.

If you can inject a Character object into the context, then you can insert the # by doing using reference, as in my third example.

Aren't magic symbols a nusiance?

My apologies.
Oralloy.