load templates from database

Hi,

I would like to load my FreeMarker templates from the database. I understand that I can achieve this by writing my own implementation of TemplateLoader or possibly using the provided StringTemplateLoader.

The templates will be stored in these database tables:

base_template
----------------------------------------------------------------
base_template_id | name | base_template_content


custom_template
---------------------------------------------------------
base_template_id | country_id | custom_template_content


If a countryId is provided, then custom_template_content should be returned. If no countryId is provided, or a custom template does not exist for a particular template name and country combination, then base_template_content should be returned.

However, when requesting a template from FreeMarker, you provide just the template name, which should uniquely identify the required template. This template name is then passes onto the TemplateLoader which loads the template (assuming it doesn't already exist in the cache). However, in my case, the template name alone is not sufficient to identify the required template. Although I could construct a unque string such as

String templateName = name + "/" + countryId;

This is kind of ugly and I would need to parse out the components of the name in my TemplateLoader in order to construct the relevant SQL statement. In reality the problem is even worse than described here, as templates are customised based on several variables (i.e. not just country).

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Don



      

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