Re: Milliseconds out of a java.util.Date that thinks it is a freemarker.template.SimpleDate

>
>> [...Using a Date object...]
>> So I tried a naive approach in Freemarker:
>>
>> wrapper.myDate.time
>>
>> Sadly, this makes the system cry out:
>> Expected hash. wrapper.myDate evaluated instead to 
>> freemarker.template.SimpleDate
>>
>>
>> I wonder why that is happening.
>> My assumption, though I did not find anything in the docs about it:
>> There are obviously classes that get treated differently by
>> FreeMarker. Some are just wrapped, but others get special features.
>> java.util.Date is wrapped into freemarker.template.SimpleDate. The
>> latter misses the former's getTime() method. Right?
>
> The thing is, originally FreeMarker didn't exposed methods and
> JavaBean properties at all. Now it has the BeansWrapper that does, but
> for backward compatibility the DefaultObjectWrapper is used which
> still doesn't expose the method/properties for "well-known" classes
> like Date.
>
Ah, okay. I just thought it was me not understand an important part of 
the system.
Good, thanks for the hint.

>> If so: How can I prevent this from happening?
>
> Use plain BeansWrapper... where you configure FreeMarker add this:
>
> BeansWrapper wrapper = new BeansWrapper();
> wrapper.setSimpleMapWrapper(true);
> cfg.setObjectWrapper(wrapper);
>
> Where cfg is the Configuration objet. Now, if you do it on a big
> complex system, you better do some testing, because the template will
> see the data-model a bit differently now (like you can write
> ${myDate.time}). It mostly shouldn't break anything, but who knows...
>
> If this you find too risky, you can write a TemplateMethodModelEx that
> extract the millisecond part.
I think I'll use the second way to get around it. Thanks.

> Also, I think I will add a built-in for this in 2.3.16... it seems
> it's often needed. myDate?time_millis or something. 
Sounds great to me!

> I think 2.3.16
> will be released within two weeks or so, but I can add this built-in
> much earlier in the nightly builds if you would use that. Would you?
I got around the problem for now, so I can wait until the next release.
No need to hurry.

Thank you very much,
Tobias

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