Velocity tags are extensions of the generic Tags provided by WebWork. You can get started almost immediately by simply knowing the structure in which the tags can be accessed: #wwxxx (...) ... #end, where xxx is any of the Tags supported by WebWork.

As of WebWork 2.2, the use of Velocity for templating internal WebWork UI Tags have been removed. The new and legacy 2.2 UI tags have been implemented in FreeMarker. However, support for the Velocity result type as well as the Velocity directives shown below will continue to be supported and developed. By default, WebWork's TemplateEngine will call the FreeMarker UI Tags using the Velocity syntax noted below (through Velocity directives). See Template Loading for more information.

Syntax

For example, in JSP you might create a form like so:

<ww:form action="updatePerson">
    <ww:textfield label="First name" name="firstName"/>
    <ww:submit value="Update"/>
</ww:form>

In Velocity the same form is built like so:

#wwform ("action=updatePerson")
    #wwtextfield ("label=First name" "name=firstName")
    #wwsubmit ("value=Update")
#end

Block and Inline Tags

You may notice that some tags require an #end statement, while others do not. Due to a limitation in Velocity, tags must declare if they are a block or inline tag up front. As such, by default all tags are inline except for a few key ones, such as the form tag. We strongly encourage you to look at FreeMarker, which provides much better flexibility in this area as well as others.