FreeMarker: Java Template Engine Library

About

	Overview
	Features

Download

	FreeMarker
	中文版手册（PDF）
	Editor/IDE plugins
	File generator tool (FMPP)
	FTL Libraries

Documentation

	Manual
	Java API
	Manual » FAQ
	Manual » Alphabetical Index
	Manual » Expression syntax cheat sheet
	Manual » Index of `?built_ins`
	Manual » Index of `#directives`
	Manual » List of `.special_variables`
	Manual » Change log (versions)
	Manual » Glossary

Community, help

	Report bugs here
	Ask Help on Stack Overflow, tag "freemarker"
	Mailing lists for deeper discussions
	Twitter to keep track of events/releases

Miscellaneous

	Powered by FreeMarker
	SourceForge project page
	Source code on GitHub
	Who we are

Overview

News

27 June 2013: FreeMarker 2.3.20 was released

This version comes with better error messages, better boolean formatting, higher multi-core performance, and many other smaller improvements and fixes. See all the changes here...

Download it here... (GAE-compatible binary here...)

What is FreeMarker?

FreeMarker is a "template engine"; a generic tool to generate text output (anything from HTML to autogenerated source code) based on templates. It's a Java package, a class library for Java programmers. It's not an application for end-users in itself, but something that programmers can embed into their products.

FreeMarker is designed to be practical for the generation of HTML Web pages, particularly by servlet-based applications following the MVC (Model View Controller) pattern. The idea behind using the MVC pattern for dynamic Web pages is that you separate the designers (HTML authors) from the programmers. Everybody works on what they are good at. Designers can change the appearance of a page without programmers having to change or recompile code, because the application logic (Java programs) and page design (FreeMarker templates) are separated. Templates do not become polluted with complex program fragments. This separation is useful even for projects where the programmer and the HTML page author is the same person, since it helps to keep the application clear and easily maintainable.

Although FreeMarker has some programming capabilities, it is not a full-blown programming language like PHP. Instead, Java programs prepare the data to be displayed (like issue SQL queries), and FreeMarker just generates textual pages that display the prepared data using templates.

FreeMarker is not a Web application framework. It is suitable as a component in a Web application framework, but the FreeMarker engine itself knows nothing about HTTP or servlets. It simply generates text. As such, it is perfectly usable in non-web application environments as well. Note, however, that we provide out-of-the-box solutions for using FreeMarker as the view component of Model 2 frameworks (e.g. Struts), which also let you use JSP taglibs in the templates.

FreeMarker is Free, with BSD-style license. See the license here...