Velocity Templates and Newlines
If you're reading this article you've probably encounted the same problem as I have. I was trying to put a newline '\n' character in the value of a variable in a Velocity template.
Attempt 1:
I assumed \n would work...
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#if ( !$foo )
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#set ( $foo = "There was no foo set in the Context.\nPlease do something about it." )
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#end
This produced There was no foo set in the Context.\nPlease do something about it. as the value of $foo.
Attempt 2:
I just thought this was worth a shot 
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#if ( !$foo )
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#set ( $foo = "There was no foo set in the Context.
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Please do something about it." )
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#end
And the template failed to compile
Solution:
Basically, the easiest way I found is to place the newline, carriage return or other special character in the context.
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public Template handleRequest( HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Context context )
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{
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...
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context.put( "nl", "\n" );
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context.put( "cr", "\r" );
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...
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}
And in your template:
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#if ( !$foo )
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#set ( $foo = "There was no foo set in the Context.${nl}Please do something about it." )
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#end
Maybe not the best solution but it works for me. If you expect to use it across your entire application I suggest you override VelocityServlet.createContext in your Servlet to add these characters to every context in your application.
Example:
