Velocity Template Editor for Eclipse

An Eclipse editor plugin for Velocity Template Language (VTL).

Features

Syntax Highlighting

• VTL directives (#if, #foreach, #set, #macro, etc.)
• VTL variables ($variable, ${variable}, $!variable)
• VTL comments (## single-line, #* *# multi-line)
• HTML tags, attributes, and attribute values

Content Assist

• Show VTL directive proposals with #
• Show VTL variable templates with $
• Show HTML tag proposals with <
• Manual trigger with Ctrl+Space
• Customize variable proposal names for $ in Preferences (one variable name per line)

Double-Click Selection

• Select the entire VTL variable
• Select HTML tag names
• Select regular words

Light/Dark Theme Support

• Colors are automatically adjusted based on the Eclipse theme

Supported Files

• .vtl - Velocity Template
• .vm - Velocity Macro

Requirements

• Eclipse 2025-12 or later
• Java 21 or later
• Maven build must run with Java 21 or later

Installation

Option 1: Install from Update Site (recommended)

Install from Help > Install New Software... with this update site URL:

https://nebosuke.github.io/eclipse-velocity-editor/

Option 2: Build and Install

JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 21) mvn -DskipTests clean verify

The generated Update Site is:

io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor.updatesite/target/repository

You can add this directory in Help > Install New Software... > Add... > Local....

Option 3: Install via Eclipse PDE

1. In Eclipse, choose File > Import > Existing Projects into Workspace
2. Import this project
3. Right-click the project and choose Run As > Eclipse Application

Automated Update Site Publishing

Every push to main runs .github/workflows/publish.yml, which:

1. Increments the patch version across all project files (scripts/bump_version.py) and pushes that bump back to main.
2. Builds the update site with Maven/Tycho.
3. Replaces the contents of the gh-pages branch with the newly built repository and pushes it.

No manual steps are needed for a normal release. Use the manual steps below only if you need to publish outside of CI (e.g. to test a build locally or recover from a broken workflow run).

Manual Update Site Publishing

1. Increment version numbers before publishing.

Update all of these files to the next version (example: 1.0.1 -> 1.0.2):

• io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF Bundle-Version: 1.0.2.qualifier
• io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor.feature/feature.xml version="1.0.2.qualifier"
• io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor.updatesite/category.xml version="1.0.2.qualifier" and feature URL ...feature_1.0.2.qualifier.jar
• pom.xml <version>1.0.2-SNAPSHOT</version>
• io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor/pom.xml <version>1.0.2-SNAPSHOT</version> (in <parent>)
• io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor.feature/pom.xml <version>1.0.2-SNAPSHOT</version> (in <parent>)
• io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor.updatesite/pom.xml <version>1.0.2-SNAPSHOT</version> (in <parent>)

2. Build the update site with Java 17+:

JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 21) mvn -DskipTests clean verify

3. Copy generated repository files to a temporary directory:

rm -rf /tmp/eclipse-velocity-editor-site
mkdir -p /tmp/eclipse-velocity-editor-site
cp -R io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor.updatesite/target/repository/. /tmp/eclipse-velocity-editor-site/

4. Switch to gh-pages branch and replace contents:

git checkout gh-pages
find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 ! -name ".git" -exec rm -rf {} +
cp -R /tmp/eclipse-velocity-editor-site/. .
touch .nojekyll

5. Commit and push:

git add -A
git commit -m "Publish update site"
git push origin gh-pages

6. Return to development branch:

git checkout main

Usage

1. Open a .vtl or .vm file
2. The file opens automatically in Velocity Editor
3. Content Assist starts automatically when typing #, $, or <, or manually with Ctrl+Space

Customize $ Completion Proposals

In Preferences > Velocity Editor, edit Content Assist variables for '$' to configure the variable names suggested when typing $ (one name per line).

Project Structure

io.github.nebosuke.velocityeditor/
├── META-INF/
│   └── MANIFEST.MF          # OSGi bundle configuration
├── plugin.xml                # Eclipse extension points
├── build.properties
├── pom.xml                   # Maven/Tycho build configuration
└── src/io/github/nebosuke/velocityeditor/
    ├── Activator.java
    ├── editors/
    │   ├── VelocityEditor.java
    │   ├── VelocityConfiguration.java
    │   ├── VelocityDocumentProvider.java
    │   └── VelocityDoubleClickStrategy.java
    ├── scanners/
    │   ├── VelocityPartitionScanner.java
    │   ├── VelocityCodeScanner.java
    │   ├── VelocityCommentScanner.java
    │   ├── VelocityVariableRule.java
    │   ├── HTMLTagScanner.java
    │   └── HTMLTagRule.java
    ├── assist/
    │   └── VelocityContentAssistProcessor.java
    └── preferences/
        ├── ColorManager.java
        └── VelocityPreferencePage.java

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Author

Yatsuke Works