tiles-parent/src/site/apt/whats-new.apt

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         What's new in Tiles 3.0
         -----------

What's new in Tiles 3.0

* New features in Tiles 3.0

  * Apache Request: a framework independent request abstraction. Implementations for Servlet, Portlet, JSP, Velocity and FreeMarker.

  * Apache Autotag: a project that automatically generates tags (or tag-like) artifact from a common template code for a range of templating languages.
  All the Tiles 3 boilerplate code to templating models has been removed and uses the Autotag plugins instead:
  it's a lot of boilerplate, boring code, now generated automatically.

* Deprecations in Tiles 3.0

  ...todo...

What's new in Tiles 2.2

  Tiles 2.2 is a binary-compatible enhancement of Tiles 2.1.x, with some incompatible changes in JSP tags,
  but, for the user perspective, it is perfectly compatible.

* New features in Tiles 2.2

  Tiles 2.2 has several new features:

  * {{{tutorial/integration/freemarker.html}Native support for FreeMarker}},
  instead of a support based on JSP.

  * {{{tutorial/integration/velocity.html}Support for Velocity}}.

  * Support for pattern matching using
  {{{tutorial/advanced/wildcard.html#Using_different_pattern_matching_languages}regular expressions}}.

  * {{{tutorial/advanced/el-support.html#OGNL_Support}OGNL support}}
  and
  {{{tutorial/advanced/el-support.html#MVEL_Support}MVEL support}}
  in Tiles definition files, when specifying attributes and templates.

  * Ready to use {{{tutorial/configuration.html#Ready-made_configuration_classes}configuration classes}} to ease startup with minimal coding.

* Deprecations in Tiles 2.2

  * Startup with initialization parameters is not <<deprecated>>. See the
  {{{tutorial/configuration.html}configuration}} page to know how to configure
  Tiles with Java.

* Removals in Tiles 2.2

  * Support of retrotranslated packages to be compatible with Java 1.4. It is possible,
  though, to retrotranslate the packages manually.

  * Support for Servlets 2.4 and JSP 2.0 when creating <<<ELAttributeEvaluator>>>.
  {{{tutorial/advanced/el-support.html}It is still possible to use it manually}}.

* New features in Tiles 2.1

  Tiles 2.1 introduces new features, but remaining compatible to Tiles 2.0.x.
  The new features are:

  * {{{tutorial/advanced/nesting-extending.html#Anonymous_nested_definitions}Anonymous nested definitions}}:
  now definitions can be put just as an attribute in an enclosing definition,
  without the necessity to define a new named definition to use only once.

  * <<Wildcard support>>: wildcards are supported:

    ** in {{{tutorial/advanced/wildcard.html}XML definition files}};

    ** when enumerating the {{{tutorial/wildcard-configuration.html}list of Tiles definition files to load}}.

  * {{{tutorial/advanced/el-support.html}EL support}} in Tiles definition files, when specifying attributes and
  templates.

  * Ability to
  {{{migration/configuration.html#Reusing_old_Tiles_configuration_files}load Tiles 1.x definition files}}.

  * {{{tutorial/configuration.html#Pure_Java_configuration}Pure Java configuration}},
  except for the configuration of the Tiles container factory.

  * List attributes can now
  {{{tutorial/advanced/list-attributes.html#List_attribute_inheritance}inherit members from the extending definition}}.

  * Attribute values can be
  {{{tutorial/advanced/nesting-extending.html#Cascaded_attributes}cascaded to nested definitions}},
  so the configuration is easier to write.

  * Ability to
  {{{tutorial/advanced/runtime.html#Inserting_modified_definitions}override the template when inserting definitions}}.

  * Customize {{{tutorial/advanced/attribute-rendering.html}rendering of attributes}},
  for example to write integrations with other frameworks.

  * Usage of {{{tutorial/advanced/multiple-containers.html}more than one Tiles container}}.

** Under the hood

  * <<<TilesApplicationContext>>> is now created externally of the Tiles
  container and {{{tutorial/extension/points.html#Tiles_Application_Context_Factory}must be configured externally}}.

  * Tiles exceptions are all unchecked now: you can now remove all your
  try-catches.

  * Added the concept of "definition DAO" that allows loading definitions from
  various sources, for example a DB.