The Apache Software Foundation

The Apache Velocity project is pleased to announce the release of VelocityTools 2.0.

Downloads are available here:
 http://velocity.apache.org/download.cgi

This should be useable as a drop in replacement for Tools 2.0-beta4 or Tools 1.4, with a few minor exceptions.  The 2.x series of VelocityTools requires Velocity 1.5+ and JDK 1.5+.

For those new to Tools 2, here's an overview of the work done since 1.4:
   * More convention over configuration and smart defaults
   * New configuration formats (more concise/flexible/powerful xml, properties, java)
   * Provision of default and auto-loaded configurations
   * Entirely new core infrastructure (lazy-loading tools, easier access, standalone support etc)
   * Added VelocityViewTag for JSP integration
   * Added DisplayTool, ConversionTool, ClassTool, LoopTool, FieldTool, a generic version of LinkTool and more
   * Refactored and enhanced a number of existing tools
   * Improved documentation
   * Deprecated many outdated things
   * Legacy support for almost all Tools 1.4 configurations and extensions
   * Better integration of $application, $session and $request scope control objects
   * and lots more...

For those following the betas, here's the notable changes since 2.0-beta4:
   * Added a 'readOnly' config option to allow write operations on ValueParser and ParameterTool (when set to false)
   * Added a beta-quality UiDependencyTool (included in velocity-view, but not in default tools.xml)
   * Added an alpha-quality MarkupTool (included in generic tools, but not in default tools.xml)
   * Fixed (as much as possible) some significant last-iteration LoopTool problems, and added a loop.this property to serve as a more reliable workaround in nested loops. See
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/VELTOOLS-124
   * VelocityLayoutServlet now checks request attributes for non-default layouts.
   * The velocity-view.tld is now valid.
   * VelocityView[Servlet] has improved exception and http management (particularly for ResourceNotFoundExceptions).
   * Miscellaneous documentation and build.xml improvements

The Velocity developers are very interested in all feedback regarding Tools 2.0, especially regarding backwards compatibility with apps designed for Tools 1.4 or earlier. We aim to enable a smooth,
incremental transition for developers and their applications.