Magnolia 5.4 reached end of life on November 15, 2018. This branch is no longer supported, see End-of-life policy.
This is an advanced topic.
It is not necessary to use a model in Magnolia templating, but it is useful. If you are starting out with Magnolia use templating functions instead of a model. Model classes cannot be added to light modules because light modules cannot contain their own Java classes. However, a light module can reference a component model from another module such as MTE.
A model can execute any Java code to retrieve data from the JCR repository or from an external source.
A model is written as a Java model class. It is a JavaBean where business logic resides. The model class is the entry point for custom Java logic for the template script. All templates - page, area and component - can define a model class.
During the rendering process, the renderer calls the model's execute()
before it calls the template script. The return value of the execute
method is passed to the template script with the actionResult
object.
The model class:
All of the model's public methods can be accessed by the tempate script.
There are a number of benefits to using a model:
All templates can use a model class. The model class is referenced in the modelClass
property in the template definition.
Example: A home page template that uses a model class
renderType: freemarker templateScript: /my-module/templates/pages/home.ftl dialog: my-module:pages/homePageProperties modelClass: com.example.templates.HomePageModel
Node name | Value |
---|---|
my-module | |
templates | |
pages | |
home | |
dialog | my-module:pages/home.ftl |
modelClass | com.example.templates.HomePageModel |
renderType | freemarker |
templateScript | /my-module/templates/pages/home.ftl |
Model classes provide their own methods. You can use any public
method in your templates. The methods are exposed using the model.<method name>
notation.
All getters without parameters can be accessed without the 'get' part of the method name and without the method brackets. Method that expect parameters can only be called by the full method declaration:
Below are examples of how to use model methods in your templates.
Model class method | Script use |
public String getName() | ${model.name} ${model.getName()} |
public Collection getLatestNews() | ${model.latestNews} ${model.getLatestNews()} |
public boolean isArchivedNews() | [#if model.archivedNews] ... [/#if] ${model.archivedNews?string} ${model.isArchivedNews()?string} |
public String getContact(String contactName) | ${model.getContact("marilyn")} |
These following objects are passed into the constructor of a model:
The constructor of a model uses Java Generics. The used definition can be defined by generics. No casts are needed.
public class NavigationComponentModel<RD extends ConfiguredTemplateDefinition> extends RenderingModelImpl<ConfiguredTemplateDefinition> { public NavigationComponentModel(Node content, ConfiguredTemplateDefinition definition, RenderingModel<?> parent) throws PathNotFoundException, RepositoryException { super(content, definition, parent); } }