jQuery and Apache Velocity

Apache Velocity is a powerful tool which allows you to transform data into an output format via VM file.  It can be used to output HTML files, XML files, JSON objects, etc.  A common problem I run into is using the dollar sign in a VM file when we want to parse jQuery/javascript code.  There are multiple ways to alleviate this issue, but I find that replacing the dollar sign with 'jQuery' gets the job done.

In your .VM file:

     //Velocity doesn't like this dollar sign.
     $(document).ready(function() {
          //some code here
     });

Instead write one of these:

     //Skip using dollar sign completely
    jQuery(document).ready(function() {
          //some code here
     });

    //Tells Velocity to parse a dollar sign
    ${esc.d}(document).ready(function() {
          //some code here
     });

    //Tells Velocity not to even bother parsing
    //This option is for 1.7 and higher I believe
    #[[
    $(document).ready(function() {
          //some code here
     });
     ]]#

    //Altenative way of escaping the dollar sign
    //Try not to do this one


    \$(document).ready(function() {
          //some code here
     });

     
This issue is well documented, however you have to either read through all the responses to the question asked.  Instead, I simply provided a list of common solutions for this problem.  I've actually had problems with using the backslash with the dollar sign, so I would try to avoid that solution.

Good luck!