Using Java8 LocalDateTime with FreeMarker

It’s unfortunate that even latest FreeMarker 2.3.27 still does not support java.time.LocalDateTime as data model natively. If you want to use this in your template, you would either have to write your own, or use this friendly library:

        <!-- Web View: FTL Template Engine -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.freemarker</groupId>
            <artifactId>freemarker</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.27-incubating</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>no.api.freemarker</groupId>
            <artifactId>freemarker-java8</artifactId>
            <version>1.1.5</version>
        </dependency>

With this, you may format the java8 date model in template like this:

Today date is ${todayDate.format()}

Or use custom date formatter: ${todayDate.format('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm')}