# What is Velocity?

Velocity is a Java-based template engine. It permits anyone to use a simple yet powerful template language to reference objects defined in Java code.

When Velocity is used for web development, Web designers can work in parallel with Java programmers to develop web sites according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) model, meaning that web page designers can focus solely on creating a site that looks good, and programmers can focus solely on writing top-notch code. Velocity separates Java code from the web pages, making the web site more maintainable over its lifespan and providing a viable alternative to Java Server Pages (JSPs) or PHP.

Velocity's capabilities reach well beyond the realm of the web; for example, it can be used to generate SQL, PostScript and XML (see Anakia for more information on XML transformations) from templates. It can be used either as a standalone utility for generating source code and reports, or as an integrated component of other systems. For instance, Velocity provides template services for the Turbine web application framework, together resulting in a view engine facilitating development of web applications according to a true MVC model.

# Where do I get releases?

The current stable release version is version 1.7.

The release distribution is available as a combined source/binary distribution in `tar.gz` and `zip` formats, and can be downloaded through the Apache Mirror system.

The Velocity jars are also available through the central Maven repository.

Older releases are archived at the Apache Velocity archives.

# Where do I get nightly snapshots?

Nightly snapshots of the Velocity subversion source code tree can be found on our nightly snapshot site.

Caveat! These snapshots are generated automatically from the project source code repository. As this is our live development workspace, there are no guarantees as to what you will find there, although we do our best to maintain a buildable source tree. If you are looking for the stable supported release, please use the current release of Velocity.

Please be aware that these snapshots are not official releases of Apache Velocity software. They are provided for developer convenience only!

If you are willing to risk getting dirty, we invite you to try the nightly snapshot to see the current state of affairs. (and help out!) Public Subversion access is also available.

# How do I contribute, give feedback, fix bugs and so on?

The Velocity project appreciates any contributions, including documentation help, source code and feedback. Suggested changes should come in the form of source code and/or feedback.

- Report bugs, ask questions, and help new users on the Velocity mailing lists .
- There's a list of issues waiting to be addressed in our bug tracker .
- Our Wiki has a large collection of community written content. Add your own article or contribute to the FAQ!
- Read-only access to the Subversion repository is available both online and with a Subversion client .