title: FreeMarker template error: The following has evaluated to null or missing | BUT NOT TRUE
body: <p>The error I'm facing is so weird. Everything looks fine, but I get this error when the browser sends the GET request to the server. What I'm trying to do is actually catching the HTTP parameters, save them in an object saved in an ArrayList sending to a Freemarker template. </p>
  
  <p>Could you please help me? Thanks a lot.</p>
  
  <p>The error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <blockquote>
      <p>freemarker.log._JULLoggerFactory$JULLogger error SEVERE: Error
      executing FreeMarker template FreeMarker template error: The following
      has evaluated to null or missing:
      ==> item.lat1  [in template "view/result.ftl" at line 18, column 15]</p>
    </blockquote>
    
    <p>freemarker.core.InvalidReferenceException: [... Exception message was
    already printed; see it above ...]    at
    freemarker.core.InvalidReferenceException.getInstance(InvalidReferenceException.java:131)
      at freemarker.core.EvalUtil.coerceModelToString(EvalUtil.java:355)
      at
    freemarker.core.Expression.evalAndCoerceToString(Expression.java:82)
      at freemarker.core.DollarVariable.accept(DollarVariable.java:41)    at
    freemarker.core.Environment.visit(Environment.java:324)   at
    freemarker.core.MixedContent.accept(MixedContent.java:54)     at
    freemarker.core.Environment.visitByHiddingParent(Environment.java:345)
      at
    freemarker.core.IteratorBlock$IterationContext.executeNestedBlockInner(IteratorBlock.java:268)
      at
    freemarker.core.IteratorBlock$IterationContext.executeNestedBlock(IteratorBlock.java:220)
      at
    freemarker.core.IteratorBlock$IterationContext.accept(IteratorBlock.java:194)
      at
    freemarker.core.Environment.visitIteratorBlock(Environment.java:572)
      at
    freemarker.core.IteratorBlock.acceptWithResult(IteratorBlock.java:78)
      at freemarker.core.IteratorBlock.accept(IteratorBlock.java:64)  at
    freemarker.core.Environment.visit(Environment.java:324)   at
    freemarker.core.MixedContent.accept(MixedContent.java:54)     at
    freemarker.core.Environment.visit(Environment.java:324)   at
    freemarker.core.Environment.process(Environment.java:302)     at
    freemarker.template.Template.process(Template.java:325)   at
    spark.template.freemarker.FreeMarkerEngine.render(FreeMarkerEngine.java:71)
      at controller.App.lambda$main$1(App.java:57)    at
    spark.RouteImpl$1.handle(RouteImpl.java:58)   at
    spark.webserver.MatcherFilter.doFilter(MatcherFilter.java:162)    at
    spark.webserver.JettyHandler.doHandle(JettyHandler.java:61)   at
    org.eclipse.jetty.server.session.SessionHandler.doScope(SessionHandler.java:189)
      at
    org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ScopedHandler.handle(ScopedHandler.java:141)
      at
    org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:119)
      at org.eclipse.jetty.server.Server.handle(Server.java:517)  at
    org.eclipse.jetty.server.HttpChannel.handle(HttpChannel.java:302)     at
    org.eclipse.jetty.server.HttpConnection.onFillable(HttpConnection.java:242)
      at
    org.eclipse.jetty.io.AbstractConnection$ReadCallback.succeeded(AbstractConnection.java:245)
      at org.eclipse.jetty.io.FillInterest.fillable(FillInterest.java:95)
      at
    org.eclipse.jetty.io.SelectChannelEndPoint$2.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:75)
      at
    org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.strategy.ExecuteProduceConsume.produceAndRun(ExecuteProduceConsume.java:213)
      at
    org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.strategy.ExecuteProduceConsume.run(ExecuteProduceConsume.java:147)
      at
    org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool.runJob(QueuedThreadPool.java:654)
      at
    org.eclipse.jetty.util.thread.QueuedThreadPool$3.run(QueuedThreadPool.java:572)
      at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)</p>
    
    <p>[qtp285763673-17] ERROR spark.webserver.MatcherFilter - 
    java.lang.IllegalArgumentException:
    freemarker.core.InvalidReferenceException: The following has evaluated
    to null or missing:
    ==> item.lat1  [in template "view/result.ftl" at line 18, column 15]</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>.. But true, because I do print the Array and it works fine!</p>
  
  <pre><code>  final FreeMarkerEngine freeMarkerEngine = new FreeMarkerEngine();
      final Configuration freeMarkerConfiguration = new Configuration();
      freeMarkerConfiguration.setTemplateLoader(new ClassTemplateLoader(App.class, "/"));
      freeMarkerEngine.setConfiguration(freeMarkerConfiguration);
  
      get("/rest", (request, response) -&gt; {
          Double lat1 = Double.parseDouble(request.queryParams("lat1") != null ? request.queryParams("lat1") : "anonymous");
          Double lon1 = Double.parseDouble(request.queryParams("lon1") != null ? request.queryParams("lon1") : "anonymous");
          Double lat2 = Double.parseDouble(request.queryParams("lat2") != null ? request.queryParams("lat2") : "anonymous");
          Double lon2 = Double.parseDouble(request.queryParams("lon2") != null ? request.queryParams("lon2") : "anonymous");
  
          if (shouldReturnHtml(request)) {
              response.status(200);
              response.type("text/html");
              Map&lt;String, Object&gt; attributes = new HashMap&lt;&gt;();
              attributes.put("list",loadTheList(lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2));
              return freeMarkerEngine.render(new ModelAndView(attributes, "/view/result.ftl"));
          }
          else {
              response.status(200);
              response.type("application/json");
              return null;
          }
      });
  
  
  }
  
  private static boolean shouldReturnHtml(Request request) {
      String accept = request.headers("Accept");
      return accept != null &amp;&amp; accept.contains("text/html");
  }
  public static ArrayList&lt;Bereken&gt; loadTheList(double lat1, double lon1, double lat2, double lon2) {
      ArrayList&lt;Bereken&gt; list = new ArrayList&lt;&gt;();
      list.add(new Bereken(lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2));
      return list;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And result.ftl:</p>
  
  <pre><code>      &lt;#list list as item&gt;
          &lt;h2&gt;${item.lat1}&lt;/h2&gt;
          &lt;h2&gt;${item.lon1}&lt;/h2&gt;
          &lt;h2&gt;${item.lat2}&lt;/h2&gt;
          &lt;h2&gt;${item.lon2}&lt;/h2&gt;
      &lt;/#list&gt;
  </code></pre>