can Velocity set a default value for a variable when no value found in VelocityContext?

Question

Velocity just print the tag name if no value was found in VelocityContext, ie, $name in my template file, but there is no value for \"name\" in VelocityContext, so just \"$n

Answer 1

Google around for Velocity ReferenceInsertionEventHandler for a way to do it broadly.

Consider the DisplayTool's alt() method for individual cases (part of the VelocityTools project)