All velocity errors display in the dotcms.log. This is very helpful when you are debugging your code, or if you see an exception on the logs, since it will tell you the exact page that's causing the error and provide a detailed stack trace of the exception.
You can tail your catalina.out file by selecting System –> Maintenance –> Log Files, and choosing catalina.out from the drop down list.
If you have an error you will see an error similar to this one on the logs:
07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: #
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # Velocity Error
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # on url : demo.dotcms.com/home/velocity-logging.dot
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # on req : /home/velocity-logging.dot
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # with macro : #getContentByIdentifier
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # on template : /working/de6de014-936e-4a69-a17f-0b9cc9c8dd10_694805c6-8f07-467f-a434-0da04a93e9e5.field
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # stack:
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # -- /working/a0ead91b-fd4c-4182-abc8-a6d173a07ab4.template
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # -- /working/56bd55ea-b04b-480d-9e37-5d6f9217dcc3.container
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # -- /working/2abf22df-d913-4c1f-bfa8-4cfd8c2f2adb_1.content
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: # -- /working/de6de014-936e-4a69-a17f-0b9cc9c8dd10_694805c6-8f07-467f-a434-0da04a93e9e5.field
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: #
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR velocity.VelocityServlet: #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[07/05/12 15:19:13:869 PDT] ERROR content.ContentTool: org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchPhaseExecutionException: Failed to execute phase [query], total failure; shardFailures {[u8gxxE-eR_qwK4K9T1ufDQ][working_20120430141850][0]: SearchParseException[[working_20120430141850][0]: from[-1],size[10]: Parse Failure [Failed to parse source [:)
òƒ³©zeÔ„queryò‹±µery_stringò «structurename:webpagecontent +(conhost:48190c8c-42c4-46af-8d1a-0cd5db894797 conhost:system_host +languageid:1 +working:true +deleted:false +((permissions:p654b0931-1027-41f7-ad4d-173115ed8ec1.1p*) )??sortðºoddate_dotrawò„¯²derCdescó»¹»]]]; nested: QueryParsingException[[working_20120430141850] Failed to parse query [+structurename:webpagecontent +(conhost:48190c8c-42c4-46af-8d1a-0cd5db894797 conhost:system_host +languageid:1 +working:true +deleted:false +((permissions:p654b0931-1027-41f7-ad4d-173115ed8ec1.1p*) )]]; nested: ParseException[Cannot parse '+structurename:webpagecontent +(conhost:48190c8c-42c4-46af-8d1a-0cd5db894797 conhost:system_host +languageid:1 +working:true +deleted:false +((permissions:p654b0931-1027-41f7-ad4d-173115ed8ec1.1p*) )': Encountered "" at line 1, column 199.
Was expecting one of:
