using <#include> resoults in error: Can't find resource - freemarker

Question

I am implementing a freemarker code in an environment that stores the templates in an database.
for example
${bundle.key}
will display the value of the row with row_id = 'key'
However when I use include directive something doesn't work.
I have a template with a key GenF as follows
<#function PriceFormat Number>
<#return Number?string['0.0000']>
</#function>
if i run
${GenF.PriceFormat(1.568)}
I get the output
1.5680
as expected.
but when i run
<#include bundle.GenF>
${PriceFormat(1.568)}
I receive an error message:
Can't find resource for bundle ...structures.shared.localization.bl.MultiResourceBundle, key
do I use the include directive wrong, or is something was not defined correctly in the Data model by our programmers?

Answer 1

#include expects the name
(path, "file" name) of a template, not the template content itself. See: https://freemarker.apache.org/docs/ref_directive_include.html
What you seem to want is <#bundle.GenF?interpret />. Though note that the parsed template won't be cached that way, unlike when you invoke a template with #include. For #include to be able to resolve "bundle.GenF" as template name (or rather something like "bundle:/GenF", but it's up to you), you have to use a custom TemplateLoader (see Configuration.setTemplateLoader).
As far as you only need this for defining custom number formats, you may also want to consider using custom number formats (https://freemarker.apache.org/docs/pgui_config_custom_formats.html), like ${1.538?string.#bundle_GenF}.