A method is part of a context object, written in Java code, and is capable of doing something useful, like running a calculation or arriving at a decision. Method invocation is indicated by round parentheses following the method name. These parentheses can optionally contain a parameter list.

$cart.calculateTotal()
$customer.updatePurchases($cart)
$shop.checkInventory()
$cart.addTaxes(8, 16)

# Property access
$page.setTitle( "My Home Page" )
$customer.getAddress()
$purchase.getTotal()

The last few examples are similar to the examples seen earlier when discussing properties. As stated there, the properties notation is a short-hand notation for the invocation of bean getters and setters.^[6]

The main difference between Properties and Methods is that you can specify a parameter list to a Method.

$shop.getFruits()
$sun.getPlanets()
$album.get("logo")

$shop.setCustomer($customer)
$sun.setPlanetCount(9)
$album.put("logo", "newlogo")

## equal property getters and setters

$shop.fruits
$sun.Planets
$album.logo

#set ($shop.customer = $customer)
#set ($sun.planetCount = 9)
#set ($album.logo = "New Logo")

	Warning
	The last #set() example will not work in Velocity versions before 1.5 unless the $album object implements java.util.Map. This is a bug in older Velocity versions.

Not every method invocation can be replaced by short hand notation. Even if a method is called set<property>() or get<property>(), it must still adhere to bean getter and setter method signatures.

## Can't pass a parameter with $sun.planet
$sun.getPlanet(3)

## Velocity only allows shorthand notation for getter and setter
$shop.orderFruits()

## Can't pass a parameter list
$book.setAuthorAndTitle("George Orwell", "Homage to Catalonia")