diff --git a/webapp/product-build.xml b/webapp/product-build.xml
index 3762d0d55..2987ee4b2 100644
--- a/webapp/product-build.xml
+++ b/webapp/product-build.xml
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
 	</path>
 
 	<path id="test.compile.classpath">
+                <pathelement location="${product.test.dir}"/>
 		<pathelement location="${war-classes.dir}" />
 		<path refid="compile.classpath" />
 	</path>
@@ -166,7 +167,7 @@
          - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -->
 	<target name="productTest" depends="productCompile" if="product.tests.exist" unless="skiptests">
 		<javac srcdir="${product.test.dir}"
-		       destdir="${test.classes.dir}"
+		       destdir="${test-classes.dir}"
 		       debug="true"
 		       deprecation="true"
 		       optimize="false"
diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/elements/BaseEditElement.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/elements/BaseEditElement.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3bc5eb8b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/edit/elements/BaseEditElement.java
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/* $This file is distributed under the terms of the license in /doc/license.txt$ */
+
+package edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.edit.elements;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.StringWriter;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+
+import freemarker.template.Configuration;
+import freemarker.template.Template;
+import freemarker.template.TemplateException;
+
+public abstract class BaseEditElement  implements EditElement {
+    private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(BaseEditElement.class);
+
+    /**
+     * Utility method for use in EditElements to merge a freemarker template.
+     */
+    protected String merge(Configuration fmConfig, String templateName, Map map){
+        Template template = null;
+        try {
+            template = fmConfig.getTemplate(templateName);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            log.error("Cannot get template " + templateName);
+        }  
+         
+        StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
+        try {
+            template.process(map, writer);
+        } catch (TemplateException e) {
+            log.error(e,e);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            log.error(e,e);
+        }
+        return writer.toString();        
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Utility method to check if a value from the query parameters is none or a single value.
+     * This returns true if the key is there and the value is null.
+     * This does not check if the value is the empty string.
+     */
+    protected boolean hasNoneOrSingle(String key, Map<String, String[]> queryParameters){
+        if( queryParameters != null ){
+            if( ! queryParameters.containsKey(key) )
+                return true; //none            
+            String[] vt = queryParameters.get(key);
+            return vt == null || vt.length == 0 || vt.length==1;
+        }else{
+            log.error("passed null queryParameters");
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+    
+    protected boolean hasSingleNonNullNonEmptyValueForKey(String key, Map<String, String[]> queryParameters){
+        if( queryParameters != null ){
+            if( ! queryParameters.containsKey(key) )
+                return true; //none            
+            String[] vt = queryParameters.get(key);
+            return vt != null && vt.length == 1 && vt[0] != null && ! vt[0].isEmpty() ;
+        }else{
+            log.error("passed null queryParameters");
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+}