diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jbake/app/Crawler.java b/src/main/java/org/jbake/app/Crawler.java
index d3c2e0704..a1c1c826a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jbake/app/Crawler.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jbake/app/Crawler.java
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@
 import java.util.Set;
 
 import org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.ArrayUtils;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.time.DateFormatUtils;
 
 import com.orientechnologies.orient.core.record.impl.ODocument;
@@ -226,7 +228,7 @@ private String buildPermalink(Map<String, Object> fileContents){
     	if(config.containsKey(Attributes.PERMALINK +"."+ fileContents.get(Attributes.TYPE))){
     		permalinkPattern = config.getString(Attributes.PERMALINK +"."+ fileContents.get(Attributes.TYPE));
     	}
-    	if (Objects.nonNull(permalinkPattern) && !permalinkPattern.trim().isEmpty()) {
+    	if (permalinkPattern != null && !permalinkPattern.trim().isEmpty()) {
     		
     		String pattern = permalinkPattern;
     		if(pattern.startsWith(":")) pattern = separator+pattern;
@@ -257,7 +259,7 @@ private String buildPermalink(Map<String, Object> fileContents){
     				}
     			} else if (Arrays.asList("YEAR","MONTH","DAY").contains(part.toUpperCase())) {
     				Date publishedDate = (Date) fileContents.get("date");
-    				if(Objects.nonNull(publishedDate)){
+    				if(publishedDate != null){
     					String dateValue = null;
     					if(part.equalsIgnoreCase("YEAR")){
     						dateValue = DateFormatUtils.format(publishedDate, "yyyy");
@@ -273,7 +275,7 @@ private String buildPermalink(Map<String, Object> fileContents){
     			} 
     		}
     		
-			permalink = String.join(separator, pLink);
+			permalink = StringUtils.join(pLink, separator);
 			permalink = sanitize(permalink).concat(separator);
 			String uri = permalink;
 			boolean noExtensionUri = config.getBoolean(Keys.URI_NO_EXTENSION);
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jbake/parser/MarkupEngine.java b/src/main/java/org/jbake/parser/MarkupEngine.java
index 3666be69d..916fe9320 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jbake/parser/MarkupEngine.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jbake/parser/MarkupEngine.java
@@ -91,6 +91,10 @@ public Map<String, Object> parse(Configuration config, File file, String content
         // then read engine specific headers
         processHeader(context);
         
+        if (content.get(Crawler.Attributes.DATE) == null) {
+        	content.put(Crawler.Attributes.DATE, new Date(file.lastModified()));
+        }
+        
         if (config.getString(Keys.DEFAULT_STATUS) != null) {
         	// default status has been set
         	if (content.get(Crawler.Attributes.STATUS) == null) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jbake/template/ThymeleafTemplateEngine.java b/src/main/java/org/jbake/template/ThymeleafTemplateEngine.java
index 4a9888d18..8d501d2b7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jbake/template/ThymeleafTemplateEngine.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jbake/template/ThymeleafTemplateEngine.java
@@ -40,15 +40,21 @@ public class ThymeleafTemplateEngine extends AbstractTemplateEngine {
     private TemplateEngine templateEngine;
     private FileTemplateResolver templateResolver;
 
+	private String templateMode;
+
     public ThymeleafTemplateEngine(final CompositeConfiguration config, final ContentStore db, final File destination, final File templatesPath) {
         super(config, db, destination, templatesPath);
-        initializeTemplateEngine();
     }
 
-    private void initializeTemplateEngine() {
+    private void initializeTemplateEngine(String mode) {
+    	if (mode.equals(templateMode)) {
+    		return;
+    	}
+        templateMode = mode;
         templateResolver = new FileTemplateResolver();
         templateResolver.setPrefix(templatesPath.getAbsolutePath() + File.separatorChar);
         templateResolver.setCharacterEncoding(config.getString(Keys.TEMPLATE_ENCODING));
+        templateResolver.setTemplateMode(mode);
         templateEngine = new TemplateEngine();
         templateEngine.setTemplateResolver(templateResolver);
         try {
@@ -66,7 +72,6 @@ public void renderDocument(final Map<String, Object> model, final String templat
         Context context = new Context(locale, wrap(model));
         lock.lock();
         try {
-        	initializeTemplateEngine();
             @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
             Map<String, Object> config = (Map<String, Object>) model.get("config");
             @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
@@ -79,7 +84,7 @@ public void renderDocument(final Map<String, Object> model, final String templat
                     mode = configMode;
                 }
             }
-            templateResolver.setTemplateMode(mode);
+            initializeTemplateEngine(mode);
             templateEngine.process(templateName, context, writer);
         } finally {
             lock.unlock();
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/jbake/app/CrawlerTest.java b/src/test/java/org/jbake/app/CrawlerTest.java
index 387d170d2..2cabf0477 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/jbake/app/CrawlerTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/jbake/app/CrawlerTest.java
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 package org.jbake.app;
 
-import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
-
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
@@ -10,25 +8,29 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
+import com.orientechnologies.orient.core.record.impl.ODocument;
+
 import org.apache.commons.configuration.CompositeConfiguration;
 import org.apache.commons.configuration.ConfigurationException;
+
+import org.jbake.app.ConfigUtil.Keys;
+
 import org.apache.commons.configuration.MapConfiguration;
 import org.apache.commons.io.FilenameUtils;
 import org.hamcrest.BaseMatcher;
 import org.hamcrest.Description;
-import org.jbake.app.ConfigUtil.Keys;
 import org.junit.After;
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
-import com.orientechnologies.orient.core.record.impl.ODocument;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.*;
 
 public class CrawlerTest {
     private CompositeConfiguration config;
     private ContentStore db;
     private File sourceFolder;
-	  
+	
 	@Before
     public void setup() throws Exception, IOException, URISyntaxException {
         URL sourceUrl = this.getClass().getResource("/");
@@ -37,7 +39,7 @@ public void setup() throws Exception, IOException, URISyntaxException {
         if (!sourceFolder.exists()) {
             throw new Exception("Cannot find sample data structure!");
         }
-        
+
         config = ConfigUtil.load(new File(this.getClass().getResource("/").getFile()));
         Assert.assertEquals(".html", config.getString(Keys.OUTPUT_EXTENSION));
         db = DBUtil.createDataStore("memory", "documents"+System.currentTimeMillis());
@@ -66,6 +68,14 @@ public void crawl() throws ConfigurationException {
         		.containsValue("../../");
         }
         
+        List<ODocument> draftPosts = db.getAllContent("post");
+        DocumentList draftList = DocumentList.wrap(draftPosts.iterator());
+        for (Map<String,Object> content : list) {
+        	if (content.get(Crawler.Attributes.TITLE).equals("Draft Post")) {
+        		assertThat(content).containsKey(Crawler.Attributes.DATE);
+        	}
+        }
+        
         // covers bug #213
         List<ODocument> publishedPostsByTag = db.getPublishedPostsByTag("blog");
         Assert.assertEquals(2, publishedPostsByTag.size());
diff --git a/src/test/resources/content/blog/2016/draft-post.html b/src/test/resources/content/blog/2016/draft-post.html
index df33942e4..4c0efbef7 100644
--- a/src/test/resources/content/blog/2016/draft-post.html
+++ b/src/test/resources/content/blog/2016/draft-post.html
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 title=Draft Post
-date=2016-06-22
 type=post
 tags=blog
 status=draft